Director of Engineering - Machine Learning & AI Products

We are looking for a Director of Engineering to guide the development of AI-native, production-ready machine learning products for external clients. This leader will be responsible for the entire lifecycle of sophisticated AI systems-from product conception and rollout to production, customer engagement, and continuous operational success.

This role requires a rare blend of handson technical depth, product judgment, and senior level people leadership. You will lead a highly experienced ML engineering organization and work closely with Product, Development, and Goto Market partners to bring differentiated AI solutions to market.

• Own the endtoend delivery of AI/ML solutions deployed in production, moving beyond proofsofconcept to scalable, reliable, customer facing systems.

• Lead deep technical discussions on system build, model integration, performance, reliability, and operational readiness.

• Collaborate directly with Product Management to build product vision, challenge assumptions, and ensure differentiation beyond general purpose LLM capabilities.

• Drive architectural decisions that balance innovation, scalability, cost, and longterm maintainability.

• Act as a senior technical voice with customers, handling partner concerns, roadmap discussions, and production issue resolution.

• Establish, grow, and manage a high-caliber ML engineering organization, scaling the team from about 4 to over 20 engineers as time progresses.

• Manage and mentor senior engineers and leaders with 16+ years of experience, encouraging accountability, ownership, and continuous growth.

• Establish a flat, handson, hybrid operating model where leaders stay close to the work while empowering teams to implement initiatives independently.

• Conduct performance management, career development, and succession planning aligned to directorlevel expectations.

• Ensure excellence in production operations, including monitoring, incident response, model performance, and customer reported issues.

• Drive strong engineering rigor across testing, release readiness, and postlaunch support.

• Build scalable processes that support rapid iteration while maintaining enterprise grade reliability.

• Over 15 years of experience in software engineering, with extensive expertise in machine learning or systems driven by artificial intelligence.

• Demonstrated history of delivering and managing AI/ML products in production, beyond just experimentation or research.

• Strong business and commercial exposure, with direct ownership or leadership of a customer-facing, revenue-impacting AI/ML product.

• Strong experience with ML system build, production architecture, and realworld operational challenges.

• Demonstrated success leading senior technical teams, including performance evaluations, mentoring, and org scaling.

• Ability to engage deeply with product partners and debate technical and product tradeoffs in fast paced environments.

• Experience working directly with external customers and understanding customer facing production realities.

• Proven track record of building AI/ML products in startup or startup-like contexts that prioritize rapid market introduction.

• Background in external, customer facing platforms or products, particularly AIfirst offerings.

• Familiarity with domains such as marketing technology, sales technology, or customer experience platforms.

• Handson, credible technical leadership with the ability to go deep when needed.

• Strong product intuition paired with engineering rigor.

• Comfort operating in ambiguity while building structure for scale.

• Ability to earn trust quickly with senior…