VP of Engineering, Applications

Darwin Recruitment; California (MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Darwin Recruitment seeks a VP of Engineering, Applications to lead architecture and delivery of AI-enabled software across backend, mobile and desktop platforms. You will own the application engineering strategy and drive production readiness for scalable products.

You will build and mentor a high-performing team, collaborate with ML leadership to translate AI capabilities into market-ready features, and make high-impact decisions on latency, reliability, cost and user experience.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading application engineering for complex software systems.
• Hands-on experience designing, building and deploying production-grade backend systems.
• Experience delivering AI-enabled products and integrating AI models into production.

Responsibilities

• Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile and desktop platforms.
• Lead and grow a high-performing applications engineering team.
• Set architectural direction for AI-enabled product workflows, APIs and client integrations.
• Ensure AI capabilities are integrated into products with reliable abstractions and predictable behavior.
• Drive production readiness across application systems, including observability and cost management.
• Partner with ML leadership to translate AI capabilities into scalable product features.

Skills

AI integration

System design

Leadership

Cross-functional teamwork

Production readiness

Tools

APIs

Observability

Job description

VP of Engineering, Applications

Industry: Technology / Artificial Intelligence / Software

Overview of the Role

We are working with a growing technology company developing intelligent software products designed to simplify and automate everyday digital tasks.

The organisation is building AI-enabled products that can handle complex, multi-step workflows, interact with external systems and deliver reliable outcomes with minimal user input. As the product scales, they are looking for a senior engineering leader to take ownership of the application engineering organisation and translate advanced AI capabilities into robust, intuitive and production-ready products.

This is a senior, hands-on engineering leadership position with responsibility across backend, mobile and desktop development. The successful candidate will combine strong technical judgement with the ability to build and lead a high-performing engineering team.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile and desktop platforms.
• Lead and grow a small, highly capable applications engineering team covering backend, mobile and desktop development.
• Set the architectural direction for AI-enabled product workflows, APIs and client integrations.
• Ensure AI capabilities are integrated into products through well-defined abstractions, predictable behaviour and appropriate failure handling.
• Work closely with Machine Learning leadership to translate technical capabilities into scalable and commercially viable product features.
• Make high-impact technical decisions covering latency, cost, reliability, security and user experience.
• Establish clear ownership and architectural boundaries across backend, mobile and desktop engineering.
• Drive production readiness across application systems, including observability, monitoring, retries, fallbacks, privacy and cost management.
• Balance rapid product development with long-term engineering quality, scalability and maintainability.
• Provide technical leadership and raise engineering standards across the wider applications organisation.

Candidate Profile – Essential

• Significant experience leading application engineering or product engineering for complex software systems.
• Strong hands-on experience designing, building and deploying production-grade backend systems.
• Demonstrable experience delivering AI-enabled or machine-learning-driven products, with a strong understanding of the practical challenges of integrating AI models into production systems.
• Excellent system design and architecture skills across services, APIs, clients and data flows.
• Experience working across multiple application platforms, including backend, mobile and/or desktop.
• Proven ability to make significant technical decisions in ambiguous and rapidly changing environments.
• Strong track record of delivering products quickly, iterating based on real-world usage and continuously improving systems.
• Strong technical judgement, collaborative leadership style and a focus on raising engineering standards.

Required / Highly Preferred

• Experience leading senior engineering teams within a fast-moving technology environment.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, APIs and modern application architecture.
• Experience working closely with Machine Learning or AI engineering teams.
• Experience balancing engineering priorities across performance, reliability, security, cost and user experience.
• Ability to remain technically engaged while operating at senior leadership level.

Beneficial

• Experience across backend, mobile and desktop application development.
• Experience building AI-first or AI-enabled consumer software products.
• Experience establishing engineering organisations, processes and architectural standards from an early or scaling stage.
• Experience with production observability, reliability engineering and operational tooling.
• Experience working within small, high-performing engineering teams.

What the Company Offers

The successful candidate will join a technically focused organisation where engineering leadership has significant influence over product direction and execution.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Shape the architecture and engineering strategy of a growing AI-enabled product.
• Build and develop a highly capable applications engineering team.
• Work closely with senior technical and product leadership.
• Influence major decisions around architecture, reliability, performance and scalability.
• Operate in a fast-paced environment with significant technical ownership and autonomy.