Job Title: Vice President of Engineering
Location: Fairfield, CT - Hybrid (Minimum 3 days/week onsite | Within 3-hour drive of HQ – 1st month of work must be onsite)
Industry: SaaS / B2B Data Products
Experience Level: Senior Leadership (VP)
Base Salary: $200,000 + bonus
Benefits: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) with company match; generous PTO; hybrid work flexibility and more!
About the Company: Our client is a well-established SaaS company with over 20 years in the market, operating with the agility and innovation of a startup. As they scale, they’re seeking a Vice President of Engineering to lead their talented engineering team, drive operational excellence, and shape the future of their data-driven B2B SaaS products.
The Opportunity
This is a pivotal role to take ownership (you will be the CTO’s right hand) of the engineering organization, modernize processes, and build a scalable, high-performing team. You’ll work closely with key customers, align engineering with business goals, and drive innovation in our data-centric products.
- The ideal candidate is a mid-career professional with B2B SaaS experience, coming from a larger corporation and brings experience in scaling at the growth stage**
What You’ll Do
- Partner with the current engineering lead / CTO to absorb institutional knowledge, build trust, and take full ownership of the engineering organization.
- Lead and scale a hybrid engineering team, including offshore resources (e.g., front-end development in Ukraine), fostering a collaborative, learning-focused culture.
- Assess and modernize workflows, transitioning from legacy Waterfall potentially to Agile methodologies (daily standups, JIRA hygiene, sprint planning).
- Oversee the development and operation of highly reliable SaaS/DaaS platforms, ensuring uptime and performance for customers paying millions annually.
- Drive a data overhaul initiative, enhancing how they collect, process, and leverage live data for their products.
- Own engineering roadmaps, aligning with product goals and cross-functional teams (product, design, data science, and business stakeholders).
- Streamline a scattered tech stack, modernizing tools, infrastructure, and practices.
- Make daily product and technical decisions, balancing engineering, business, and customer needs.
- Develop and execute a strategic plan to approach the role, focusing on scalability and operational efficiency.
Tech Environment:
- Back End: Python (including AI tooling)
- Front End: React (new product, offshore-led)
- DevOps: Disorganized, needs overhaul, currently streamlining after a great Infrastructure hire
- Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure
- Search Technology: Lucene, Solr, or Elasticsearch
- Message Queuing: RabbitMQ
- Web/API Technology: .NET for reliable API-first architectures
- Practices: Potentially transitioning from Waterfall to Agile
- Other: API integrations, data scraping, speech-to-text (Whisper – nice to have)
- Data Focus: Experience with data products, data mining, social monitoring, or data resellers highly desirable
Ideal Candidate:
- Proven experience leading and scaling development teams in a B2B SaaS or DaaS environment, ideally in high-growth, Series A-to-B-stage companies.
- Strong understanding of cost dynamics for software and infrastructure systems.
- Experience building and operating highly reliable SaaS/DaaS platforms, with a focus on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure).
- Expertise in search technologies (Lucene, Solr, or Elasticsearch) and message queuing systems (RabbitMQ).
- Proficiency in delivering reliable web/API technologies, particularly with .NET.
- Strong communication skills, with experience collaborating with engineering, business, and high-value customers paying millions annually.
- Adept at managing distributed and offshore teams, with a track record of implementing modern engineering practices in messy or legacy environments.
- Comfortable navigating complex personalities with empathy and assertiveness.
- Strong organizational and project management skills, with JIRA fluency and Agile/Waterfall experience.
- Mid-career professional with product development experience and a preference for candidates from larger environments with ideas for scaling.
Nice to Have:
- Background in speech-to-text or NLP technologies.
- Experience with data scraping, processing unstructured data, or live data systems.
- Exposure to marketing intelligence, social data mining, or similar domains.
#ZR