Vice President of Engineering

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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 Type Script, 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.

• 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.