Head of Engineering

Albert Bow; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Albert Bow in San Francisco seeks an experienced engineering leader to take ownership of the engineering organization, creating the structure, processes and standards needed to scale execution. You will set clear goals, track metrics on productivity and quality, and drive improvements across releases and stability.

You'll work closely with the founder/CTO on the technical roadmap, lead major migrations, hire top engineers, and ensure safe delivery of complex escalations while maintaining a high

Qualifications

• Experience as Engineering Manager or Head of Engineering.
• Proven track record delivering through engineering teams with data-driven improvements.
• Strong understanding of software quality, release processes and incident management.
• Experience leading postmortems and implementing durable fixes.
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams and hiring plans.

Responsibilities

• Set engineering goals and accountability for delivery and execution.
• Establish and track metrics for productivity, reliability and quality.
• Improve release health and reduce regressions and incidents.
• Establish consistent engineering practices and development processes.
• Collaborate with the CTO on the technical roadmap and architecture.
• Lead major migrations, delivering changes incrementally and safely.
• Own complex escalations with enterprise customers.
• Forecast engineering capacity and build hiring plans.
• Hire exceptional engineers and maintain a high technical bar.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Delivery management

Data-driven decisions

Software quality

Incident management

Postmortems

Hiring planning

Architectural evolution

Mentoring

Education

CS/Engineering degree or equivalent

Job description

What You'll Be Doing

You'll take ownership of the engineering organisation, creating the structure, processes and standards required to maintain a high level of execution as the business scales.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Setting clear engineering goals and creating accountability around delivery and execution.
• Establishing and tracking metrics around engineering productivity, reliability and software quality.
• Improving release health and reducing regressions, incidents and recurring technical issues.
• Establishing consistent engineering practices, architectural standards and development processes.
• Working closely with the CTO on the technical roadmap and major architectural initiatives.
• Helping lead a significant technology migration while ensuring changes are delivered incrementally and safely.
• Taking ownership of complex technical escalations with enterprise customers.
• Assessing future engineering capacity and building out the hiring plan as the team grows.
• Hiring exceptional engineers while maintaining a high technical bar.

What We're Looking For

We're looking for an experienced engineering leader who has operated successfully in a fast-moving startup or scale-up environment.

You’ll ideally have:

• Previous experience as an Engineering Manager, Head of Engineering or senior engineering leader.
• A track record of managing and delivering through engineering teams.
• Experience introducing engineering metrics and using data to improve productivity, reliability and delivery.
• A strong understanding of software quality, release processes and incident management.
• Experience leading postmortems and implementing changes that prevent recurring issues.
• A track record of improving engineering processes and delivery performance.
• Experience setting goals and creating accountability within engineering teams.
• Confidence working directly with enterprise customers during complex technical escalations.
• Experience building engineering teams and owning hiring plans.
• A strong technical foundation, either through a Computer Science/Engineering degree or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Experience working with evolving architecture, technical debt and large-scale technical change.
• Experience leading or contributing to significant rewrites, migrations or architectural transformations.

Nice to Have:

• Experience scaling an engineering organisation through rapid growth.
• Experience within AI, developer tooling, infrastructure or SaaS.
• Experience with Rust or other large-scale technology migrations.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of an engineering organisation at a company operating at the intersection of AI, developer infrastructure.

You’ll work directly with the founder/CTO and have significant influence over how the engineering function develops, rather than operating several layers removed from technical decision-making.

The technical challenges are substantial, with a large number of integrations to maintain, new AI models and technologies arriving constantly, and significant architectural work already underway.

Competitive salary, equity and health, dental and vision benefits.