Vice President, Engineering

Material • Los Angeles, CA

1d • $180,000 - $240,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The VP of Engineering is a senior leadership role responsible for the full engineering organization at Material, spanning software, data, AI/ML, solutions architecture, product, design, QA, and insights operations. Reporting to executive leadership, you will own the technical strategy, org design, delivery model, and engineering culture across a multi-cluster team operating across multiple time zones — including offshore engineering talent.
This is a hands-on leadership role. You will shape how we build, scale, and modernize our core platforms — from survey data collection and processing pipelines to AI-powered reporting tools and client-facing solutions — while simultaneously building the operational model that makes our engineering teams more effective at every level.

Requirements

• 8+ years of combined experience in Data, Software, and Product Development, with at least 4 years in senior engineering leadership
• Multi-cloud expertise across AWS, GCP, and Azure — with the ability to evaluate tradeoffs and select the right platform for each workload
• Infrastructure-as-Code proficiency with Terraform and/or AWS CDK
• Cross-functional team leadership across multiple time zones, including offshore engineering teams
• Business requirements translation — proven track record triaging with operations and engineering leaders, working in lockstep with product/project managers on prioritization and resourcing
• Advanced Snowflake experience including performance optimization, data sharing, and exposure to AI/ML services (Cortex, Snowpark)
• Broad engineering fluency across data engineering, software engineering, AI/ML, UI/UX, and QA — able to credibly engage with practitioners across all disciplines
• Legacy modernization leadership — experience assessing, sequencing, and communicating large-scale platform migrations to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice To Haves

• Lakehouse architecture experience with Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or equivalent open table formats
• Survey/research platform familiarity — Dimensions, Unicom Intelligence, or comparable platforms
• Identity resolution and data governance — deduplication, consent frameworks, and PII handling at scale
• AI agent development — experience architecting or overseeing agentic workflow systems
• Synthetic research or behavioral data pipelines in a research or insights context
• Fraud detection, statistical weighting, and automated testing integrated into data products
• AWS service depth — Step Functions, Lambda, EMR, ECS, Athena, Zero-ETL, S3-based lakehouse patterns
• Research, insights, or data-as-a-service business context experience
• Budget ownership — headcount planning, vendor negotiation, and CapEx/OpEx tradeoffs
• Hiring infrastructure — building assessments, job descriptions, and interview frameworks for mid-to-senior engineering roles
• Executive communication — comfortable presenting technical strategy to C-suite and board-level stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the technical architecture across data, software, AI/ML, and infrastructure layers — with particular emphasis on cloud-native and lakehouse patterns (medallion architecture, parallelism, datalake)
• Lead modernization efforts to retire and replace legacy applications and tech stacks with scalable, maintainable alternatives
• Maintain a forward-looking product and infrastructure roadmap, balancing innovation initiatives against operational reliability and delivery commitments
• Champion Infrastructure-as-Code practices (Terraform, AWS CDK) and platform engineering standards across all engineering clusters
• Lead and develop a cross-functional engineering organization structured around delivery clusters, including Technical Product Leads, senior engineers, and offshore pod teams
• Hire, develop, and retain top engineering talent; define role frameworks, competency ladders, and technical career paths
• Foster a high-accountability, delivery-focused engineering culture grounded in clear ownership, psychological safety, and continuous improvement
• Manage distributed teams across multiple timezones, ensuring effective communication, alignment, and productivity across offshore and onshore resources
• Partner with operations and business leadership to translate ambiguous business requirements into well-scoped engineering initiatives
• Work closely with product and project managers to maintain a prioritized, resourced backlog that balances client commitments, internal tooling, and strategic modernization
• Serve as the primary technical voice in executive discussions, providing clear signal on feasibility, tradeoffs, capacity, and risk
• Define and uphold integration contracts and delivery standards between engineering clusters and adjacent operational functions
• Own engineering delivery health: velocity, quality, incident response, and continuous improvement rituals across all teams
• Establish/Evolve standards across workflow management (Jira, Confluence), data orchestration, and QA
• Drive adoption of AI/ML capabilities across both internal tooling and client-facing product features
• Oversee vendor relationships, licensing decisions, and build-vs-buy evaluations for platform tooling and infrastructure services

Benefits

• Material is a global company and we work with best-of-class brands worldwide.
• We also create and launch new brands and products, putting innovation and value creation at the center of our practice.
• Our clients are in the top of their class, across industry sectors from technology to retail, transportation, finance and healthcare.
• Material employees join a peer group of exceptionally talented colleagues across the company, the country, and even the world.
• We develop capabilities, craft and leading-edge market offerings across seven global practices including strategy and insights, design, data & analytics, technology and tracking.
• Our engagement management team makes it all hum for clients.
• A community focused on learning and making an impact.
• Material is an outcomes focused company.
• We create experiences that matter, create new value and make a difference in our clients' lives and their customers' lives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed