Head of Engineering

Zania, Palo Alto, CA

What you will do

Own all engineering output: product quality, velocity, reliability, and security.
Build the engineering team from current size to 15–20 in 12 months. Personally involved in every hire.

What you need

What we're looking for — non-negotiables

Builder first, manager second. This person was (or could be) the strongest engineer on any team they've been part of. They chose management not because they plateaued technically, but because they were a founder or realized leadership was the highest-leverage way to multiply themselves. They can read a PR, spot an architectural mistake, and rewrite it themselves if needed.
Founder DNA. Prior experience as a technical founder or very early engineering leader (employee #1–10) at a startup that shipped real product under real constraints. They know what it means to make decisions with incomplete information, cut scope ruthlessly, and hold a team accountable to weekly ship cycles — not quarterly roadmaps.
Proven ability to scale a team from small to 20+. They've hired 10–20 engineers in a compressed timeline without lowering the bar. They have a system for how to source, close, and onboard fast. Ideally they have a personal network of strong engineers in the Bay Area they'd bring with them or recruit from.
AI-native mindset. Not "interested in AI" — actively building with LLMs, agents, tool-use, and orchestration frameworks today. They understand prompt engineering, evaluation, context window management, and the difference between demo-ware and production-grade AI systems. Experience with agentic architectures is strongly preferred.
Shipping velocity as a core value. They measure engineering health by what's in production, not what's in Jira. They set aggressive timelines and hold the team to them. They know how to unblock engineers, kill unnecessary process, and create a culture where deploying daily is normal.
Deep, not wide. We do not want a "mezzanine" leader — someone who operates through layers, delegates everything, and speaks in frameworks. This person goes deep on specific systems, debugs production issues at 2am, and explains architecture tradeoffs to a customer on a sales call.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
8+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a technical leadership or founding engineering role at a product-led company
Demonstrated experience scaling an engineering team from small to 20+ engineers, with a proven ability to hire, develop, and retain senior technical talent
Deep, hands-on experience shipping AI/ML or agentic systems to production at enterprise scale
Strong written and verbal communication skills — you will partner directly with the CEO and represent engineering in customer-facing technical conversations

Comp

Significant equity + competitive cash – structured to attract a builder, not a caretaker. Reports directly to CEO.

Head of Engineering

What you will do

Head of Engineering

What you will do

What you need

What we're looking for — non-negotiables

Minimum Qualifications

Signals we look for

How to apply

About Zania

Similar jobs at other companies

Founding Product Engineer

AI Engineer, Agent Infrastructure

Software Engineer

Full Stack Engineer

VP of Engineering

Founding Engineer

Interview questions

Zania

Compared with similar jobs