Head of Engineering

Apartment List•Remote within the US,

6h•$255,000 - $350,000

About The Position

We need a seasoned engineering leader who is equal parts technical builder, people mentor, and strategic operator. You’ll own engineering vision and execution for our renter and partner platforms, lead a team of ~60 engineers, and work closely with Product, Design, Data, ML, and Marketing leaders. This is not a steward role our Engineering leaders are in the work, not above it. AI is collapsing competitive moats quarter by quarter, and we are rebuilding how we ship, what we ship, and the bar we hold ourselves to. As the engineering leader, you’ll elevate individual contributor growth, accelerate our adoption of AI across development workflows and product experiences, and build the systems and culture that allow engineering to be both fast and exceptional.

Requirements

8+ years leading engineering teams, including managing managers and scaling orgs of 40+ engineers in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
Strong technical foundation: modern web technologies, iOS & Android apps, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data-intensive applications.
AI-native track record: shipped AI-native products to production at consumer scale; drove measurable productivity gains from AI tooling — percent AI-assisted code, cycle time, defect rate — and can cite the numbers.
Performance management track record: you’ve raised the bar, made hard calls, and can talk about what changed afterward.
Marketplace or consumer product experience: built and scaled two-sided marketplaces or high-traffic consumer products where conversion, retention, and UX are critical.
People-first leadership: built cultures where ICs thrive, grow, and retain — and you know retention without a bar is just tenure.
Business-minded: connects engineering investment to business outcomes; makes smart tradeoffs between speed, quality, and scope.
Deep design partnership experience: you’ve worked closely with design leaders to ship products where the quality of micro-interactions, motion, and detail were treated as non-negotiable, not nice-to-have.

Responsibilities

Drive adoption of AI-powered development tools (AI-assisted coding, automated testing, code review, agentic systems) to multiply engineering velocity.
Partner with Product and ML to embed AI into core product experiences — search, matching, personalization, and pricing.
Foster a culture of experimentation; ensure frontier capabilities show up in shipped products, not slide decks.
Lead a clear engineering vision aligned to our product, personalization, and marketplace strategy.
Ensure architecture enables rapid iteration, scalability, and reliability at scale.
Partner with the executive team to set strategic priorities through the lens of engineering capability.
Set a clear performance bar. Run rigorous calibration. Act decisively on underperformance.
Develop engineering managers and identify future leaders early; invest in succession planning.
Own recruiting strategy to attract and retain top engineering talent.
Create systems and rituals that drive velocity, collaboration, and accountability.
Champion best practices: code quality, testing, CI/CD, observability, incident response, and architectural review.
Ship fast, fix fast, raise the bar every sprint. Foundations earn their seat by enabling speed, not by slowing it down.
Evolve our platform and infrastructure for scalable, reliable, performant experiences.
Build clear career ladders and invest deeply in coaching, mentorship, and skill development across all levels.
Sweats the details: you believe the gap between a good product and a great one lives in the transitions, the edge cases, and the moments most people skip. You protect that gap.
Serve as a strategic thought partner to Product, Design, Data, and ML leaders.
Bring technical feasibility and opportunity into every decision-making conversation.
Bring genuine appreciation for craft, interaction quality, and the details that create user delight. Partner with Design not just as a feasibility check, but as a co-owner of the experience.