Hiring
Hiring an engineering lead
An engineering lead shapes a team's work for years. Hiring one well means testing judgment, not just knowledge, and in a remote, AI-assisted hiring market, it also means verifying who you're hiring.
Not legal advice. Employment, immigration and export-control rules vary by jurisdiction and role. Confirm your process with counsel, and apply it consistently to every candidate.
Define the role first
Write down the blend you need (technical direction, delivery, people leadership) and what success looks like after six and twelve months. See what an engineering lead does for the common variants.
What to assess
| Area | How to assess it |
|---|---|
| Technical judgment | A design discussion on a real problem: trade-offs, risks, what they'd reverse later |
| Review ability | Give them a change containing subtle errors, possibly AI-generated, and ask for a review |
| AI-era practice | How they would set tool policy, review standards and learning for a team using AI |
| Delivery | A past project they led: how they planned, what went wrong, what they changed |
| People leadership | Difficult feedback, a conflict, and someone they helped grow |
| Communication | Explaining a technical decision to a non-technical stakeholder |
Interviews when everyone has AI
Decide your policy and tell candidates in advance. Many teams now allow AI tools in work-sample exercises, because that reflects the job, and then assess what matters: how the candidate frames the problem, checks the output, catches errors and explains the result. Whatever you choose, apply it the same way to every candidate.
Remote-interview fraud is real
US authorities, including the FBI, have publicly warned about fraud in remote hiring. The warnings cover people using stolen or synthetic identities, and deepfake video and voice in interviews. They have also described schemes in which workers acting for sanctioned states obtain remote technical jobs under false identities. Sensible precautions:
- Verify identity through a consistent, lawful process before the offer is final, and again at onboarding.
- Hold at least one live video conversation where the candidate's camera is on and interaction is natural.
- Check that the person who interviewed is the person who starts work.
- Be alert to mismatches: location, time zone, payment details, or shipping equipment to a different address.
- Contact references through independently found details, not only those the candidate supplies.
Verifying credentials
- Professional Engineer licenses. PE licenses are issued by state licensing boards. Verify a license directly with the issuing board's public lookup, including its status and expiry.
- Degrees. Confirm with the institution or an authorized verification service, with the candidate's consent.
- Export-control status. Roles with access to ITAR- or EAR-controlled technical data may require the person to be a "U.S. person" as those regulations define it, or require a license. Work with export-control counsel. Ask only what the role lawfully requires, and at the right stage.
- Security clearances. Clearance eligibility is determined through the government process for roles that require it. Don't treat a candidate's self-description as confirmation.
- Employment history and references. Confirm dates and roles with past employers, and ask references about the specific leadership behaviors you need.
- Right to work. Complete the employment eligibility verification required where the role is based. In the US, that is Form I-9.
Hiring into aerospace, defense or licensed engineering? Read AI in regulated engineering for the obligations the new lead will inherit.
Last reviewed 2026-09-17