Vice President of Engineering, Ghost
$240-260k
+ Equity
Inventory distribution optimization
Open for applications
Inventory distribution optimization
201-500 employees
Open for applications
$240-260k
+ Equity
201-500 employees
Company mission
To transform how inventory is bought and sold.
Role
Who you are
- This is a hands-on role for a leader who thrives in ambiguity, moves quickly with limited resources, and enjoys being close to both the code and the business
- 10+ years of engineering experience, including leadership roles at a high-growth tech startup; 3+ years of experience managing teams
- Stay close enough to the code to participate meaningfully in technical discussions, reviews, and architecture decisions
- Experience building and scaling systems in lean, resource-constrained environments
- Hands-on experience with modern AI development workflows (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) and deploying LLM-based features or agentic systems in production
- Strong business judgment, ownership mindset, and comfort operating in ambiguity
- Strong product intuition with ability to evaluate opportunity costs and make pragmatic decisions
- Our current stack includes: React with Next.js on the frontend, Node.js with NestJS on the backend, PostgreSQL database, NATS for messaging, and AWS infrastructure
What the job involves
- We are looking for a VP, Engineering to lead our Engineering organization and technical direction as we scale.
- You’ll balance being highly responsive to business needs while maintaining and protecting the team’s focus. You will play a critical role in shaping Ghost’s platform, team, and engineering culture during a pivotal stage of growth
- Lead a high-performing engineering team, owning execution, accountability, and team development
- Set technical strategy and evolve Ghost’s architecture to support rapid growth, reliability, and data-driven products
- Remain hands-on with full-stack development as needed, especially on early-stage or high-impact initiatives
- Partner closely with Product, Operations, Revenue, and Leadership to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions
- Drive prioritization and delivery in a fast-paced startup environment, balancing speed with long-term sustainability
- Own vendor relationships and engineering budget, making strategic decisions about tooling, infrastructure, and third-party services to maximize ROI
- Lead continued adoption of AI-augmented development workflows (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) and have experience deploying LLM-based features or subagent orchestration systems in production environments
- Participate actively in code reviews and architecture decisions to maintain technical quality and provide informed technical guidance to the team
- Make pragmatic build vs. buy decisions to move fast while maximizing impact with limited resources
Our take
Excess inventory is one of the biggest pain points for modern retailers. Ghost solves this problem by making it easier for retailers to buy and sell excess inventory discreetly and sustainably.
With retailers wasting around $500 billion a year on excess inventory, demand for solutions like Ghost's is sky-high. The company has also made good on this demand, emerging from stealth mode in 2022 and about $66 million in funding to date. Ghost, which functions in much the same way as eBay, has benefited hugely from its founder's prior experience in the apparel industry.
Ghost's clear focus on sustainability and discretion has broad market appeal, especially for large-scale retailers looking to reduce waste and improve their public image. If Ghost can continue to attract such clients, it could scale at an impressive pace in the coming years.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Oct 2024
$40m
SERIES C
Jul 2023
$30m
SERIES B
Total funding: $88m
Company HQ
Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership
Josh Kaplan
(Co-Founder & Co-CEO)Previously worked as Senior Director of UEG Ventures, and was VP of Digital at Buck Mason.
Dee Murthy
(Co-Founder)They are also the Co-Founder of Young & Reckless and Five Four Group.
Salary benchmarks
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