Head of Engineering - AI-Driven Platform

Base Operations; Washington; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Base Operations is seeking a Head of Engineering in Washington, DC (Hybrid) to own the technical backbone of our engineering org. You will be hands-on for architectural decisions, while running delivery like a program and guiding AI-enabled development for dual-use customers.

You will report to the CEO and collaborate with the VP Product to align engineering with enterprise and federal sales cycles, building a scalable, high-velocity team with strong security practices.

Qualifications

• Experience owning data architecture decisions at scale.
• Proven program and delivery management with cross-functional coordination.
• Hands-on engineering credibility to earn respect.
• Experience leading engineers in a startup/Series A–B.

Responsibilities

• Define and own long-term data architecture strategy for threat intel pipelines.
• Make platform decisions balancing speed, cost, and federal constraints.
• Implement engineering delivery discipline with roadmaps, cadences, and risk surfacing.
• Hire, mentor, and grow engineers; shape healthy engineering culture.
• Lead AI/ML tooling adoption and guardrails for federal customers.

Skills

10+ years experience

Data architecture

Program management

Hands-on engineering

People leadership

AI tooling fluency

Dual-use / security

Startup experience

Job description

Base Operations is seeking a Head of Engineering in Washington, DC (Hybrid) to own the technical backbone of our engineering org. You will be hands-on for architectural decisions, while running delivery like a program and guiding AI-enabled development for dual-use customers.

You will report to the CEO and collaborate with the VP Product to align engineering with enterprise and federal sales cycles, building a scalable, high-velocity team with strong security practices.