Director of Engineering, AI

About Dash0 Join Dash0 and help us define the future of observability. We are OpenTelemetry-native, building a delightful, simple, and AI-centric platform that eliminates vendor lock-in and meaningless toil. Shape a product that developers love—all with transparent pricing and cost-control built in. Dash0’s AI product, Agent0, is not a chatbot or a feature add-on, it is the core of where we are heading. As AI writes more code, software reaches production faster and at greater scale, often with less human understanding of what’s actually running. Agent0 is Dash0’s answer: an agentic product that uses OpenTelemetry telemetry data to help engineering teams understand, diagnose, and continuously improve their production systems. We are looking for a Director of Engineering to own and lead Agent0. This is a rare combination of visionary and doer, someone who will lead a growing team, partner closely with Product and the VP Engineering, and personally set the bar for what production-grade AI engineering looks like. You will be responsible for building and shipping Agent0, not enabling AI across the company. If you are the kind of engineer-turned-leader who still builds proofs of concept, who follows foundation model releases the way others follow sports scores, and who understands the difference between an internal AI demo and a product customers rely on for their mission-critical work — this role was written for you. What You’ll Do Own the Agent0 Roadmap and Product Partnership. Co-own the roadmap with Product and drive execution against it with discipline and consistency. Act as a peer to Product, bringing strong technical and user-centric instincts to prioritization, and make sure what we build is grounded in what customers actually need. Drive Delivery and Focus. Pick the right bets and ship them. Keep the team ruthlessly focused on customer value and away from the many interesting-but-not-now directions the AI landscape constantly offers. Build and Scale the Team. Hire, mentor, and grow a team of senior AI and ML engineers. Leverage strong individual contributors and, as we grow, manage managers too. Raise the Quality Bar. Set the standard for production-grade AI, including evaluation pipelines, context management, testing strategies, and engineering discipline applied with the same rigor as any other system. Stay on the Bleeding Edge. Be Dash0's antenna for what is happening in AI every day and turn that knowledge into concrete product decisions and prototypes, not just Slack messages. Prototype and Inspire. Go from idea to a working proof of concept yourself. Bring the team along on the journey and earn credibility with senior ICs by showing, not just telling. Champion AI Production Excellence and Thought Leadership. As Dash0 is its own customer and power user, set the internal standards for AI production excellence. This role includes thought leadership on how production systems should be operated with the help of AI. What You Bring A proven track record building agentic AI products in production — you understand the profound difference between an internal chatbot and a productized agent that customers depend on for mission-critical work. Deep hands-on knowledge of agentic architectures: context management, tool use, eval frameworks, retrieval-augmented generation, and multi-step reasoning pipelines. A rigorous, systematic approach to AI quality: evals, regression checks, human-in-the-loop review, and production monitoring. Experience managing engineering teams of 15+ people, including managing managers, and building teams from the hiring bar through performance development. Strong cross-functional communication skills — you can align engineers, product managers, and executives around a shared direction and act as a true peer to Product. The discipline to focus: genuine curiosity about where AI is heading, combined with the judgment to pick one direction and finish it. Nice to Have Experience with observability, distributed tracing, APM, or the OpenTelemetry ecosystem. A background as a hands-on ML or AI engineer before moving into engineering leadership. Familiarity with data pipelines and the role of data quality in delivering high-quality AI experiences. Experience in a high-growth, venture-backed startup environment. Why Dash0 This is a unique opportunity to help build a generational company. Dash0 is backed by top-tier investors including Balderton Capital, Accel and Cherry Ventures and led by a founding team with decades of experience in observability. We're in the middle of a massive growth phase after our Series B — and we're just getting started. If you're looking for a place where a great product meets great people, where momentum is real and your impact is visible from day one — this is it. What we offer: Competitive salary & meaningful equity participation — you'll own part of what you're building Flexible, remote-first work environment with offices in New York, Amsterdam, and Munich €60/month phone & internet allowance Location-specific benefits Collaborative, fast-moving team culture with a builder mindset Clear path for career growth and development Direct access to founders and leadership