VP of Engineering Boston / Remote Engineering Leadership

Project NANDA; Boston, Northern (MA, KY); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 360,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous conference and travel budget

Fully remote / async-friendly

Job summary

Foundation for Agentic Networks (FAN) is hiring a VP of Engineering to shape the engineering org, technical direction, and public presence. You will report to a board member with a defined path to CTO based on milestones.

You’ll own technical direction across FAN's portfolio, ship production-grade open-source software, and grow a 5–15 person team. Fully remote with Boston-area presence optional.

Qualifications

• Have 5+ years building software, with experience leading engineering teams of 5–15.
• Are still hands-on — this is a working leadership role, not a pure manager seat.
• Have shipped infrastructure, protocols, or developer platforms (distributed systems, registries, SDKs, or similar).
• Are fluent with modern AI/agent frameworks — MCP, A2A, LangChain, CrewAI, or comparable.
• Have a public technical track record — code, talks, papers, or community work we can find.
• Have worked in or alongside open-source communities and can move work forward across organizational lines.

Responsibilities

• Technical direction across FAN's portfolio — Project NANDA and related initiatives; set architecture and shared infrastructure standards.
• Shipping: turn working-group specs into production-grade open-source software and grow the engineering team.
• External technical voice: represent FAN at summits, working groups, and standards conversations; co-author papers and specs.
• Team: hire the next 3–5 engineers and set the working bar.
• Partnership with Board members on roadmap, priorities, and key technical calls.

Skills

Leadership

Hands-on leadership

Open-source engagement

AI/agent frameworks

Public technical track record

Job description

The Foundation for Agentic Networks (FAN) is the home of Project NANDA — an open-infrastructure initiative originated at MIT, building the foundational protocols and registry for the Internet of AI Agents. We work with an active open-source community to make a decentralized, interoperable agent ecosystem real.

We're hiring a VP of Engineering. You'll shape the engineering org, the technical direction, and how FAN shows up in the world.

You'll report to a board member. There's a defined path from VP to CTO based on org milestones — we'd like the right person to grow into that role.

What you'll own

• Technical direction across FAN's portfolio — Project NANDA and the other initiatives built on top of it. Setting architecture and standards that work across projects, deciding what's shared infrastructure vs. project-specific, and where to invest engineering effort
• Shipping — turning working-group specs into production-grade open-source software, and growing the team that can keep doing so across multiple projects
• External technical voice — representing FAN at NANDA summits, working groups, and standards conversations; co-authoring papers and specs; engaging the broader agent infrastructure community
• Team — hiring the next 3–5 engineers and setting the bar for how we work
• Partnership with Board members on roadmap, priorities, and key technical calls

You're a Strong Fit If You

• Have 5+ years building software, with experience leading engineering teams of 5–15
• Are still hands-on — this is a working leadership role, not a pure manager seat
• Have shipped infrastructure, protocols, or developer platforms (distributed systems, registries, SDKs, or similar)
• Are fluent with modern AI/agent frameworks — MCP, A2A, LangChain, CrewAI, or comparable
• Have a public technical track record — code, talks, papers, or community work we can find
• Have worked in or alongside open-source communities and can move work forward across organizational lines

Bonus Points

• Experience with DNS, PKI, decentralized identity, or other internet-scale registry systems
• Background in standards bodies, IETF/W3C-style governance, or research-adjacent organizations
• Existing connections to the Boston / agent infrastructure community

What This Role Offers

• Leadership seat — VP of Engineering at FAN, with a defined path to CTO based on org milestones. A formal seat on the technical steering committee, with voting rights on protocol decisions.
• Authority and scope — Shape the engineering org: culture, hiring bar, technical direction, and how FAN engages with partners and the broader community.
• Visibility and platform — Speaking slots at NANDA summits. Co-authorship on protocol specs and papers. A real public role in defining how AI agents operate on the open internet. Generous conference and travel budget.
• Flexibility — Fully remote, async-friendly, no fixed hours. Boston-area presence is welcome but not required.
• Network and access — Direct working relationships with FAN's partner institutions and the broader Project NANDA community.
• Work directly with Board members on strategic decisions
• Engage with partner institutions and the open-source community
• Represent FAN at summits, working groups, and standards conversations

Interview Process

1

Technical Challenge

Take-home challenge based on the NANDA paper

2

Skills Matrix

Fill out a self-assessment of your technical skills

3

15 min conversation to get to know each other

4

Technical Interview

Deep dive on your challenge submission + technical questions

5

Leadership Interview

Final conversation with the leadership team