Scope

VP of AI Engineering owns the build: evaluation, deployment, reliability, and the engineers who do that work. Product direction and the board narrative sit elsewhere. This role is accountable for what actually runs.

Required experience

Has led engineers who shipped machine-learning systems, not only application teams that called an API. Has owned on-call, quality, and a platform other teams could use without a researcher in the room.

Interview focus

Ask about a production incident, the evaluation they trusted, and how a product team shipped without waiting on the research group.

Sample job description

Lead AI engineering under the CTO. Set the standards for how models are tested, shipped, and watched. Hire the staff who keep those systems running. Make the path from experiment to production short enough that product teams use it.