Engineering Leadership

SERVAL; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Serval is seeking an engineering leader in San Francisco to shape the technical direction of our AI-native automation platform. You will partner with the CTO and CEO to translate roadmaps into reality and to elevate engineering excellence across the organization.

You'll own the delivery of the engineering roadmap, hire and develop an exceptional team, and set high standards for reliability, security, and developer velocity as we scale to serve a growing customer base.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with leadership.
• Proven ability to build and scale engineering teams.
• Strong technical foundation and architectural judgment.
• Experience shipping and operating production systems.
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration.
• BS in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Define engineering strategy and architecture with CTO/CEO.
• Lead and develop an exceptional engineering team.
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap with on-time shipping and accountability.
• Set and uphold best practices for code quality, testing, reliability, security.
• Build strong cross-functional operating rhythms for execution and user experience.
• Establish metrics for engineering effectiveness and debt management.
• Drive continuous improvement of platform performance as usage grows.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Team growth

System architecture

Cross-functional partner

Reliability & security

Communication

CS degree or equivalent

Education

Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Go

GRPC

Kubernetes

React

Typescript

AWS

Terraform

Job description

Who We Are

Serval is an AI-native automation platform transforming how enterprises operate. We build intelligent agents that understand real-world workflows and execute them end-to-end — replacing manual processes and rigid legacy systems with adaptive, learning software. Founded in early 2024, Serval is already trusted by companies like Fox, Notion, Perplexity, Vercel, and Brex to automate high-volume, high-friction operational work across their organizations.

At the core of Serval is an agentic AI platform that turns natural language into production-grade workflows. Our agents don’t just respond to requests — they reason, take action across systems, and continuously improve with usage. What began with operational use cases has quickly evolved into a horizontal AI automation layer used across IT, HR, Finance, Security, Legal, and Engineering.

Our mission is to eliminate repetitive, manual work across the enterprise and give teams leverage through intelligent automation. Long term, we’re building the universal AI operations layer — a system of agents that sits across business functions and runs the workflows that keep modern companies moving.

We’re backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Meritech, First Round, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, and others.

Role Overview

As an engineering leader at Serval, you'll help shape the technical direction of our platform and build the team that delivers it. This is a senior leadership role with significant ownership — you'll sit at the intersection of technical strategy and organizational execution, accountable for both what we build and how we build it. You'll have real influence over architecture decisions, hiring strategy, and the engineering culture we build from here.

You'll partner closely with our CTO and CEO to translate roadmap into reality and drive engineering excellence across the organization. Serval is at an inflection point — strong product-market fit, a growing customer base, and an ambitious roadmap ahead. We want a leader who is close to the work, close to the team, and invested in getting the details right.

What You'll Do

• Partner with CTO an CEO to define Serval's engineering strategy, architecture direction, and execution plan
• Lead, hire, and develop an exceptional engineering team — creating the structure, processes, and culture needed to scale
• Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, ensuring projects ship on time with high quality and clear accountability
• Set and uphold engineering best practices across code quality, testing, reliability, security, and incident response
• Build strong cross-functional operating rhythms with cross-functional teams to ensure excellent execution and a great user experience
• Establish metrics and systems for engineering effectiveness: planning, estimation, on-call, retrospectives, and technical debt management
• Drive continuous improvement of platform performance, scalability, and maintainability as usage grows

What You'll Need

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including meaningful time leading teams in an engineering leadership capacity.
• Proven ability to build and scale engineering teams in a fast-moving environment.
• Strong technical foundation and architectural judgment, with hands‑on experience shipping and operating production systems.
• Experience partnering cross-functionally and translating product goals into clear technical plans and execution.
• High standards for engineering excellence: reliability, security, and developer velocity.
• Exceptional communication skills and a track record of leading through ambiguity.
• Degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to Have

• Early-stage startup experience.
• Experience with some of the technologies in our stack: Go, GRPC, Kubernetes, React, Typescript, AWS, and Terraform.
• Experience building AI-enabled product features (even if not an AI/ML specialist role).

What We Offer

• Impact: Be a key player in shaping the success of our product and company.
• Growth: Build a fundamentally new AI product offering with the support of our experienced team and investors. Grow rapidly with the company.
• Culture: Join a culture that values innovation, ownership, accountability, and fun.