VP of Engineering at Confidential AI Industrial Platform Company

My client is an early-stage AI and automation company building an end-to-end industrial platform for heavy industries including manufacturing, energy, and logistics. They are looking for a hands-on VP of Engineering to serve as the technical leader of the company, effectively acting as CTO.

What You Will Do

• Owning end-to-end platform architecture from edge connectivity (sensors, cameras, PLCs) through cloud orchestration, data ingestion, and enterprise system integrations
• Leading technical strategy and key architecture decisions for a mission-critical industrial platform supporting real-time sensor fusion, anomaly detection, and operational planning
• Staying hands-on in the codebase regularly, implementing and refactoring core components, debugging production issues, and pairing with engineers across Python and TypeScript
• Guiding product direction alongside the founders, translating factory-floor realities into a clear technical roadmap from prototype through production
• Building, mentoring, and leading a small, high-performing engineering team in a flat, accountable organization
• Representing the company's technical vision externally through customer demos, investor presentations, and industry events

What You Bring (Must-Haves)

• 8+ years of experience in senior engineering leadership roles (VP of Engineering, CTO, Head of Engineering)
• Engineering leadership experience in heavy industry (manufacturing, defense, energy) or at a company providing products and services to heavy industry (e.g., industrial integrators, automation providers, OEMs)
• Experience building products from zero to one in a startup or early-stage environment, whether as a founder, co-founder, or early technical leader at a VC-backed company
• Currently close to the code with recent, demonstrable hands-on technical involvement, able to articulate specific architectural decisions and engineering trade-offs you have personally owned in the past 12-24 months
• Currently owning technical architecture decisions for complex, distributed systems and guiding product direction, not engineering decisions alone

Bonus Points

• Experience building high-fidelity data platforms, simulation environments, or digital twin systems
• Extensive experience with IoT, edge computing, and sensor-driven systems
• Background in autonomous systems, robotics, or computer vision applied to industrial environments
• Located in Texas (Austin or Dallas preferred), though this role is fully remote

Why Join

• Shape the technical foundation of an industrial AI platform from the ground up, with 3-4% equity and a direct path to significant compensation growth post-Series A (expected within 12 months)
• Work alongside an elite, deeply technical team with backgrounds spanning industrial robotics, autonomous driving, and applied AI research
• Full technical ownership with zero bureaucracy: you make the architecture decisions that define how this platform works at scale
• Solve real problems in the physical world, connecting industrial sensors and operational data to AI systems that improve maintenance, quality, and operations for major enterprises

Logistics

• Location: Remote, with preference for candidates in Texas
• Interview process: 2-3 rounds including culture fit, technical situational assessment, and possible follow-up