Technical Lead (Freelance)

Instrument is a digitally native design and technology company built to help brands unlock their full potential. Since 2005, our 300+ team of makers, thinkers, and storytellers has partnered with leading brands like Google, Nike, Uber, ŌURA, and Eventbrite to craft digital experiences that create impact and drive results.

Unlike traditional agencies, we don’t just design—we build. Our work lives at the intersection of taste and technology, powered by curiosity, thoughtful curation, and a commitment to delivering the most fitting solution for every brief. We bring this to life across three core offerings : Brand, Marketing, and Product.

As a member of our freelance network, you’ll collaborate with our teams to bring bold ideas to life—whether launching new brands, building digital products, or shaping experiences that move people. We welcome collaborators from all backgrounds and experiences who share our curiosity, creativity, and care for craft.

We believe great work comes from diverse perspectives and shared purpose. If you’re passionate about learning, experimenting, and making work that matters, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re seeking a hands-on Technical Lead to architect, guide, and deliver the technical foundation for a new web platform centered around a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) search experience. You will partner closely with a Technical Director and Technical Producer while leading a small development team (Frontend + Backend) to build a secure, scalable, and high-performing AI-powered application.

You will define the technical vision, design the system architecture, and establish the infrastructure that enables the team to move quickly and confidently. This includes architecting the Vertex AI–powered search implementation, shaping the data ingestion and vectorization pipelines, and building the DevOps frameworks (CI / CD, Cloud Build, IAM strategy, staging / production environments) that support smooth delivery.

This is both a strategic and hands-on role. You’ll be the technical force multiplier—clearing blockers, ensuring quality, and guiding the team toward a robust, production-ready solution.

Contract Duration : January 5 – February 27 (40 hrs / week)

What You'll Do

• Architect the end-to-end technical solution for a new web platform featuring a RAG-based search engine.
• Design the infrastructure and system blueprint on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) , including Vertex AI Search , Vector Search , and supporting services.
• Define the data ingestion, embedding, and indexing strategies to ensure accurate and high-performing search capabilities.
• Establish and maintain DevOps foundations including CI / CD pipelines , Cloud Build , environment setup, cross-project IAM , and deployment workflows.
• Partner with the Backend Developer to ensure APIs, endpoints, and middleware effectively connect the frontend application to AI services.
• Conduct architectural reviews, provide technical mentorship, lead code reviews, and ensure engineering best practices across the team.
• Collaborate with production partners to translate technical strategy into actionable plans, estimates, and milestones.
• Diagnose and resolve technical blockers swiftly to maintain development momentum.
• Ensure security, observability, scalability, and performance are core to the system design and implementation.

What You Bring :

Pay Range :

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.