VP, Engineering

About Skillz If you want to build, own, and see your impact — join Skillz and level up your career. Skillz is the competition infrastructure platform that powers real-money, skill-based tournaments inside mobile games. We didn't just enter the competitive gaming market — we invented it. Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and inventor Andrew Paradise, Skillz built the category from scratch: the patented matchmaking, identity, payments, fraud protection, and developer tools that make fair, real-stakes competition possible at scale. Skillz hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of players worldwide and is revolutionizing the gaming industry. By fostering social competition within games, the Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling real-money activity in their games and providing operational support while connecting players through fair, enjoyable, and meaningful competition. Today, Skillz is part of FIRY — a global holding company operating at the intersection of gaming, AI-powered performance marketing, and developer infrastructure. Alongside RZR, our AI-driven ad network, and Beamable, our backend and LiveOps platform, Skillz sits at the center of a compounding data flywheel that no standalone competitor can replicate. 800,000+ daily tournaments. $7.5 billion in lifetime prizes paid to players. 90 million registered users. We're a high-conviction team of builders who came from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, X, Roblox, Zynga, Samsung, Lyft, EA, Riot, Nexon, Gameskraft, PlayStation, Unity, Scopely, Tinder, Intel, Deloitte, EY, Twitch, DraftKings, Wynn Resorts, and more. We operate like a startup, hold ourselves to high standards, and move fast with purpose. If you want to work on infrastructure that matters — and be part of a team that fights for what it builds — Skillz is the right place. About the Role This is an opportunity to shape the future of one of the world's leading competitive mobile gaming platforms. As Vice President of Engineering at Skillz, you will define the technical vision and lead the engineering organization responsible for the platform powering millions of competitive gaming experiences. Reporting directly to the General Manager, you'll serve as a key member of the executive leadership team, partnering across Product, Data Science, Finance, and Operations to influence company strategy while building the technology that drives our next phase of growth. You will lead a global engineering organization spanning the US and Bangalore, with responsibility for Product Engineering, Platform, Infrastructure, and Data. Beyond delivering products, you'll build and inspire high-performing teams, cultivate a culture of technical excellence, and drive the architectural decisions that enable Skillz to scale with reliability, speed, and innovation. This role is ideal for a seasoned engineering executive who thrives at the intersection of technology, business strategy, and people leadership and who is energized by solving complex engineering challenges in gaming, distributed systems, real-time services, payments, and platform scalability. What You'll Do Define and execute the long-term technical vision and multi-year engineering roadmap, aligning technology investments with business strategy, product priorities, and company growth objectives. Lead the global engineering organization across Product Engineering, Platform, Infrastructure, and Data, building an organization known for technical excellence, operational discipline, and high-quality execution. Build, mentor, and develop exceptional engineering leaders and teams, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability, innovation, and continuous learning. Partner closely with Product Management, Data Science, Finance, and executive leadership to shape company strategy, prioritize investments, and deliver impactful customer experiences. Champion modern engineering practices including cloud-native architecture, CI/CD, observability, incident response, security-by-design, and developer productivity to improve engineering velocity and platform reliability. Drive architectural decisions that ensure the Skillz platform continues to scale securely and efficiently while supporting new products and evolving business needs. Lead execution across a globally distributed engineering organization, proactively identifying delivery risks, removing obstacles, and ensuring successful outcomes for critical initiatives. Serve as the executive engineering voice, communicating complex technical topics clearly to senior leadership and helping translate business strategy into engineering execution. Continuously improve engineering operations, establishing metrics, processes, and best practices that enable teams to deliver with predictability, quality, and speed. Key Competencies Executive Leadership Proven ability to lead large, globally distributed engineering organizations through periods of growth, transformation, and organizational scale. Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence executive stakeholders, align cross-functional teams, and translate technical complexity into business decisions. Experience building high-performing engineering cultures that attract, retain, and develop exceptional talent. Technical Excellence Deep technical expertise in distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, backend platforms, and large-scale software architecture. Strong architectural judgment with the credibility to engage deeply with engineering teams on technical strategy, system design, and engineering best practices. Experience driving engineering excellence through modern software development practices, reliability engineering, observability, automation, and operational maturity. Operational Leadership Demonstrated success delivering complex, cross-functional initiatives while balancing speed, quality, and long-term scalability. Strong operational discipline with experience establishing engineering metrics, improving developer productivity, managing risk, and driving continuous improvement. Qualifications 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering managers or senior engineering leaders at the VP or Senior Director level within a high-growth technology company. Gaming industry experience is required, with a genuine passion for gaming and a strong understanding of player experiences. Proven track record of building and scaling engineering organizations supporting consumer-facing products or platforms at significant scale. Hands-on background in distributed systems, system architecture, and mobile backend platforms. Experience with real-time systems, payments, fraud prevention, trust and safety, or high-availability platforms is strongly preferred. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience. Experience in a publicly traded or late-stage venture-backed technology company is preferred. Total Starting Compensation including Base + Bonus + Equity: $350,000 Location: Hybrid in San Francisco, California Travel Requirement: Less than 10% #LI-Hybrid #LI-SC1