Engineering Manager, Trust & Safety

Vapi; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 264,000 - 297,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health coverage

Team events

Flexible time off

L&D budget

Catered meals

Equipment provided

Job summary

Vapi is seeking an engineering leader to guide a four‑person team across billing, fraud, and outbound telephony. You’ll partner with the PM for Enterprise & Governance to convert roadmaps into reliable delivery, and own service reliability, on‑call, and incident response.

This role emphasizes people leadership (60–70%), with hands‑on coding (20–30%), architecture, and code review to scale systems and protect revenue.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated engineering management across coaching, performance, leveling, and career development.
• Experience designing scalable, reliable enterprise systems; billing systems experience is a strong plus.
• Strong hands-on coding, architecture, and system design skills; contribute to code review and tradeoff decisions.
• Experience owning reliable services and improving on‑call and incident response practices.
• Experience partnering with a PM to translate product requirements into technical plans and manage delivery.
• Experience in trust and safety, fraud/risk, voice/telephony, or outbound‑call compliance is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead a four‑engineer team across billing, fraud, and outbound telephony.
• Partner with PM for Enterprise & Governance to turn roadmaps into reliable delivery; own service reliability and incident response.
• Balance people management (60–70%) with hands‑on building (20–30%), architecture, and code reviews.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Coaching & development

System design

Code review & architecture

On-call & incident response

PM collaboration

Billing/fraud/telephony know‑how

Trust & safety

Job description

Vapi (/ˈVɑːpi/):

• Voice AI that resolves, not transfers

• Powering 1 billion calls for companies like Amazon Ring, Intuit, ServiceTitan, and New York Life

• Trusted by 1 million developers building the future of voice agents

• Backed by Peak XV, Bessemer, Kleiner Perkins, M12, Y Combinator, and more with $72M raised

Why We’re Hiring This Role:

• Vapi is scaling fast, and the systems that protect our revenue and customer trust need dedicated engineering leadership. You’ll lead a team of four engineers across billing, fraud, and outbound telephony, with billing, pricing, and packaging making up the largest share of the work.

• Partner closely with our PM for Enterprise & Governance to set priorities and turn the roadmap into reliable delivery. You’ll strengthen the team’s existing operating rhythm, coach engineers, and own service reliability, on-call, and incident response.

• People leadership is the priority: expect roughly 60–70% people management and 20–30% hands‑on building, alongside architecture and code review. The balance can flex with team needs. You’ll shape how the team works and build systems that scale with Vapi.

What You’ll Do:

• 30 Days: Learn our billing, fraud, and outbound telephony systems. Meet each engineer and your product partners, understand current commitments, and assess architecture, service ownership, on‑call coverage, and team development needs. Align on the highest-priority gaps.

• 60 Days: Build on existing team routines to strengthen planning and delivery with Product, define service ownership, and strengthen on‑call and incident response practices. Guide architecture and code reviews, deliver an initial prioritized improvement, and set clear expectations and growth goals with each engineer.

• 90 Days: Own engineering delivery against a shared roadmap for billing, pricing, packaging, fraud, and outbound telephony. Use delivery and reliability data to prioritize improvements, build actionable development plans for the team, and identify the hiring and system investments needed to scale.

Who You Are:

• Demonstrated engineering management experience across coaching, performance, leveling, and career development. You can assess promotion readiness, handle difficult people situations, motivate engineers, and hold a team accountable for results.

• Experience designing scalable, reliable enterprise systems and leading engineers through complex technical problems. Billing systems experience is a strong plus; AI expertise is not required.

• Strong hands‑on coding, architecture, and system design skills. You bring informed opinions to code review, evaluate tradeoffs, and earn the team’s trust through technical depth.

• Experience owning reliable services and improving on‑call and incident response practices. Experience hiring and building a small engineering team is a plus.

• Experience partnering with a PM, with clear judgment about Product and Engineering responsibilities. You can translate product requirements into technical plans and work through disagreements constructively.

• Experience in trust and safety, fraud/risk, voice/telephony, or outbound‑call compliance is a plus, as is experience scaling a newly formed team.

How We Work:

• Build something worthy of love

  • Craft matters. We aim to build products and experiences customers genuinely love, not just tolerate.

• Commit and follow through

  • We finish what we start and build trust by being people others can count on.

• Why not today?

  • We value urgency and momentum. The fastest path to customer value usually wins.

• Seek raw input

  • We go directly to customers, data, and teammates instead of relying on summaries or assumptions.

• It’s our problem

  • We operate as one team. We share credit, own mistakes together, and support each other when things get hard.

• Be direct and kind

  • We give feedback clearly, respectfully, and without delay.

Why Vapi:

• Generational impact: Build the human interface for every business

• Ownership culture: Many of us are previous founders

• Kind team: The founders, Jordan and Nikhil, are Canadians

• Tier-1 Investors: YC, KP seed, Bessemer

What We Offer:

• Real stake: Annual base salary of $264,000–$297,000, plus equity

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision plans

• Team love: We love hanging out, and we do quarterly off‑sites

• Flexible time off: take what you need

• More: catered meals, transportation, equipment, and a $10k annual L&D budget