Director, Engineering, AI Search

Algolia, Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 131,000 - 171,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote or hybrid work

Global offices and flexible workplace

Job summary

Algolia is seeking an Engineering Director to lead multiple teams and translate company strategy into scalable, high-impact engineering efforts.

You will collaborate with Product, Design, and cross-functional partners, drive architectural excellence, and mentor Engineering Managers.

This role offers flexible work options worldwide, competitive base pay, and a chance to shape the future of AI-powered search.

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years engineering experience.
• 3–5+ years managing multiple teams or through managers.
• Distributed systems, APIs, and scalable infrastructure experience.
• Ability to lead through others and empower managers.
• Excellent communication to align diverse stakeholders.
• Experience in distributed or global engineering environments.

Responsibilities

• Leading a group of engineering teams (via Engineering Managers and Senior ICs), ensuring alignment with product and company priorities
• Fostering AI leadership within the engineering organization by applying emerging AI technologies to enhance productivity and performance
• Owning delivery, execution, and operational excellence for a defined product or platform area
• Partnering with Product, Design, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape roadmaps and deliver customer value
• Driving engineering best practices across system design, scalability, reliability and performance
• Being a member of Algolia’s senior technology leadership team and contributing to engineering excellence and high performance
• Supporting and coaching Engineering Managers to grow as leaders
• Contributing to organizational planning, including headcount, team structure, and planning cycles
• Ensuring a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Acting as a bridge between strategy and execution with clear team priorities
• Advising the CTO and SVP Engineering on leadership and cross-functional initiatives

Skills

Engineering leadership

AI leadership

Delivery ownership

Cross-functional collaboration

Strategic planning

Job description

At Algolia, we’re proud to be a pioneer and market leader in AI Search, empowering 17,000+ businesses to deliver blazing-fast, predictive search and browse experiences at internet scale. Every week, we power over 30 billion search requests — four times more than Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, and DuckDuckGo combined.

In 2021, we raised $150 million in Series D funding, quadrupling our valuation to $2.25 billion. This strong foundation enables us to keep investing in our market-leading platform and serving incredible customers like Under Armour, PetSmart, Stripe, Gymshark, and Walgreens.

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.

As an Engineering Director , you will lead multiple teams or a critical product area, working closely with Engineering Managers, Product, and Design to deliver scalable, reliable, and high-impact solutions. You will play a key role in translating company strategy into execution, while building strong, autonomous teams and fostering engineering excellence.

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

Nice to Have:

• Experience in developer tools, infrastructure, or data platforms
• Familiarity with product-led growth (PLG) environments
• Exposure to AI/ML-powered products or platforms

Algolia does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, military status, veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The annual base salary compensation range for this role reflects market pay data within this location. The exact compensation offered for this role may vary depending on specific location and job-related knowledge, technical skills, and experience; and is only one part of our Total Rewards philosophy to compensate and recognize employees for their work.

Base Salary Pay Range

€115.000—€150.000 EUR

FLEXIBLE WORKPLACE STRATEGY:

Algolia’s flexible workplace model is designed to empower all Algolians to fulfill our mission to power search and discovery with ease. We place an emphasis on an individual’s impact, contribution, and output, over their physical location. Algolia is a high-trust environment and many of our team members have the autonomy to choose where they want to work and when.

We have a global presence with offices in Paris, NYC, London, Sydney and Bucharest, however we also offer many of our team members the option to work remotely either as fully remote or hybrid-remote employees. Positions listed as “Remote” are only available for remote work within the specified country. Positions listed within a specific city are only available in that location - depending on the role it may be available with either a hybrid-remote or in-office schedule.

WE’RE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN LIVE OUR VALUES:

• GRIT - Problem-solving and perseverance capability in an ever-changing and growing environment.
• TRUST - Willingness to trust our co-workers and to take ownership.
• CANDOR - Ability to receive and give constructive feedback.
• CARE - Genuine care about other team members, our clients and the decisions we make in the company.
• HUMILITY - Aptitude for learning from others, putting ego aside.

We’re looking for talented, passionate people to help build the world’s best search and discovery technology. We value autonomy, diversity, and collaboration. We’re committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone is respected and supported—regardless of race, age, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, color, veteran status, disability, or socioeconomic background.