Director, Application Engineering

Klaviyo • Boston, MA

96d • $248,000 - $372,000

About The Position

As the Director of AI & DevOps Engineering, you’ll lead a team of engineers focused on building and operating core internal platforms that support intelligent systems and developer velocity. You’ll define strategy, prioritize roadmap, and partner closely with teams across Klaviyo to operationalize AI tooling and modernize infrastructure. This role owns both the deployment and management of AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Glean) and the development of internal DevOps systems (CI/CD, automation, monitoring, infrastructure provisioning). You’ll deliver shared services that empower internal teams to work more efficiently and focus on solving high-value problems.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure, DevOps, platform engineering, or enterprise IT systems.
• At least 3+ years leading technical teams in high-growth or scaled organizations.
• Proven experience designing and operating CI/CD systems, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform or similar), and observability stacks.
• Familiarity with integrating AI services or LLM APIs into business systems (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Glean).
• Strong understanding of platform scalability, service reliability, and engineering lifecycle automation.
• Experience managing cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), container orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS), and developer platforms.
• Ability to drive cross-functional collaboration and communicate technical priorities to both engineering and non-technical stakeholders.
• A pragmatic and systems-thinking mindset—you look for patterns and build for scale.
• You’ve already experimented with AI in work or personal projects, and you’re excited to dive in and learn fast.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building internal developer platforms (IDPs) or platform-as-a-service environments.
• Understanding of secure LLM patterns: embeddings, vector DBs, prompt injection defense, etc.
• Familiarity with scripting languages (Python, TypeScript, Bash) and automation frameworks.
• Exposure to enterprise SaaS management (Trelica, ConductorOne), endpoint MDM (Jamf, Intune), and RBAC tooling (Okta, GWS).
• Knowledge of RAG pipelines, LangChain, or Weaviate for internal AI workflows.
• Past experience with cost optimization and performance tuning at the infrastructure layer.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering roadmap for internal AI platform services, DevOps automation, and infrastructure tooling.
• Build and scale developer tools such as CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration, GitHub integrations, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Partner with Engineering, Security, and Data teams to integrate LLMs and AI services in a safe, scalable way.
• Stand up and support AI services: vector search, internal plugins, prompt orchestration layers, and secure API routing.
• Enable teams across Klaviyo to integrate AI into workflows by supporting pilots, building SDKs, and maintaining internal knowledge bases.
• Drive systems automation for IT services—e.g., identity provisioning, SaaS lifecycle management, endpoint posture, and reporting.
• Mentor and grow a high-performing team of engineers with a focus on technical depth, quality delivery, and service ownership.
• Represent Global IT in technical steering conversations with R&D, Product Infrastructure, and SecOps.
• Transform workflows by putting AI at the center, building smarter systems and ways of working from the ground up.

Benefits

• Participation in the company’s annual cash bonus plan.
• Variable compensation (OTE) for sales and customer success roles.
• Equity and sign-on payments.
• Comprehensive range of health, welfare, and wellbeing benefits based on eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees