VP of Engineering, Applications

VP of Engineering, Applications Industry: Technology / Artificial Intelligence / Software Overview of the Role We are working with a growing technology company developing intelligent software products designed to simplify and automate everyday digital tasks. The organisation is building AI-enabled products that can handle complex, multi-step workflows, interact with external systems and deliver reliable outcomes with minimal user input. As the product scales, they are looking for a senior engineering leader to take ownership of the application engineering organisation and translate advanced AI capabilities into robust, intuitive and production-ready products. This is a senior, hands-on engineering leadership position with responsibility across backend, mobile and desktop development. The successful candidate will combine strong technical judgement with the ability to build and lead a high-performing engineering team. What You’ll Be Doing Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile and desktop platforms. Lead and grow a small, highly capable applications engineering team covering backend, mobile and desktop development. Set the architectural direction for AI-enabled product workflows, APIs and client integrations. Ensure AI capabilities are integrated into products through well-defined abstractions, predictable behaviour and appropriate failure handling. Work closely with Machine Learning leadership to translate technical capabilities into scalable and commercially viable product features. Make high-impact technical decisions covering latency, cost, reliability, security and user experience. Establish clear ownership and architectural boundaries across backend, mobile and desktop engineering. Drive production readiness across application systems, including observability, monitoring, retries, fallbacks, privacy and cost management. Balance rapid product development with long-term engineering quality, scalability and maintainability. Provide technical leadership and raise engineering standards across the wider applications organisation. Candidate Profile – Essential Significant experience leading application engineering or product engineering for complex software systems. Strong hands-on experience designing, building and deploying production-grade backend systems. Demonstrable experience delivering AI-enabled or machine-learning-driven products, with a strong understanding of the practical challenges of integrating AI models into production systems. Excellent system design and architecture skills across services, APIs, clients and data flows. Experience working across multiple application platforms, including backend, mobile and/or desktop. Proven ability to make significant technical decisions in ambiguous and rapidly changing environments. Strong track record of delivering products quickly, iterating based on real-world usage and continuously improving systems. Strong technical judgement, collaborative leadership style and a focus on raising engineering standards. Required / Highly Preferred Experience leading senior engineering teams within a fast-moving technology environment. Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs and modern application architecture. Experience working closely with Machine Learning or AI engineering teams. Experience balancing engineering priorities across performance, reliability, security, cost and user experience. Ability to remain technically engaged while operating at senior leadership level. Beneficial Experience across backend, mobile and desktop application development. Experience building AI-first or AI-enabled consumer software products. Experience establishing engineering organisations, processes and architectural standards from an early or scaling stage. Experience with production observability, reliability engineering and operational tooling. Experience working within small, high-performing engineering teams. What the Company Offers The successful candidate will join a technically focused organisation where engineering leadership has significant influence over product direction and execution. You will have the opportunity to: Shape the architecture and engineering strategy of a growing AI-enabled product. Build and develop a highly capable applications engineering team. Work closely with senior technical and product leadership. Influence major decisions around architecture, reliability, performance and scalability. Operate in a fast-paced environment with significant technical ownership and autonomy. #J-18808-Ljbffr