VP of Engineering

Vico; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Inclusive environment

Job summary

Vico, based in New York, is seeking a VP of Engineering to lead its engineering team. This role involves managing engineering execution and supporting product and infrastructure direction. We are looking for an individual with 5–7 years of experience in engineering management, particularly in startup settings, and hands-on knowledge of large language models.

The ideal candidate will thrive in dynamic environments, demonstrating the ability to build teams and technology from the ground up. The role comes with a competitive compensation of $200,000 - $300,000 plus equity.

Qualifications

• 5-7 years of engineering management or Tech Lead experience.
• Experience in fast-moving, resource-constrained startup environments.
• Hands-on experience with large language models in production.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers across the development lifecycle.
• Translate company strategy into engineering roadmaps and priorities.
• Own engineering strategy, delivery cadence, and code quality.

Skills

Engineering management

Tech Lead experience

Hands-on LLM experience

Communication skills

Startup experience

Tools

Python

React

PostgreSQL

GCP

Job description

We are a venture-backed startup revolutionizing AI-powered decision tools. Founded by seasoned leaders from Google, Meta, Bridgewater Associates, Cerberus Capital, and US intelligence agencies, we combine deep industry expertise with world-class AI capabilities to solve complex decision-making challenges across finance, national security and other industries.

This is a unique opportunity to be both at the nexus of world-class AI research and production-grade systems, while operating at a rapid pace to push code to paying customers everyday with a special operations-like team of early-stage engineers and managers.

About the Role

VICO is looking for a VP of Engineering to lead and grow our engineering team. You'll report directly to the CTO and play a lead role in daily engineering execution, team development, and tactical problem-solving as the company accelerates development of scaled architecture. This is a hands-on leadership role where you'll manage a team of junior engineers while helping shape the direction of our product and infrastructure.

We're looking for someone who thrives in a startup environment — someone who's comfortable operating with ambiguity, moving fast, and building both the team and the technology from the ground up.

What You'll Do

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers across the full development lifecycle
• Partner closely with the CTO to translate new architecture and company strategy into engineering roadmaps and priorities
• Own engineering strategy and execution — delivery cadence, code quality, and platform architecture
• Build and refine engineering processes that scale with the team without slowing it down
• Drive hiring, onboarding, and retention as the team grows
• Champion best practices around LLM integration, evaluation, and deployment
• Contribute to technical decision-making around model selection, LLMOps, fine-tuning, and infrastructure for LLM-powered features
• Interface with an AI Research & Development Team to evaluate and plan deployment of new models

What We're Looking For

• Minimum 5-7 years of engineering management and / or Tech Lead experience, with a track record of leading high-performance teams
• Significant startup experience — you've built and shipped in fast-moving, resource-constrained environments and you're energized by it
• Hands-on LLM experience — you've worked directly with large language models in a production setting, whether that's building LLM-powered products, managing teams doing so, or both
• Experience with our stack or similar technologies (Python, React, PostgreSQL, GCP)
• Strong technical foundation with the ability to go deep when needed while staying focused on team-level impact
• Experience establishing engineering culture, processes, and norms in early-stage or high-growth companies
• Excellent communication skills — you can align engineering work with business goals and communicate effectively across functions
• A builder's mindset: pragmatic, resourceful, and biased toward action
• Contributions to open-source projects or technical community leadership

Nice to Have

• B2B or equivalent experience
• Experience scaling an engineering team beyond its current size
• Familiarity with model evaluation frameworks and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures
• Previous experience in a VP or Director-level engineering role

Compensation

$200,000 - $300,000 + equity package depending on experience

Interested in this role?

If this sounds like you: send your resume and a note telling us why you're the right person to lead engineering at VICO.

VICO is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.