VP of Engineering

Transluce

$500K+*
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years in engineering leadership roles, ideally with experience in a fast-growing environment
  • Proven ability to build and manage high-performing technical teams
  • Experience in organizational design and strategic planning for growth
  • Strong management skills to mentor and support both individual contributors and team leads
  • Excellent communication skills, able to convey complex technical concepts
  • Familiarity with AI technologies is advantageous but not mandatory

Responsibilities

  • Drive technical excellence and operational efficiency across the engineering team
  • Lead recruitment and retention strategies for top engineering talent
  • Facilitate career development for engineers and managers within the organization
  • Establish clear alignment on organizational goals and strategies with technical staff
  • Manage and prioritize engineering projects while advocating for organizational interests
  • Communicate Transluce's mission and technical vision to both internal and external stakeholders
  • Promote collaboration across teams to enhance project outcomes
  • Set vision for core infrastructure and collaborate with engineers on technical stack design

Benefits

  • Collaborative and growth-oriented work environment
  • Opportunity to shape a pivotal engineering function from the ground up
  • Flexibility in adjusting organizational processes to match evolving needs
  • Potential for visa sponsorship for international candidates
  • Direct involvement in cutting-edge AI technologies and research infrastructure
Full Job Description
Salary range: $500,000 - $600,000/year + benefits

About the role: We're hiring our first dedicated engineering leader to build the engineering function Transluce needs for its next stage of growth: from 20 people (14 technical) to 40+ by mid-2027. Our central bet is to use AI to understand AI, using both scaffolded off-the-shelf agents as well as specialized agents trained internally. Our engineering work spans product, AI systems, and research infrastructure, and is tightly integrated with our research function. We are looking for a strong, technically-oriented engineering leader; expertise in AI or research are a plus, but not required.

Core responsibilities:

  • Drive technical and operational excellence across the engineering function and broader org through culture, process, and systems
  • Hire and retain an industry leading technical team to advance Transluce's mission
  • Build engineers' and managers' careers across the org
  • Work with technical staff and leadership across Transluce to create strong clarity and alignment around goals, priorities, and roadmaps, at both the org-level and team-level
  • Manage competing priorities and identify and explain trade-offs, advocating for what's best for the organization
  • Clearly communicate Transluce's mission, strategy, and technical direction internally and externally; know how each new hire would come to the team and contribute to that vision
  • Facilitate effective collaboration within and across teams
  • Set vision and prioritization for core infrastructure; work with senior engineers to design the overall platform/technical stack


Qualities of a strong candidate:

  • Able to operate on a 12+ month time horizon for organizational design, technical strategy, and overall org theory of change
  • Can hire and inspire senior engineers, researchers and managers by being someone they can learn and grow from
  • Articulates and argues for a clear perspective, but is prepared to disagree and commit
  • Past experience in a similar role: taking a small, fast-growing company from 20 to 40+ as a senior leader working with one or more layers of management below them
  • Strong management skills with an ability to both directly line manage teams and mentor and lead managers
  • Not afraid to get into the technical details where relevant, but also able to make good decisions without knowing every detail


We are located in San Francisco and enthusiastic to work together in-person. We are open to sponsoring international visas.

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