Director, Engineering, AI Search

Sponsor Finder; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Algolia is a leading provider of search and discovery technology, powering real-time search capabilities for thousands of customers worldwide. The Engineering leadership role involves guiding multiple engineering teams, fostering AI initiatives, and ensuring delivery excellence across product areas.

You will work with Product, Design and cross-functional partners, guiding roadmaps and implementing best practices in scalable, reliable infrastructure while influencing the CTO and senior leaders.

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of engineering experience.
• 3–5+ years managing multiple teams or managers.
• Proven experience delivering complex, cross-functional projects.
• Strong background in distributed systems, APIs and scalable infrastructure.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through others and empower managers.
• Excellent communication to align stakeholders and drive clarity.
• Experience operating in distributed or global engineering environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead a group of engineering teams through Engineering Managers and Senior ICs, aligned with product and company priorities.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement and evaluate emerging AI technologies to boost productivity and performance.
• Own delivery, execution and operational excellence for a defined product or platform area.
• Collaborate with Product, Design and cross-functional stakeholders to shape roadmaps and ensure customer value.
• Drive engineering best practices across system design, reliability and performance.
• Serve on the senior technology leadership team, contributing to engineering excellence and organizational effectiveness.
• Coach and develop Engineering Managers to grow as leaders and build high-performing teams.
• Contribute to organizational planning including headcount, team structure and cycles.

Skills

Engineering leadership

People management

Distributed systems

APIs

Scalable infrastructure

Stakeholder alignment

Communication

Job description

Algolia is the retrieval intelligence layer that turns intent into trusted, decision-grade outcomes. Powering more than 1.7 trillion queries a year for over 18,000 customers with millisecond latency and 99.999% reliability, we are the recognized leader for Search and Product Discovery by top industry analyst firms. The Algolia platform turns a company's products, content, and business rules into data that humans, applications and AI agents can act upon. The result is trusted customer experiences with stronger conversions for measurable business impact.

About the Team

Algolia’s Engineering team builds the core infrastructure and product features that power real-time search and discovery for thousands of customers around the world. This includes backend services, frontend components, site reliability, and ML-powered capabilities. The team is distributed, collaborative, and committed to technical excellence and continuous learning.

Your Role Will Consist Of:

• Leading a group of engineering teams (via Engineering Managers and Senior ICs), ensuring alignment with product and company priorities
• Demonstrates strong AI leadership within the engineering organization by fostering a culture of continuous improvement and proactively evaluating and applying emerging AI technologies to enhance productivity, efficiency, and organizational performance across the broader technology function.
• Owning delivery, execution, and operational excellence for a defined product or platform area
• Partnering closely with Product, Design, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape roadmaps and ensure successful delivery of customer value
• Driving engineering best practices across system design, scalability, reliability, and performance
• Being a member of Algolia’s senior technology leadership team, with significant contributions to engineering excellence and the high performance of the global technology organization, extending beyond the immediate area of responsibility.
• Supporting and coaching Engineering Managers, helping them grow as leaders and build high-performing teams
• Contributing to organizational planning, including headcount, team structure, and quarterly/annual planning cycles
• Ensuring a strong culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement within your organization
• Acting as a bridge between strategy and execution, translating high-level goals into clear team-level priorities
• Serves as a trusted advisor to the CTO and SVP Engineering, providing strategic guidance on engineering leadership, organizational effectiveness, and cross-functional management initiatives across the technology organization.

You Might Be a Fit If You Have:

• 8–12+ years of engineering experience, including 3–5+ years managing multiple teams or managing through managers
• Proven experience delivering complex, cross-functional projects in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
• Strong technical background with experience in distributed systems, APIs, and scalable infrastructure
• Demonstrated ability to lead through others, empowering managers and senior engineers
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to align diverse stakeholders and drive clarity
• Experience operating in distributed or global engineering environments

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