VP of Engineering

First Resonance • Los Angeles, CA

109d

About The Position

First Resonance builds the ION Factory OS, the operating system powering next-generation manufacturing for companies building eVTOLs, rockets, satellites, clean energy systems, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. Our customers are tackling society’s greatest challenges—climate change, space exploration, and the future of transportation. We are looking for a Vice President of Engineering to lead our engineering organization through the next stage of growth, as we scale ION to hundreds of factories globally and deliver mission-critical software with the highest standards of reliability, security, and performance.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 5+ years leading at the Director or VP level.
• Proven success scaling cloud-native SaaS platforms with Kubernetes, AWS (GovCloud preferred), and event-driven systems.
• Experience building and shipping AI/ML or LLM-driven workflows into production.
• Hands-on experience with full-stack development (Python, Go, React/Next.js).
• Strong expertise in system architecture, distributed systems, and event-driven design.
• Demonstrated success running enterprise-grade security & compliance programs (SOC2, FedRAMP, ITAR, etc.).
• Track record of designing and scaling distributed engineering organizations with measurable outcomes.
• Exceptional communication skills with executives, cross-functional leaders, and customers.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in manufacturing, aerospace/defense, robotics, or industrial SaaS.
• Success in a Series B/C scale-up environment preparing for rapid growth and fundraising milestones.
• Familiarity with developer productivity, observability, and reliability tooling (e.g., Datadog, Sentry, GitLab, Cloudflare).

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical vision, architecture, and long-term strategy for ION.
• Lead the adoption and evolution of cloud-native architecture: AWS GovCloud, Kubernetes, Postgres/Aurora, event-driven messaging systems (Kafka, Kinesis, RabbitMQ, etc.).
• Guide full-stack development using Python, Go, React/Next.js, and modern DevOps practices.
• Deliver production-ready LLM/AI workflows (OpenAI SDK, Anthropic/Claude, etc.), enabling intelligence and automation in manufacturing operations.
• Ensure solutions are scalable, reliable, secure, and cost-optimized.
• Oversee enterprise-grade security and compliance programs to support aerospace, defense, and regulated industries.
• Build, lead, and scale a high-performing engineering organization across Los Angeles, Mexico, and Argentina.
• Establish clear career ladders, OKRs, and succession planning to develop engineering talent.
• Recruit, retain, and coach top engineering talent while fostering a culture of urgency, accountability, and innovation.
• Integrate nearshore/offshore augmentation models without compromising quality.
• Partner with Product to shape and deliver the roadmap, balancing rapid delivery with long-term scalability.
• Collaborate with Sales, Finance, and GTM teams to support customer needs, technical evaluations, and enterprise deals.
• Act as a credible, customer-facing technical leader—translating complex engineering decisions into clear business impact.

Benefits

• Health Insurance; medical, vision, dental, & life insurance.
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Employee Stock Option Plan.
• Team outings, group lunches, open office, happy hours.
• Paid holidays, sick days.
• Flexible Friday and PTO.
• 401K.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees