VP of R&D

About the role

Title: VP of R&D
Function: Engineering
Reporting: CEO
Location: San Francisco

Responsibilities

• Define and execute R&D roadmap aligned with global product strategy.
• Oversee system architecture for scalability, security, and reliability.
• Ensure best-in-class engineering standards (CI/CD, DevOps maturity, observability, SRE principles).
• Drive AI-enabled innovation where applicable to platform evolution.
• Own quarterly and annual engineering OKRs.
• Ensure predictable release cycles and enterprise-grade SLAs.
• Improve development velocity while maintaining compliance and quality.
• Build and scale high-performing engineering teams (Backend, Frontend, QA, DevOps).
• Develop Directors and Engineering Managers.
• Establish succession planning and a strong technical culture.
• Recruit senior technical talent
• Partner with Product, Customer Success, Security, and Sales Engineering.
• Engage with strategic customers on roadmap and architecture discussions.
• Governance & Compliance:
• Ensure alignment with data privacy, financial compliance, and regional regulatory standards.
• Strengthen SOC2 / ISO/enterprise security posture (as applicable).

Requirements

• 10–15+ years in engineering leadership; 5+ years at VP or Director level.
• Experience scaling B2B SaaS in fintech, compliance-tech, communications, or cybersecurity.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native architecture (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Demonstrated experience building teams of 40+ engineers.
• Strong exposure to regulated industries (financial services preferred).
• Experience operating in multi-region organizations (US/EMEA/APAC).

Qualifications

• Ability to work across multiple time zones and manage a global team.
• Experience in a fast-paced SaaS environment, driving operational improvements.

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• Ability to work across multiple time zones and manage a global team.
• Experience in a fast-paced SaaS environment, driving operational improvements.

Skills

• Curiosity: We’re curious and future-focused.
• One Team: We’re one team, in many colors.
• Customer–Driven: We’re obsessed with the customer.
• Integrity: We don’t compromise on integrity.
• Excellence: We exemplify excellence.