Chief AI & Labs Architect

Kaya AI; United States; On-site; USD 190,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaya AI is seeking a Head of AI and Labs to lead and scale the engineering team building the AI-native core of Kaya. You will own three archetypes—agentic AI engineers, AI research engineers, and product engineers—driving technical direction and customer impact.

This player-coach role requires hands-on code reviews, architecture decisions, and close collaboration with the CEO and customers to ensure our work moves the business forward.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience
• Led engineering teams and engineered AI-native products
• Experience hiring and managing engineers across multiple specialties (agents, research, product)

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the AI engineering team across agents, models, and product surfaces
• Hire, mentor, and retain world-class engineers across all three archetypes
• Set technical direction for agentic AI systems, foundation model work, and product engineering
• Own architecture, code quality, and engineering standards across the platform
• Partner with the CEO, product, and design leadership on roadmap and strategy
• Drive delivery on the most important customer commitments and partner integrations

Skills

Software engineering

Engineering leadership

AI systems depth

Hiring engineers

Product and customer instincts

Communication skills

Ownership and quality culture

Tools

Python

TypeScript

PostgreSQL

Redis

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Observability tools

Job description

Kaya AI is seeking a Head of AI and Labs to lead and scale the engineering team building the AI-native core of Kaya. You will own three archetypes—agentic AI engineers, AI research engineers, and product engineers—driving technical direction and customer impact.

This player-coach role requires hands-on code reviews, architecture decisions, and close collaboration with the CEO and customers to ensure our work moves the business forward.