Director of Engineering

Vumedi; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Vumedi in Oakland, CA is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead a senior US team of principal and staff engineers. You will set the technical direction for AI, data and platform work behind how physicians find, watch and learn from medical video.

Reporting to the CTO, you will shape roadmaps with Product, hire senior engineers, and align architecture across data, ML/AI, platform and personalization while delivering measurable improvements in speed and quality.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience with 6+ years in engineering leadership.
• Experience managing senior ICs (staff or principal engineers) directly and helping them grow.
• Leadership across data, ML/AI, platform/DevOps, backend or personalization.
• Product engineering background with a track record of delivering customer- or consumer-facing software.
• Hands-on experience applying AI to how a team builds software, not just using coding assistants.
• Experience coordinating across countries/time zones and aligning with Europe time zones.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and grow a team of principal and staff engineers with meaningful ownership.
• Set a clear technical strategy across data, AI, platform and personalization, managing trade-offs.
• Partner with Product to shape roadmaps for physician-facing experiences balancing user experience and business goals.
• Drive AI adoption across the development lifecycle to improve delivery speed and quality.
• Stay technically engaged in architecture and design discussions and contribute without daily production coding.
• Collaborate with engineering leaders in Zagreb on priorities and cross-time-zone communication.
• Establish lightweight operating rhythms to create accountability.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI/ML strategy

Staff engineering

Cross-functional leadership

Hiring

Roadmapping

System architecture

Product collaboration

Tools

Python/Django

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

AWS

Job description

Reports to the CTO

Most doctors keep learning long after training ends and Vumedi is where they come to do it. We're hiring a Director of Engineering to lead a small, very senior US team of principal and staff engineers. This person will set the technical direction for the AI, data and platform work behind how physicians find, watch and learn from medical video.

About the Role

Most doctors keep learning long after training ends and Vumedi is where they come to do it. We're hiring a Director of Engineering to lead a small, very senior US team of principal and staff engineers. This person will set the technical direction for the AI, data and platform work behind how physicians find, watch and learn from medical video.

About Vumedi

Vumedi is the largest video education platform for doctors worldwide. More than half a million clinicians, including 1 in 4 US doctors, trust Vumedi for their ongoing education, whether they're tackling a rare disease, learning about new clinical trials or getting a refresher on a complicated surgical technique.

• 500K+ clinicians
• 100K peer-to-peer videos
• 25 medical specialties
• 80% of the top 20 US hospitals contribute content

We're headquartered in Oakland, CA, with offices in Minneapolis, MN, and Zagreb, Croatia. We're growing quickly: engineering has grown more than 65% in the last 18 months, and we're investing heavily in AI-powered experiences for physicians.

What makes this role different

• A senior team from day one. You'll lead principal and staff engineers across AI Products, Data, Platform, Growth and Personalization. They're experienced builders, not a team you need to build from scratch.
• Broad technical ownership. Few Director roles cover data, AI, platform and personalization together. You'll make them work as one system.
• AI in the product and in how we build it. We ship applied LLM products like AskMedi, intelligent search and recommendations, and we expect AI to change how engineering works too.
• Direct influence. You'll work closely with the CTO and Product leadership on strategy, with no layers in between.

What you'll do

• Lead, coach and grow a team of principal and staff engineers, giving them meaningful ownership and room to increase their scope and impact.
• Set a clear technical strategy across data, AI, platform and personalization, and make the trade-offs between them.
• Partner with Product to shape roadmaps for physician-facing experiences, balancing user experience, business goals, speed and long-term quality.
• Help our data work move beyond reporting toward data products, prediction and automation, working closely with our Analytics team.
• Drive AI adoption across the development lifecycle, so the team builds and ships faster with higher quality.
• Stay technically engaged: understand the architecture, take part in design discussions and read code, without needing to write production code every day.
• Work closely with our engineering leaders in Zagreb on shared priorities, ownership and communication across time zones.
• Put lightweight operating rhythms in place that create accountability without bureaucracy.
• Hire seniors talents and help shape how US engineering is organized as it grows.

In your first six months, you will

• Earn the trust of the team and set clear ownership and expectations for each area
• Agree on a technical roadmap across multiple areas with the CTO and Product
• Hire senior engineers
• Show measurable improvements in delivery speed, reliability or AI adoption

What you bring

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 6+ years in engineering leadership.
• Experience managing senior ICs directly (staff or principal engineers) and helping them grow their scope.
• Leadership across several technical areas, such as data, ML/AI, platform/DevOps, backend or personalization.
• A product engineering background: you've built and evolved customer- or consumer-facing software and connected technical decisions to business outcomes.
• Enough current technical depth to engage credibly with senior engineers on architecture and trade-offs.
• Hands-on experience bringing AI into how a team builds software, beyond personal use of coding assistants.
• Experience working with teams across countries or time zones, and comfort with regular early-morning meetings with Europe.
• A track record of hiring well and building teams as an organization grows.

Nice to have

• Experience scaling engineering at a startup or growth-stage company
• Shipping ML, recommendation or personalization systems to production
• Familiarity with Python/Django, PostgreSQL, Snowflake and AWS
• Experience in healthcare, education or content platforms

Why Vumedi

• Mission you can see: your work shapes how doctors around the world learn, and ultimately how patients are treated.
• Growth with stability: a fast-growing company that is profitable.
• Real ownership: a lean organization where leaders have broad scope and direct impact.

This is a hybrid role, working 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) in our Oakland office.