8+ years of software engineering experience with leadership roles
Proven experience in building and scaling engineering teams
Strong technical foundation with hands-on production system experience
Ability to translate product goals into technical execution
High standards for reliability, security, and developer velocity
Exceptional communication and ambiguity management skills
Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
Responsibilities
Partner with CTO and CEO to define engineering strategy and roadmap
Lead, hire, and develop a top-notch engineering team
Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of the engineering roadmap
Set and maintain engineering best practices for quality and security
Facilitate strong collaboration with cross-functional teams
Establish metrics for engineering effectiveness and accountability
Drive continuous platform performance and scalability improvements
Benefits
Impact: Play a crucial role in shaping product success
Growth: Opportunity to develop a new AI product offering
Culture: Work in an environment prioritizing innovation, accountability, and fun
Full Job Description
Role Overview
As an engineering leader at Serval, you'll help shape the technical direction of our platform and build the team that delivers it. This is a senior leadership role with significant ownership - you'll sit at the intersection of technical strategy and organizational execution, accountable for both what we build and how we build it. You'll have real influence over architecture decisions, hiring strategy, and the engineering culture we build from here.
You'll partner closely with our CTO and CEO to translate roadmap into reality and drive engineering excellence across the organization. Serval is at an inflection point - strong product-market fit, a growing customer base, and an ambitious roadmap ahead. We want a leader who is close to the work, close to the team, and invested in getting the details right.
What You'll Do
Partner with CTO an CEO to define Serval's engineering strategy, architecture direction, and execution plan
Lead, hire, and develop an exceptional engineering team - creating the structure, processes, and culture needed to scale
Own delivery of the engineering roadmap, ensuring projects ship on time with high quality and clear accountability
Set and uphold engineering best practices across code quality, testing, reliability, security, and incident response
Build strong cross-functional operating rhythms with cross-functional teams to ensure excellent execution and a great user experience
Establish metrics and systems for engineering effectiveness: planning, estimation, on-call, retrospectives, and technical debt management
Drive continuous improvement of platform performance, scalability, and maintainability as usage grows
What You'll Need
8+ years of software engineering experience, including meaningful time leading teams in an engineering leadership capacity.
Proven ability to build and scale engineering teams in a fast-moving environment.
Strong technical foundation and architectural judgment, with hands-on experience shipping and operating production systems.
Experience partnering cross-functionally and translating product goals into clear technical plans and execution.
High standards for engineering excellence: reliability, security, and developer velocity.
Exceptional communication skills and a track record of leading through ambiguity.
Degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Nice to Have
Early-stage startup experience.
Experience with some of the technologies in our stack: Go, GRPC, Kubernetes, React, Typescript, AWS, and Terraform.
Experience building AI-enabled product features (even if not an AI/ML specialist role).
What We Offer
Impact: Be a key player in shaping the success of our product and company.
Growth: Build a fundamentally new AI product offering with the support of our experienced team and investors. Grow rapidly with the company.
Culture: Join a culture that values innovation, ownership, accountability, and fun.
