Director of Engineering, Internal Platforms & AI

Karoo Health

$130K — $180K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent experience)
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience with hands-on fullstack work
  • 5+ years managing software engineers, focusing on development and performance
  • Proven ability to coach experienced engineers toward simpler designs
  • Demonstrated framework for balancing technical debt and delivery
  • Technical depth to credibly review architecture and code
  • Fluency with AI-assisted development tools at the team level

Responsibilities

  • Lead the engineering team, focusing on coaching and feedback for career growth
  • Guide engineers toward pragmatic architecture to avoid overengineering
  • Manage prioritization and transparency around technical debt and delivery
  • Oversee planning and execution of the team's roadmap
  • Establish and enhance engineering practices across the team
  • Communicate effectively with firm leadership and advocate for the team's needs

Benefits

  • Top-quartile performance as a leading venture capital firm
  • Emphasis on internal growth and career advancement
  • Unique value proposition with a high-net-worth investor base
  • Merit-based environment that rewards self-initiative
  • Comprehensive benefits including health plans and professional development opportunities
Full Job Description
ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering team - the engineers who design, build, and operate the internal platforms that power our investment and operations teams. In this role, you will be a player-coach: close enough to the work to review designs and challenge technical decisions, but focused first on developing people, shaping engineering culture, and ensuring the team delivers. Your most important job is judgment: coaching experienced, opinionated engineers toward simple, right-sized solutions; deciding when to pay down technical debt and when to ship; and keeping a small, high-leverage team moving fast without accumulating complexity it cannot afford. If you have strong technical convictions, the backbone to hold senior engineers accountable, and the empathy to bring them along rather than overrule them, this is an opportunity to shape how software gets built at a leading venture capital firm.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Lead and Develop the Engineering Team: Manage a team of fullstack engineers, including senior engineers, with direct responsibility for coaching, feedback, performance, and career growth. Build a culture of ownership, candor, and continuous improvement.
Coach for Pragmatic Architecture: Set and enforce a high bar for simplicity. Guide engineers - especially strong, experienced ones - away from habitual overengineering and toward designs with the right amount of complexity for the problem, using design reviews, direct feedback, and clear architectural principles rather than mandates. • Balance Technical Debt and Delivery: Prioritize and manage technical debt investments Make these decisions explicitly and transparently, so stakeholders understand what the team is investing in and why, and the team understands when good enough is the right call.
Own Delivery and Execution: Run the team's planning and delivery processes. Translate business priorities from investment and operations stakeholders into a well-sequenced roadmap, set realistic commitments, and hold the team accountable to them.
Raise Engineering Standards: Establish and continuously improve team-wide practices for code review, testing, observability, CI/CD, and AI-assisted development - including how tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex fit into the team's workflows with appropriate quality and security guardrails.
Partner Across the Firm: Serve as the primary interface between the engineering team and firm leadership. Communicate progress, risks, and trade-offs clearly to non-technical audiences, and advocate for the team's needs, including hiring and tooling.

Requirements

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
  • 8+ years of software engineering experience, including substantial hands-on fullstack work in environments similar to ours (TypeScript, React, Node, AWS, relational databases). • 5+ years directly managing software engineers, including senior engineers, with a track record of developing people and improving team performance.
  • Demonstrated ability to coach strong-willed, experienced engineers toward simpler designs - you can win technical arguments on the merits, deliver direct feedback with respect, and change how someone builds, not just what they build.
  • A clear, defensible framework for balancing technical debt against feature delivery, with examples of when you chose each and what happened.
  • Enough current technical depth to review architecture and code credibly - the team should trust your judgment because you have earned it, not because of your title.
  • Fluency with AI-assisted development at the team level - experience shaping how a team adopts tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, not just using them yourself.
  • Excellent communication with executive and non-technical stakeholders, including setting expectations and delivering unwelcome news early.

LOCATION

Hybrid with ability to be on-site when required out of Buckhead / Atlanta Office.

Benefits

  • Top-quartile Performance: We are a leading venture capital firm in a vibrant tech ecosystem offering national prominence.
  • Internal Growth: We foster critical thinking and promote internal advancement from day one.
  • Unique Value Proposition: Our firm boasts a robust, defensible value proposition supported by a high-net-worth investor base.
  • Merit-based Environment: We encourage you to bet on yourself, leveraging your merit to excel and thrive.
  • Benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes competitive salaries, health and wellness plans, retirement savings options, paid time off, professional development opportunities, and various employee well-being programs.

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