Director of Engineering - Data and AI/ML Platforms

We’re seeking a Director of  Engineering to own the engineering for AI/ML and Core data platforms for VTS products. This role will drive new AI initiatives to increase data quality and usage around our most critical datasets. You’ll also be responsible for simplifying how data comes into VTS. You’ll be leading a motivated, results-oriented team through the next phase of our business while driving efficient engineering processes and coaching team members.

** Please note that this opportunity is located in New York, NY, and requires this hire to work from our office four days a week. **

What Makes This Job Awesome?

• Lead delivery of a high-impact, technically complex product roadmap in close partnership with product and business stakeholders.
• Provide thought leadership on the practical application of GenAI, LLMs, and emerging ML/NLP technologies to solve real-world product and engineering challenges.
• Define and uphold AI governance standards, ensuring fairness, transparency, privacy compliance, and responsible development practices.
• Translate advanced AI/ML concepts into actionable strategies that influence product direction and create business value.
• Provide leadership on a high-performing Data platform team
• Mentor manager(s) and staff-level engineers, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.
  Champion DevOps excellence through strong observability, reliability, and continuous improvement practices.
• Drive data literacy and scalable data management patterns across engineering.
• Evaluate, pilot, and scale emerging technologies—including AI agents, multimodal interfaces, and rapid prototyping environments—to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
• Develop and track product success and operational excellence metrics to inform decisions and drive outcomes.
  
  

What Makes You a Great Fit? To succeed in this role: 

• 5-7+ years of engineering management experience, including managing managers and mentoring high-performing, cross-functional teams.
• Proven track record of delivering impactful AI solutions that solve complex business challenges and create strategic value.
• Deep technical expertise in GenAI, LLMs, and modern AI/ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch), with hands-on experience integrating LLMs and designing prompt-based applications.
• Strong contributor to technical strategy and product direction—balancing innovation, ethical AI governance, and business alignment.
• Skilled at evaluating AI/ML trade-offs, mitigating risks, and aligning technical investments with customer needs and product goals.
• High degree of creativity and passion for responsible AI, with experience driving ethical standards and compliance in AI product development.
• Demonstrated ability to foster collaborative, inclusive team cultures that build and scale high-quality, AI-augmented products.
• Effective communicator and storyteller—able to distill complex AI/ML topics to align and influence stakeholders across product, sales, marketing, and customer success.
• Experienced in recruiting, developing, and promoting emerging talent, with a strong focus on coaching, mentorship, and technical growth.
• Thrive in dynamic, fast-paced startup environments, with strong strategic thinking, adaptability, and a bias toward action.

ABOUT OUR TEAM:

• The VTS Product-Engineering-Design-QA organization is about ~120 plus people
• We work in small, cross-functional teams that include product managers, product designers, engineers and QA
• We value continuous learning in our everyday work
• We deploy daily and rely heavily on automated testing, and CI, and feature flags
• We use agile development and lean startup principles and practices to deliver products
• Our stack: AWS, Spark, Airflow, Python,  Scala
• Learn more about us on our engineering blog

What VTS Values & How We Show It

• Strive for Excellence - We know your potential is unlimited. Take advantage of our executive coaches and our training and career development programs available to all employees! 
• Be Customer Obsessed - We’re employee obsessed too! VTS offers competitive compensation, comprehensive health benefits (including dental and vision), pre-tax commuter benefits, and a 401(k) plan. Not to mention the fun stuff - quarterly happy hours, wellness events, clubs, and team lunches! 
• Be Curious - Benefit from a culture that promotes new learning. VTS offers an education stipend to all employees! 
• Mo