AI Agent Director

Cerebro; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 300,000 - 450,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Cerebro in San Francisco is seeking a Director of Engineering to own and scale its entire AI organization, spanning AI infrastructure, agent intelligence and customer-facing agentic products.

The successful candidate will define the technical direction of the AI function, build the leadership team beneath them and ensure reliable, production-ready agents ship consistently. This is a deeply technical leadership role with hands-on architecture and reviews.

Qualifications

• At least five years of AI, machine learning and engineering leadership experience.
• Led an AI or ML team that shipped production LLM or agent systems.
• Built and scaled an engineering team of at least ten people.
• Deep knowledge of agentic architectures, including tool use, planning, orchestration and evals.
• Strong coding ability, ideally with significant Python experience.
• Able to review code, evaluate experiments and challenge technical assumptions.
• Experience in early-stage or rapidly growing software companies.
• Strong knowledge of production AI infrastructure, distributed systems and reliability.
• Degree in computer science or closely related technical discipline.
• Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy, architecture and execution of the company’s AI organisation.
• Grow the function into teams covering AI infrastructure, agent intelligence and agentic products.
• Set the technical direction for model routing, planning, tool use, multi-agent orchestration and reliability.
• Lead the development of evaluation frameworks, shared tools and multimodal pipelines.
• Build customer facing AI assistants and long running agent workflows.
• Recruit, mentor and retain exceptional AI engineers and future engineering leaders.
• Establish rigorous standards for experimentation, system performance and production reliability.
• Work closely with the founders to influence product strategy and company direction.
• Remain actively involved in architecture decisions, code reviews and technical problem solving.

Skills

AI leadership

ML leadership

Python

Code review

Distributed systems

Education

CS degree

Tools

LLM systems

Job description

Compensation: $300,000 to $450,000 base salary plus equity

About the company

We are representing a fast growing Series A AI company building production agents for the insurance industry.

Its technology automates complex, critical workflows for enterprise customers operating in a market worth more than one trillion dollars. The company has strong financial backing, growing customer demand and two deeply technical founders.

The opportunity

The company is hiring a Director of Engineering to own and scale its entire AI organisation.

The current team consists of eight engineers and will grow into three groups covering AI infrastructure, agent intelligence and customer facing agentic products.

This person will define the technical direction of the AI function, build the leadership team beneath them and ensure the company continues shipping reliable agents that operate successfully in real production environments.

This is a deeply technical leadership role. The successful candidate will remain involved in architecture, code reviews and experimental design while building an exceptional engineering organisation.

Responsibilities

• 1. Own the strategy, architecture and execution of the company’s AI organisation
• 2. Grow the function into teams covering AI infrastructure, agent intelligence and agentic products
• 3. Set the technical direction for model routing, planning, tool use, multi agent orchestration and reliability
• 4. Lead the development of evaluation frameworks, shared tools and multimodal pipelines
• 5. Build customer facing AI assistants and long running agent workflows
• 6. Recruit, mentor and retain exceptional AI engineers and future engineering leaders
• 7. Establish rigorous standards for experimentation, system performance and production reliability
• 8. Work closely with the founders to influence product strategy and company direction
• 9. Remain actively involved in architecture decisions, code reviews and technical problem solving

Requirements

• 1. At least five years of experience across AI, machine learning and engineering leadership
• 2. Experience leading an AI or machine learning team that shipped production LLM or agent systems
• 3. A track record of building and scaling an engineering team of at least ten people
• 4. Deep knowledge of agentic architectures, including tool use, planning, orchestration and evals
• 5. Strong coding ability, ideally with significant Python experience
• 6. The ability to review code, evaluate experiments and challenge technical assumptions
• 7. Experience working within an early stage or rapidly growing business software company
• 8. Strong knowledge of production AI infrastructure, distributed systems and reliability
• 9. A degree in computer science or a closely related technical discipline
• 10. Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate

This is an opportunity to shape the AI organisation at a company entering a significant stage of growth.

You will have genuine ownership across infrastructure, intelligence and product rather than responsibility for one narrow area. You will work directly with technical founders, build the leadership structure beneath you and influence both the architecture and direction of the company.

The role offers the resources and customer demand of a well funded business while preserving the technical influence available at an earlier stage company.