Director of Engineering

Building and scaling an engineering organization that delivers AI solutions for major Japanese companies.

The role combines engineering leadership, business strategy, customer delivery, and organizational growth.

You will lead engineering teams, build the organization, set technical standards, and ensure AI projects successfully move from PoC to production.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and scale the engineering organization.
• Hire, develop, and retain senior engineers and engineering leaders.
• Set the engineering strategy, structure, and priorities.
• Oversee multiple AI projects and ensure successful delivery.
• Work closely with customers, business leaders, and senior executives.
• Drive AI projects from concept and PoC through production.
• Set standards for engineering quality, security, reliability, and scalability.
• Build processes and best practices that can be reused across projects.
• Develop future engineering leaders and create a strong engineering culture.
• Work with Product, Research, Security, and global teams.
• Turn customer feedback into improvements in products and business strategy.

Requiements

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering, technical delivery, or product development.
• 2+ years in an Engineering Manager, Director, or similar leadership role.
• Experience leading large or complex technical projects.
• Strong experience building and managing engineering teams.
• Experience hiring, developing, and managing senior technical talent.
• Strong understanding of production systems, security, reliability, and scalability.
• Ability to work closely with customers and senior business leaders.
• Strong strategic thinking and decision-making skills.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-growing and changing environment.
• Business-level Japanese or higher.

Preferred

• Enterprise AI / Generative AI / LLM experience.
• Experience with major enterprise customers.
• Experience with RAG, AI agents, or LLM applications.
• Cloud and/or on-premise experience.
• Experience working with international teams.
• Business-level English.

Ideal Candidate

Someone who can operate at three levels:

• Strategy: Define the engineering vision and help shape business growth.
• Organization: Build teams, leaders, culture, and hiring processes.
• Technology: Understand technical challenges and make high-quality decisions when needed.

Location & Compensation

Tokyo — Minato-ku

• Hybrid working.
• Customer visits and domestic travel may be required.
• Possible international travel, including San Francisco.