VP, Agent Engineering

About the role

Turn/River is seeking a VP of Agent Engineering to unlock engineering capacity in portfolio companies. You’ll work directly with CTOs, CPOs, and engineering teams, building AI agents that automate recurring feature development.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify recurring, high-yield feature patterns in portfolio company backlogs that consume disproportionate engineering time and effort
• Decompose those patterns into agent task hierarchies, orchestration flows, and validation loops
• Prototype agents end-to-end yourself, proving the approach and value on real backlog items before involving other engineers
• Use data and build working demos to earn CTO/CPO buy-in in order to dedicate the engineering team to agent development
• Techically lead the agent team: review architecture, pair on hard problems, set quality bars for agent output
• Instrument and track success: agent evaluation and accuracy, engineering capacity freed, roadmap velocity, defect rates
• Apply learnings across the portfolio, sharpening the approach and playbook(s) with each engagement

Qualifications

• 15+ years in software engineering, with production systems you personally designed, built, and shipped
• 3+ years building agentic AI systems in production - architecting orchestration, wiring tool use, debugging agent failures - not just directing others who do
• Fluency in LLM orchestration patterns with strong convictions about agent reliability that come from lived experience, not just white-papers
• Productive in a large, unfamiliar codebase within days/weeks
• Experience in B2B or enterprise software environments, including comfort with on-prem, legacy architectures, and compliance constraints
• Effective across organizational boundaries - equally comfortable pairing with engineers and presenting to executive teams
• Consulting, PE or VC portfolio operations, or multi-company technical leadership is a plus, but not required - we want hands-on operators

Location

San Francisco, hybrid work model

Compensation

The annual base salary range for this role is $345,000 - $355,000, taking into account numerous variable factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience, training, licensure, certifications, and organizational requirements.

This role is eligible to participate in the Turn/River carry program and a discretionary bonus program.

Benefits and Perks

• An opportunity to make an impact across multiple high-growth tech firms
• Competitive salary and discretionary bonus
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance covered 100% for employee & dependents
• Flexible vacation policy
• 401K matching
• Paid parental leave
• Commuter benefits
• Health and Wellness benefits
• Household Services benefits
• Home Office benefits
• Annual Home Office Equipment Reimbursement
• Donation matching
• Work from home Monday & Friday
• Energetic work environment with snacks and weekly team lunches
• 3x per week, centrally located near multiple public transit lines
• A company that enjoys having fun: holiday parties, annual company offsite and retreat, annual summer "work from anywhere" month

Turn/River provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), national origin, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), genetic information, marital status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, natural hair styles, age (40 years and over), sexual orientation, veteran and/or military status, protected medical leaves (requesting or approved for leave under any applicable state, or federal leave act), domestic violence victim status, political affiliation, and any other characteristic or status protected by state or federal law.