Sr. Director, Engineering - Applied AI
Sr. Director, Engineering - Applied AI
Zapier
Zapier is hiring a Sr. Director of Engineering - Applied AI to lead the AI Orchestration engineering organization. In this hands-on leadership role, you will manage multiple engineering squads, set the vision for applied AI initiatives, and drive the end-to-end delivery of AI-powered features. You'll partner with the CPTO and Director of Product - AI to ship customer-facing ML/LLM capabilities, oversee pragmatic architecture decisions, and ensure responsible, scalable AI across Zapier's products.
Qualification
- Proven hands-on technical leader with experience directing AI/ML initiatives across multiple squads or an engineering org.
- Deep expertise in AI/ML systems, including training/tuning of models and integration into customer-facing products.
- Track record shipping user-facing ML/LLM features and delivering end-to-end AI-enabled product experiences.
- Strong ability to architect scalable, reliable AI platforms and pipelines with an eye toward practical tradeoffs.
- Excellent cross-functional collaboration and communication with senior leadership and partner teams (Product, Data, Infra, Security).
- Experience mentoring, hiring, and growing high-performing AI/engineering teams; inclusive leadership.
- Commitment to responsible AI practices, governance, privacy, and ethics in product delivery.
- Bachelor’s degree in CS or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; familiarity with AI frameworks and tooling.
Responsibility
- Lead and grow the AI Orchestration engineering organization, including multiple squads, with clear goals, career development, and performance management.
- Define and execute the roadmap for applied AI initiatives, prioritizing customer impact and business value.
- Architect and drive end-to-end AI systems, including data pipelines, model training/tuning, deployment, monitoring, and feedback loops.
- Deliver and ship user-facing ML and large language model features, integrating models into end-to-end product experiences.
- Partner with the CPTO and Director of Product - AI, plus cross-functional teams (data, infra, security) to align on strategy and execution.
- Establish and enforce engineering discipline for reliability, scalability, testing, security, and responsible AI practices.
- Mentor and develop senior engineers, recruit top AI talent, and build a high-performing, inclusive team culture.
- Manage budgets, headcount planning, and program-level risk while maintaining velocity and quality.
- Influence Zapier's AI strategy and customer impact through pragmatic tradeoffs and bold experimentation.
