Director of Engineering, AI Agents

Asana; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 306,000 - 360,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mental health, wellness & fitness

Career coaching & support

Inclusive family building benefits

Long-term retirement plans

In-office culinary options

Job summary

Asana is seeking an experienced engineering leader to scale the AI Teammates Pillar within our Core/AI Organization in San Francisco. You will oversee four teams (AITP, AITX, AI Chat Experience, Agent Orchestration) and drive end-to-end strategy, execution, and architecture for enterprise workflows.

Reporting to the Head of Engineering, AI & AWM, you will mentor managers, align cross-functional goals with product, security, and legal, and foster an inclusive culture focused on engineering

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 4+ years leading multiple engineering teams or managers.
• Deep understanding of applied AI, LLM evaluation frameworks, agent orchestration, and production observability.
• Experience with backend/systems reliability and complex full-stack product interfaces at scale.
• Ability to balance short-term deliverables with long-term architectural investments amid ambiguity.
• Proven ability to attract, hire, and mentor senior engineers and foster inclusion.

Responsibilities

• Lead, set direction, and align goals/metrics across four core teams (Platform, Experience, Chat, Agent Orchestration).
• Own end-to-end technical strategy across model rollouts, eval infrastructure, MCP, and proactivity engines.
• Define and deliver human-AI collaboration features such as full-screen/docked chat surfaces and onboarding flows.
• Build integrations and MCP frameworks enabling multi-system agent orchestration across external tools.
• Scale the engineering organization by recruiting, developing leaders, and fostering psychological safety.

Skills

Leadership

AI systems

Systems engineering

Product collaboration

Stakeholder management

Job description

We’re looking for an experienced engineering leader to lead and scale Asana’s flagship AI Teammates Pillar within our Core/AI Organization. Reporting directly to the Head of Engineering, AI & AWM, you will oversee an engineering area encompassing four key teams: AI Teammates Platform (AITP), AI Teammates Experience (AITX), AI Chat Experience, and Agent Orchestration. In this role, you will lead engineering managers and senior technical leaders to drive the end-to-end strategy, execution, and architecture that define how humans and AI collaborate in Asana, turning frontier LLM capabilities into trusted, reliable, high-value product workflows for enterprise customers worldwide.

This role is based in our San Francisco office with an office-centric hybrid schedule. The standard in-office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Most Asanas have the option to work from home on Wednesdays. Working from home on Fridays depends on the type of work you do and the teams with which you partner. If you're interviewing for this role, your recruiter will share more about the in-office requirements.

What you’ll achieve

• Drive Strategy & Execution Across the AI Teammates Pillar: Lead, set direction, and align goals/metrics across four core engineering teams (Platform, Experience, Chat, and Agent Orchestration) to execute on Asana’s flagship AI vision while balancing business, customer, and technical needs.

• Architect Enterprise-Grade AI Platforms & Systems: Own the end-to-end technical strategy across model rollouts, eval infrastructure, tool orchestration, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and proactivity engines—enabling Asana to operate reliable agentic systems for top-tier enterprise customers.

• Define Next-Generation Human-AI Collaboration: Lead product and platform engineering teams delivering full-screen and docked chat surfaces, discovery/onboarding flows, in-product explainability, human-in-the-loop workflows, and ROI/governance experiences for administrators.

• Pioneer Multi-System Agent Orchestration: Build integrations, Agent Skills, and MCP frameworks that allow AI Teammates to act as the central control point for complex, multi-step workflows across external tools like Slack, Salesforce, coding agents, and internal systems.

• Scale Engineering Leadership & Culture: Plan and implement the scaling of your engineering organization. Recruit, close, and retain top engineering talent and managers, develop leadership capabilities across teams, and foster an inclusive environment centered on engineering excellence and psychological safety.

• Bridge Cross-Functional & External Strategic Alignment: Align technical, product, and business perspectives across R&D, Product, Design, Security, and Legal, while maintaining close strategic partnerships with frontier AI labs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic).

About you

• Proven Leadership Experience: 8+ years of software engineering experience with 4+ years leading multiple engineering teams or managers, with a track record of driving multi-team strategy and delivering complex production systems.

• AI & Agentic Systems Expertise: Deep understanding of applied AI, LLM evaluation frameworks, agent/tool orchestration, Model Context Protocol (MCP), proactivity models, and production observability.

• Systems & Product Engineering Mastery: Experience spanning backend/systems reliability, complex full-stack product interfaces, and enterprise governance/permissions models operating at scale.

• Strategic Trade-off & Risk Management: Proven ability to balance short-term customer deliverables with long-term architectural investments and navigate ambiguity over multiple quarters.

• Excellence in People & Organizational Growth: Demonstrated commitment to attracting, hiring, and mentoring senior engineers and managers while championing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Exceptional Communication: Strong capability to bridge business, product, and technical contexts to align executive stakeholders, internal engineering partners, and enterprise clients.

At Asana, we're committed to building teams that include a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, as this is critical to helping us achieve our mission.

What we’ll offer

Our comprehensive compensation package plays a big part in how we recognize you for the impact you have on our path to achieving our mission. We believe that compensation should be reflective of the value you create relative to the market value of your role. To ensure pay is fair and not impacted by biases, we're committed to looking at market value which is why we check ourselves and conduct a yearly pay equity audit.

For this role, the estimated base salary range is between $306,000 - $360,000. The actual base salary will vary based on various factors, including market and individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process. The listed range above is a guideline, and the base salary range for this role may be modified.

In addition to base salary, your compensation package may include additional components such as equity, sales incentive pay (for most sales roles), and benefits.

We strive to provide equitable and competitive benefits packages that support our employees worldwide and include:

• Mental health, wellness & fitness benefits

• Career coaching & support

• Inclusive family building benefits

• Long-term savings or retirement plans

• In-office culinary options to cater to your dietary preferences

These are just some of the benefits we offer, and benefits may vary based on role, country, and local regulations.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

#LI-Hybrid #LI-HC1

About us

Asana is a leading platform for human + AI collaboration. Millions of teams around the world rely on Asana to achieve their most important goals, faster. Asana has been named to Fortune's Best Workplaces for 7+ years and recognized by Fast Company, Forbes, and Gartner for excellence in workplace culture and innovation. We offer an exceptional office-centric culture while adopting the best elements of hybrid models to ensure that every one of our global team members can work together effortlessly. With 13+ offices all over the world, we are always looking for individuals who care about building technology that drives positive change in the world and a culture where everyone feels that they belong.

We believe in supporting people to do their best work and thrive. Our goal is to ensure that Asana upholds an environment where all people feel that they are respected and valued, whether they are applying for an open position or working at the company. We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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