Head of Engineering

Ai-First Engineering Leadership

Define and execute an AI-first engineering strategy, ensuring AI and automation are core to product development, data pipelines, and operational workflows.

Champion the adoption of AI-augmented development (e.g., AI-assisted coding, testing, debugging, observability, and incident response).

Partner closely with Product, Data, and Executive leadership to translate business goals into AI-powered product capabilities.

Platform, Product, and Data Excellence

Ensure continuous delivery of stable, secure, and scalable AI-enabled platforms serving large enterprise customers.

Lead the design and evolution of data-intensive systems, including ingestion, normalization, enrichment, and analytics at scale.

Oversee the development of intelligent client-facing software that leverages AI for insights, automation, and decision support.

Organization & Talent

Build, structure, and scale a modern engineering organization that blends software engineers, data engineers, and AI-focused technologists.

Recruit, develop, and retain top technical talent with strong foundations in software engineering and AI-adjacent disciplines.

Foster a culture of experimentation, continuous learning, and responsible AI use.

Engineering Quality & Velocity

Uphold rigorous code quality, model quality, and data quality standards, emphasizing maintainability, observability, and explainability.

Implement Agile and Lean practices optimized for rapid iteration on AI-driven systems, including experimentation and model evolution.

Apply a pragmatic, metrics-driven approach to prioritization, performance measurement, and delivery outcomes.

Execution & Stakeholder Alignment

Oversee multiple concurrent initiatives across core platforms, data systems, and AI capabilities.

Maintain strong communication with executive stakeholders, ensuring engineering efforts are aligned with business strategy and customer needs.

Anticipate and manage technical, operational, and AI-related risks (e.g., data integrity, model drift, scalability, compliance).

Minimum Qualifications

• Proven experience leading large, high-performing engineering organizations in a senior management capacity.
• Experience managing 30+ engineers and managers across distributed teams.
• Demonstrated success recruiting and retaining top technical talent.
• Strong engineering fundamentals with a passion for high-quality, maintainable systems.
• Hands-on experience driving modernization initiatives involving automation, data platforms, or AI-enabled systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of engineering leadership experience; 5+ years in SaaS or data-driven platforms.
• Experience leading teams building AI-enabled products, machine-learning-backed systems, or advanced analytics platforms.
• Familiarity with modern AI/ML ecosystems (e.g., model training, inference, embeddings, vector search, LLM integration).
• Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript, Node.js, MongoDB, and C# (.NET); cloud-native architectures preferred.
• Proven ability to implement Agile practices in environments with high experimentation and iteration velocity.
• Strong communication, analytical thinking, and people-leadership skills.
• Track record of building scalable, adaptable engineering organizations.

Location

This is a hybrid position open to candidates based in Orange County, California.

Compensation

The salary for this role is $20,000-250,000 with variable compensation as part of the compensation structure. Please note that our salary ranges are based on current market data and the offered compensation may vary based on experience, skills, location, and other factors permitted by law.

About Wayvia

Wayvia is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity.