VP of Engineering

Careerscape is recruiting on behalf of our client, a fast-growing venture-backed startup, for a VP of Engineering to lead their product and platform engineering organization. This is a rare opportunity to shape technical strategy at an inflection point in the company's growth, working directly with the founding team to scale infrastructure, grow a high-performing engineering team, and ship products that are already gaining serious market traction.

Day to day, you will split time between hands-on architectural decisions, roadmap planning, and coaching engineering leads through the challenges of rapid scale. The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguity, has shipped software at both startup speed and enterprise rigor, and genuinely enjoys building the systems and the team culture at the same time. If you want ownership over technical direction and a seat at the leadership table, this role delivers both.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the company's technical strategy and engineering roadmap
• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering organization across multiple squads
• Partner with the CEO and product leadership to align technology decisions with business goals
• Oversee architecture decisions for scalability, reliability, and security of the platform
• Establish engineering best practices including code review, testing, and deployment standards
• Manage engineering budget, hiring plans, and vendor or infrastructure relationships
• Drive sprint planning, technical roadmapping, and cross-functional prioritization
• Represent engineering in board meetings and investor updates as needed
• Identify and mitigate technical risk across the product lifecycle
• Foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement across teams

Requirements

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with at least 3 years in an engineering leadership role
• Proven track record scaling engineering teams at a high-growth startup or technology company
• Deep experience with modern cloud infrastructure such as AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Strong background in distributed systems, API design, and scalable application architecture
• Experience hiring, mentoring, and retaining engineering talent
• Comfort operating in a fast-paced, ambiguous, resource-constrained startup environment
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Experience working directly with founders or executive leadership preferred

Benefits

• Competitive base salary plus meaningful equity in a high-growth company
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401k plan with company match
• Flexible paid time off and company holidays
• Hybrid work schedule with a modern collaborative office space
• Professional development budget and conference stipend
• Parental leave program
• Company-sponsored team events and offsites
• Latest hardware and tools of your choice
• Opportunity for significant career growth as the company scales

Job Type: Full-Time | Work Type: Hybrid | Industry: Information Technology | Experience: Director