Vice President of Engineering

Mission.dev; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Mission.dev, headquartered in San Francisco, seeks a VP of Engineering to lead the platform engineering organization and own the technical strategy for a core AI platform. The role combines leadership with hands-on work across distributed systems and AI orchestration to scale infrastructure for growing product demands.

You will partner with the executive team to drive velocity, reliability, and architectural excellence while guiding production-scale AI operations and developer tooling.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software or platform engineering experience.
• 4+ years in a formal engineering leadership role managing teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related STEM field.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale a high-performing platform engineering team to support organizational expansion.
• Define the technical strategy and architecture for the core AI platform and underlying infrastructure.
• Oversee development across AI agents, LLM orchestration, retrieval systems, and developer tooling.
• Ensure engineering velocity, reliability, and observability through hands-on problem-solving and architectural reviews.
• Partner with executive leadership to conceptualize and execute new product and platform initiatives.
• Establish engineering processes and cultural standards to maintain quality during rapid scaling.
• Manage production-scale AI operations across distributed systems and cloud architectures.

Skills

Leadership

Platform engineering

Distributed systems

AI/ML infra

TypeScript

Python

Cloud architecture

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Job description

Mission is a platform for hiring, vetting and managing software development talents. It enables our clients to connect with the world’s best talent to build mission-critical software products.

About the Company

Headquartered in San Francisco, this AI company builds advanced AI-powered products and scalable infrastructure for demanding, real-world applications. With around 140 employees, the company combines strong commercial performance and venture backing with the pace and flexibility of a growing startup. Its engineering teams tackle complex challenges in distributed computing and machine learning, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and fast execution.

About the Role

This VP of Engineering position is a high-impact, player-coach role responsible for leading the platform engineering organization. You will own the technical strategy and architectural roadmap for a core AI platform, scaling infrastructure through significant growth phases. The role requires balancing high-level leadership with hands-on technical involvement in distributed systems and AI orchestration. You will partner with the executive team to drive engineering velocity and reliability, ensuring the platform supports complex, production-grade agentic systems while fostering a culture of technical excellence.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and scale a high-performing platform engineering team to support organizational expansion.
• Define the technical strategy and architecture for the core AI platform and underlying infrastructure.
• Oversee development across AI agents, LLM orchestration, retrieval systems, and developer tooling.
• Ensure engineering velocity, reliability, and observability through hands-on problem-solving and architectural reviews.
• Partner with executive leadership to conceptualize and execute new product and platform initiatives.
• Establish engineering processes and cultural standards to maintain quality during rapid scaling.
• Manage production-scale AI operations across distributed systems and cloud architectures.

What You Bring

• 10+ years of software or platform engineering experience.
• 4+ years in a formal engineering leadership role managing teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related STEM field.
• Proven experience scaling platform or infrastructure organizations through significant revenue or headcount growth.
• Technical proficiency in TypeScript, Python, and cloud architecture.
• Demonstrated experience with production-scale AI/ML infrastructure or agentic systems.
• Ability to work on-site five days per week in San Francisco.

Nice to Haves

• Experience building new products or technical initiatives from the ground up.
• Familiarity with frontier AI development tools and LLM evaluation frameworks.
• Previous leadership experience in high-growth, venture-backed startup environments (Series A–D).
• Strong instincts for product and business strategy alongside deep technical expertise.