Director of Engineering (AI)

TL;DR

Director of Engineering (AI): Translate customer demand into product execution for an AI recruiting operating system, with an accent on customer-facing technical discovery, PoC/architecture success criteria, and disciplined engineering execution. Focus on building repeatable delivery rhythms, leading federal and commercial demos, and supporting SBIR/procurement requirements while hiring and mentoring engineering teams.

Location: Northern VA / DMV area preferred; open to candidates willing to relocate.

Salary: $160,000–$220,000 (based on experience, location, and scope of responsibility).

Company

hirify.global builds an AI recruiting operating system that unifies talent workflows and orchestrates AI agents for sourcing, outreach, screening, and candidate intelligence.

What you will do

• Lead customer-facing technical demos for federal and commercial stakeholders, explaining ARBI capabilities, architecture, workflows, integrations, AI evaluation methods, and deployment options.
• Run technical discovery and convert customer requirements into engineering tasks, owners, timelines, sprint goals, and deliverables.
• Define customer customization processes for pilots, proofs of concept, enterprise rollouts, and federal deployments; document integrations, API needs, data requirements, security requirements, and configuration needs.
• Build and manage the engineering operating model (sprint planning, delivery milestones, reviews, accountability) to improve visibility into priorities, blockers, delivery risk, and technical debt.
• Support SBIR Phase III and federal procurement by collecting technical and security/compliance requirements early and ensuring proposals/SOWs are feasible and well-scoped.
• Hire, mentor, and onboard engineering talent across backend, frontend, AI/ML, integration, and DevOps; create onboarding materials, technical standards, and code review expectations.

Requirements

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including meaningful experience leading engineering teams, technical programs, customer implementations, or product delivery.
• Strong foundation in modern SaaS architecture, APIs, integrations, cloud deployments, data workflows, and production software delivery.
• Proven ability to lead engineering execution through sprint planning, roadmap decomposition, task ownership, delivery tracking, technical reviews, and release discipline.
• Ability to operate as a senior customer-facing technical leader with executive presence and strong communication skills.
• Experience with AI/ML, GenAI, LLMs, RAG, workflow automation, analytics, or enterprise AI applications.
• Located in the Northern VA / DMV area or willing to relocate.

Culture & Benefits

• Senior leadership role with direct impact on product, customers, engineering culture, and company growth.
• Competitive base salary plus meaningful early-stage equity and performance-based upside.
• High-ownership startup environment with direct access to founders, customers, strategic partners, and investors.
• Expected travel for customer demos, workshops, federal events, commercial sales cycles, and investor/analyst briefings.