VP of Engineering

Cobalt AI, LLC • San Francisco, CA

1d

About The Position

Cobalt AI uses automation to elevate physical safety and security in the workplace. Our platform, Cobalt Monitoring Intelligence, is a hybrid AI system, cloud-hosted with edge-deployed hardware, that provides human-verified, real-time monitoring of surveillance cameras, alarms, and robots across enterprise locations. We’re hiring a VP of Engineering to own the how: team structure, delivery, engineering culture, and operational excellence. You’ll drive execution and growth across backend, frontend, infrastructure, AI/ML and robotics teams. You’re equally comfortable in a production incident as you are presenting the roadmap to the executive team. You have strong convictions about using AI tooling to multiply engineering output, and you have hands-on experience running proofs of concepts and piloting tools with your teams.

Requirements

• 10+ years in software engineering, 5+ in senior leadership (Director/VP)
• Track record leading engineering teams at high-growth startups
• Experience building and scaling engineering organizations at high-growth startups
• Technical fluency across cloud infrastructure, backend/frontend, and data/ML pipelines
• Experience shipping AI/ML-powered products in production
• Strong point of view on using AI tooling to increase team velocity
• Understanding of security and compliance (SOC 2, GDPR)
• Ability to attract, develop, and retain top engineering talent

Responsibilities

• Own engineering execution across all product and platform teams, ensuring on-time delivery of high-quality software
• Translate the technical vision into executable plans with clear milestones, deadlines, and delivery expectations, reporting progress and risks back to leadership
• Establish and evolve engineering processes — sprint cadences, code review standards, CI/CD pipelines, incident response — that keep the team sharp and efficient
• Drive a culture of ownership, accountability, and pragmatic quality
• Organize the team around workflows that maximize leverage from AI development tools (code generation, automated review, AI-driven testing)
• Evaluate, adopt, and set standards for emerging AI tooling across the engineering org
• Recruit, hire, and retain strong engineers across all levels and disciplines
• Build and mentor engineering managers and tech leads
• Own performance management, career development, and compensation planning
• Collaborate with Product, Design, Customer Success, and Sales Engineering to align priorities with business goals
• Represent engineering in customer conversations, especially enterprise pilots and technical due diligence
• Champion reliability, security, and observability across our hybrid cloud and edge infrastructure
• Drive AI/ML investment — computer vision, LLM-powered workflows — that differentiates Cobalt’s platform

Benefits

• Competitive salary, equity, and full benefits (medical, vision, dental).
• Flexible work arrangements.
• A proven platform, an expanding customer base, and the opportunity to shape the engineering org at an inflection point.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed