Director of Engineering, Descript
Product
$260-330k
AI video & podcast editor
Job no longer available
AI video & podcast editor
101-200 employees
Job no longer available
$260-330k
101-200 employees
Company mission
To make it easy for anyone o record, edit, and share any video.
Role
Who you are
- Leadership Experience: Has 6+ years of engineering management experience, leading teams of Software Engineers, including managing managers, and track record of shipping high quality products
- Technical Expertise: Experience building web applications (ideally with React/Typescript) and/or native desktop apps, showcasing a strong understanding of modern development practices and frameworks
- Effective Communicator: Communicates clearly and effectively, both in writing and verbally, while collaborating seamlessly with both technical and non-technical audiences
- Team Builder: Excels at creating collaborative, supportive, empowering, and high-performing team environments — ones where engineers do their best work
- Empathetic Feedback: Provides and receives direct, empathetic feedback to drive continuous improvement
- Adaptable and Resilient: Thrives in fast-paced, rapidly changing environments, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and drive results
- Educational Background: Holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field, or has equivalent professional experience
Desirable
- Startup Experience: Managed engineering teams at a startup before where the rate of change is high
- Creative Tools Expertise: Experience with building or contributing to creative tools
What the job involves
- We’re seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to lead, inspire, and grow with our expanding company
- You will oversee a team of 8-10 engineers, with opportunities to scale and develop the team as the company grows
- This role reports directly to the VP of Engineering
- Roadmap Development: Collaborate with the team’s technical lead and product manager to develop a comprehensive roadmap, ensuring predictable, reliable, and sustainable execution of projects
- Strategic thinking: Aligns technical and product strategies with long-term business objectives while proactively anticipating challenges and devising effective solutions
- Team Development: Recruit, grow, and coach engineers, providing regular feedback and creating opportunities for professional and personal development
- Organizational Scaling: Shape the broader engineering organization’s operating model by driving best practices in technical execution, recruiting, onboarding, planning, and prioritization processes
- Cultural Development: Help scale and strengthen the company culture as we grow, promoting collaboration, inclusivity, and excellence
Our take
The rise of digital content has made video and audio creation more important than ever, but producing polished media can still be quite complex. Descript makes editing accessible to anyone, simplifying recording, editing, and publishing. And its platform empowers over 7M users to bring ideas to life without needing advanced technical skills.
Descript's standout feature is its AI co-editor, Underlord, which lets users create and edit videos just by describing what they want,. It can generate rough cuts, add visuals and B-roll, apply AI effects, and format content for social media. While many creators are still wary of AI in content creation, Descript has built its tools to augment human creativity, giving users control while handling the heavy lifting.
Serving millions of creators and businesses worldwide, Descript keeps innovating with AI features that learn from user input. By combining intuitive tools with responsible AI, the platform is helping content creators work faster and smarter, reshaping video and audio production while keeping the creative vision firmly in human hands.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
30% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Oct 2022
$50m
SERIES C
Jan 2021
$30m
SERIES B
Total funding: $100m
Company benefits
- Health: We’ve got you covered with medical, dental, and vision benefits for all employees and their dependents. These include HMO and PPO healthcare plans
- Time off: Paid holidays are a given, but you can also expect flexible time off. Feel comfortable to take the time you need, when you need it.
- Parental leave: New parents receive paid parental leave to spend quality time with their expanding families.
- Home-office stipend: Get your work-from-home setup ready with our home-office stipend.
- Retirement: We offer a variety of retirement plans, including employer matching.
- Free food & refreshments: Come say hey! Visit our office for free lunch, snacks, and drinks.
- Destination off-sites: No matter where you work, you’ll get to know your team. We host two annual gatherings: a company-wide off-site and a team-specific off-site.
Company HQ
Civic Center, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Laura Burkhauser
(CEO)Laura joined Descript in 2023 as a VP of Product and became CEO in 2025. Prior to this, she was a Director of Product Management at Twitter and Rent The Runway.
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