VP of Engineering

Codal • Chicago, IL

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Codal is an award-winning digital consultancy that helps enterprise organizations solve complex problems and accelerate growth through elegant, data-driven digital solutions. Our areas of expertise include application modernization, ecommerce, UX/UI design, product strategy, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. We are the premium development partner for global brands across life sciences, manufacturing, B2B platforms and ecommerce. At Codal you will collaborate with some of the most innovative organizations in the world and work on technologies that push the boundaries of design and software development. You will also be part of a community that promotes long-term success, not just for our clients but for each other.

Requirements

• 15+ years in software engineering
• 5+ years in a senior leadership role (VP, SVP or Head of Engineering) inside a digital consultancy, systems integrator or professional services firm.
• Proven track record running engineering organizations of 100+ people across multiple geographies, including offshore or nearshore hubs.
• Comfortable leading Engineering Directors and Leads, not just individual contributors, and growing the leaders beneath you.
• Able to design and defend complex, multi-cloud architectures for Fortune 500 clients and turn that work into firm-wide standards.
• Strong track record in pre-sales: scoping, estimating, executive selling, and closing complex enterprise engagements.
• Ability to read a P&L and understand utilization, gross margin, and rate cards.
• Deep historical expertise in Node.js, Python and React.
• Modern ability to lead teams through migrations to Go, Rust, and AI-integrated stacks.
• Expert-level knowledge of GCP, AWS and Azure, specifically around enterprise scalability, cost optimization, and data sovereignty.
• Real experience shipping production AI systems, including LLM orchestration, retrieval, evaluation and the operational realities of running AI in regulated industries.
• Expert in Agile and Scrum at scale, with a strong focus on clean code, automated testing and continuous delivery.
• Comfortable with Docker, Kubernetes and modern CI/CD.
• Exceptional written and spoken communication; able to translate complex technical roadmaps for boards, C-suites and skeptical buyers.
• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering or a related technical field.

Nice To Haves

• Background at a large, leading consulting firm is a strong signal.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior-most technical leader in the firm, overseeing a global engineering organization of 200+ professionals across the US, UK and India.
• Industrialize Codal's technical delivery, establish AI engineering standards, and turn engineering into a clear commercial advantage.
• Act as the technical voice in client discussions with Fortune 500 CIOs and CTOs, and the operating leader for delivery teams.
• Operationalize executive goals into technical reality with a focus on a standardized AI engineering toolkit and the expansion of our global delivery model.
• Set the multi-year engineering roadmap in partnership with the CEO, Product leadership and Sales.
• Own engineering capacity, billable utilization, gross margin, and quality across all hubs.
• Partner with Sales and the CEO on large, complex deals, acting as the technical executive sponsor on $2M+ pursuits.
• Lead architecture and feasibility conversations directly with client executives.
• Govern the pre-sales scoping process to ensure accuracy in estimates, staffing, and delivery models.
• Translate complex technical roadmaps into commercial language for non-technical stakeholders.
• Act as the executive sponsor for cloud and data partnerships and own technical relationships with strategic platforms.
• Define how Codal builds with AI at the enterprise level, including LLM orchestration, retrieval architectures, evaluation, guardrails, agent frameworks, and build vs. buy decisions.
• Establish a standardized AI engineering toolkit for modern, AI-native solutions.
• Stay informed on emerging methodologies and decide where Codal places its bets.
• Refine the interaction model between US-based architects and global engineering hubs for clean handoffs and follow-the-sun delivery.
• Build structures, career ladders, and rituals for Engineering Directors and Leads to thrive at scale.
• Manage Managers, directly leading a tier of Engineering Directors and Leads, and growing the next layer of technical leadership.
• Own engineering hiring strategy in partnership with Talent.
• Define and implement the Codal Standard for security, scalability, performance, and accessibility.
• Implement DORA metrics, SLOs, and automated DevSecOps pipelines.
• Own technical risk across the portfolio, including red-teaming and early intervention.
• Lead post-mortems and engineering reviews with rigor.
• Proactively identify emerging technologies and methodologies for new Codal capabilities.
• Sponsor internal R&D investments, hack weeks, and POCs.
• Represent Codal externally at conferences, partner events, and through publications.
• Contribute to the company's patent and IP strategy.
• Mentor and grow a tier of Engineering Directors and Leads, building professional roadmaps for retention.
• Set the engineering culture across three geographies: high-trust, technically excellent, commercially aware, and free of theater.
• Act as the engineer's engineer, respected technically and personally.

Benefits

• Health benefits
• 401(k)
• Executive performance bonus tied to engineering margin, growth and delivery quality (eligible after the first year)
• Long-term incentive participation
• Standard Codal executive perks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive