Director of Engineering

Working directly with our founders, you'll serve as the engineering site lead for our New York office You’ll start by directly managing individual contributor engineers and tech leads, and as we scale the team, you'll hire and develop engineering managers beneath you - building the leadership layer of our NYC organization from the ground up This is a rare opportunity to define the technical strategy, organizational structure, and engineering culture of a fast-growing AI infrastructure startup You’ll collaborate with brilliant folks, including Putnam and Advent of Code winners, former Jane Street quants, and Rust compiler contributors - all dedicated to bending the curve of what's possible in AI inference Serve as the engineering site lead for New York, with ownership of all NYC engineering Directly manage engineers building Chalk's data platform, and hire and grow engineering managers as the site scales Partner with the founding team to set technical strategy and shape our long-term product and platform roadmap Design the organizational structure, hiring plan, and leadership pipeline for a rapidly growing engineering site Establish engineering processes and operating rhythms that enable high velocity without sacrificing quality Work directly with customers and executives to understand requirements and ensure Chalk's platform solves real-world ML challenges Define and champion Chalk's engineering culture in New York - you'll set the bar for how we attract, develop, and retain top talent Benefits Full medical, dental, and vision insurance Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) Expert healthcare guidance and live one-on-one support 401(k) retirement savings Generous holiday schedule Generous PTO annually Daily lunch and dinner on us Flex commuter benefits Grab a ride home on us Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalentExperience building production ML systems or data infrastructureExecutive-level communicator who can bridge technical, business, and customer contextsTrack record of delivering complex, high-stakes projects and scaling teams through rapid growthProven ability to lead through others: hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineers and engineering leadersExperience managing managers, or a clear readiness to build and lead a multi-layer organizationStrong programming skills and systems thinking - you understand how things work under the hood, and you stay close to the technologyPrevious experience at an early-stage startup10+ years of engineering experience with 5+ years of engineering managementExperience as a site lead or founding leader of a new office or engineering hubExperience with Rust or distributed systemsExperience with query planners or compilersExperience scaling engineering organizations from single-digit to multi-team in high-growth environmentsExperience implementing data infrastructure or PaaS-like software #J-18808-Ljbffr Chalk