VP, Platform Engineering

ACV•Toronto, ON

About The Position

ACV is a technology company that has revolutionized how dealers buy and sell cars online, transforming the automotive industry. ACV Auctions Inc. (ACV) has applied innovation and user-designed, data-driven applications and solutions to build the most trusted and efficient digital marketplace with data solutions for sourcing, selling, and managing used vehicles with transparency and comprehensive insights. ACV Auctions is seeking a highly strategic, experienced, and transformative Vice President of Platform Engineering. In this critical leadership role, you will be the driving force behind the platform’s evolution, responsible for crafting and executing a comprehensive, multi-year technology vision. The ideal candidate is a seasoned leader who thrives in a large, growing organization, with experience operating at the Senior Leadership level and managing a multi-layered global organization (Directors who manage Managers and Individual Contributors). They must also have expertise in seamlessly collaborating across all areas of the organization, including peer VPs, to align engineering initiatives with broader business objectives.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience, with proven tenure operating at the VP/Senior Leadership level in a large, global organization.
Experience managing multi-layered teams (managing Directors/Senior Managers).
Proven track record of architecting and executing an AI-first engineering strategy.
Demonstrated success in embedding AI/ML capabilities into core platform services, automating complex infrastructure operations, and championing the adoption of generative AI tools to exponentially accelerate developer velocity and overall engineering output.
Proven experience in successfully implementing frameworks to mature cloud management, cost controls, reliability, and security.
Deep understanding of modern infrastructure, cloud-native architectures, and related principles.
Forward-thinking perspective on Developer Experience, including the integration of AI tools and modern enablement strategies to accelerate engineering velocity.
Demonstrated collaborative savviness and emotional intelligence to effectively influence, negotiate, and drive consensus among peer VPs and senior executives.

Responsibilities

Lead our infrastructure, cloud operations, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy and teams to ensure scalable, fault tolerant, highly available systems.
Oversee the teams building and maintaining core foundational services, including our search services (built on Elasticsearch), identity management, and core frameworks.
Drive the strategy for comprehensive quality assurance, automated testing frameworks, and overall software quality standards.
Empower our product engineering teams by leading DevOps, optimizing CI/CD pipelines, integrating AI-driven developer tools, and championing overall developer enablement.
Own, author, and drive a multi-year technology roadmap for the platform that supports ACV’s scaling business needs.
Partner closely with the Executive Team, Senior Leadership and cross-functional leaders to ensure platform capabilities align with product roadmaps and company goals.
Lead, mentor, and scale a large organization of engineers, managing through your team (including Directors and Senior Engineering Managers) to foster a high-performance culture.
Introduce and enforce proven operational program frameworks to drive improvement of multiple engineering disciplines across the organization.
Take aggressive ownership of our cloud footprint, implementing strict cost management, forecasting, and optimization practices.
Define and enforce rigorous engineering standards.
Implement robust observability and monitoring solutions to ensure system health and rapid incident resolution.
Champion a security-first and reliability-first mindset, closing existing gaps and building resilient architectures.
Drive a culture of extreme ownership and accountability across the organization including at the IC level, ensuring teams take pride in and responsibility for the services they build and operate.
Perform additional duties as assigned.

Benefits

Company Sponsored (paid) Healthcare
Dental
Vision
Life/AD&D
Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
Comprehensive additional optional benefits such Critical Illness and Supplemental Life/AD&D
All insurance benefits go into effect on your date of hire
Generous Parental Leave Top-Up Pay
Vacation Programs
Employee Stock Purchase Program with additional opportunities to earn stock in the company
Retirement planning through the Company’s RRSP