Jobs · Engineering · California

Director, Engineering

Goodwin · San Francisco Bay Area · Yesterday
HybridEngineering$225k–$325k/yrFull-time

About the Role

The Director of Engineering will provide strategic and operational leadership to a high-performing team of engineers and full-stack developers. This role is responsible for driving the technical vision, architectural integrity, and execution of scalable, secure, and production-grade AI-enabled systems. As a key engineering leader, you will bridge the gap between complex business strategy and robust technical execution, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

What You Will Do

  • Provide direct, empathetic, and growth-oriented leadership to an expanding engineering organization. Attract, mentor, and retain top-tier talent while fostering a high-accountability, inclusive, and collaborative team culture.
  • Define the technical roadmap, engineering standards, and architectural blueprints for AI-enabled systems and backend services. Ensure all solutions are scalable, maintainable, resilient, and seamlessly aligned with enterprise architecture.
  • Oversee the lifecycle design, rapid development, and production deployment of AI-driven applications and full-stack services, ensuring robust integration between modern AI frameworks and core backend infrastructure. Champion rigorous development practices—including advanced CI/CD pipelines, robust automated testing, thorough code reviews, and comprehensive operational readiness—to guarantee the highest standards of code quality and system reliability.
  • Establish, track, and optimize key engineering metrics (e.g., DORA metrics, system latency, model inference performance, and infrastructure cost efficiency) to drive continuous operational improvement.
  • Supervise agile resource allocation, sprint prioritization, and capacity planning across multiple cross-functional initiatives to balance velocity with engineering health.
  • Partner with security and compliance teams to ensure all AI system deployments adhere to stringent corporate policies, security protocols, data privacy standards, and evolving regulatory requirements.
  • Act as a strategic liaison between engineering, product management, and business stakeholders to translate organizational vision into executable technical roadmaps.
  • Drive internal innovation by spearheading engineering guilds or communities of practice focused on emerging AI paradigms, agentic workflows, and modern backend architectures.
  • Partner with recruiting to build a highly competitive hiring pipeline, design technical evaluation frameworks, and lead onboarding strategies for incoming engineering talent.

Who You Are

  • Deep, hands-on understanding of modern AI system architectures, LLM orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex), vector databases, secure API design, and distributed full-stack application development.
  • A tracking record of scaling engineering teams and developing technical leaders (Managers and Principal/Staff Engineers) within fast-paced environments.
  • Exceptional ability to translate ambiguous, high-level business requirements into structured, phased, and executable engineering sprints.
  • Outstanding communication skills, with the proven ability to articulate complex technical architectures to non-technical executive stakeholders and align diverse teams toward a unified technical vision.
  • Typically requires a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, alongside 8+ years of progressive engineering experience, with 3+ years in a dedicated engineering management or leadership capacity.
  • Occasional travel.

Benefits and More

  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • Life and disability insurance
  • Retirement & Savings Plan
  • Emergency back-up child and adult care
  • Paid vacation, sick time off, and holidays
  • Professional development and career advancement opportunities
  • Employee recognition and reward programs
  • Employee wellness and assistance programs
  • Employee discounts and perks

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