Vice President of Engineering, Nightfall AI

• This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who has grown up through engineering, not just managed it: we're looking for a builder who can still get into the weeds on hard technical problems while running the org
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field; Master's degree or Ph.D. preferred
• At least 8 years of experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a leadership role
• A track record of growing from a hands-on technical role into engineering leadership — we're looking for someone who built the org, not just inherited one
• Experience joining a B2B SaaS company at an early stage (e.g., a founding engineer or one of the first engineering hires) and growing with it through significant scale — ideally 5+ years at one company, moving from IC through senior leadership
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality software solutions on time and within budget
• Strong technical skills in software development, architecture, and design
• Experience managing and mentoring large engineering teams, including demonstrated experience building or closely partnering with an engineering team based in India — someone who knows how to make a Bay Area / Bangalore org function as one team, not two
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams and senior leaders
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills
• Startup experience strongly preferred; comfortable operating in a lean, fast-moving Series B environment
• Background in security, infrastructure, or data-intensive systems; direct security engineering experience (data protection, authentication, auditing, threat detection) is a strong plus
• Based in Bay Area, with a hybrid work rhythm

Desirable

• We're hiring a VP of Engineering to own our engineering organization end to end — architecture, delivery, and the day-to-day operating rhythm of a team split across the Bay Area and Bangalore
• Lead the engineering team in designing and delivering high-quality software solutions that meet business requirements
• Lead and scale a distributed engineering org spanning Palo Alto and Bangalore, building the systems and trust that make a cross-continent team operate as one
• Develop and implement engineering processes and standards to ensure consistency and quality across projects
• Collaborate with the CEO and other senior leaders to define and execute the company's technology strategy
• Manage and allocate resources to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to the engineering team, staying hands-on enough to review architecture decisions and unblock hard problems
• Build and maintain a strong engineering culture that fosters innovation and continuous improvement across both the US and India
• Stay current with emerging trends and technologies in software engineering and recommend new tools and methodologies to improve our development process
• Work closely with the Product team to define product roadmaps and ensure engineering resources are aligned with product priorities
• Champion secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices by ensuring the integration of security at every stage, from design to deployment
• Advocate for and ensure adherence to secure coding standards and design principles such as least privilege, defense in depth, and zero trust
• Ensure sensitive data is handled securely, leveraging encryption, tokenization, and data masking as appropriate
• Lead the engineering response during security incidents, ensuring timely containment, resolution, and communication to stakeholders
• Drive root cause analysis and implement lessons learned from incidents to prevent recurrence