Vice President of Engineering

The Opportunity: Delivering Growth through Innovation

NaviStone is on a mission to revolutionize growth for B2C marketers. In the considered-purchase vertical, our platform empowers brands to find, activate, and convert high-value audiences with precision.

We are currently at a pivotal inflection point. After successfully establishing our market presence through a services-first approach, we are evolving into a programmatic, API-driven, self-service platform. We are seeking a strategic Vice President of Engineering to lead this technical evolution, professionalize our engineering culture, and scale a talented, decentralized team into a high-output, autonomous organization.

The Challenge

As the VP of Engineering, you will be the architect of our execution engine. Your goal is to instill disciplined operating practices and deliver extreme predictability in outcomes. You will champion a reliability-first posture, ensuring that as we scale our programmatic capabilities, our systems remain robust, secure, and performant.

What You'll Do

Engineering Leadership

• Lead and mentor managers across Application Development, Platform/Data Engineering, and IT/Operations, building a cohesive, high‑ownership engineering culture.
• Design and execute hiring plans that align with our platform transition and long-term growth trajectory.
  
  
  

Platform Modernization

• Own the transition to a programmatic, API-first architecture and ensure scalable, secure systems that support rapid iteration.
• Oversee a multi-tenant cloud environment and Kubernetes clusters, prioritizing resilience and cost-aware scalability.
  
  
  

Operational Excellence

• Reliability-First Delivery: Own the engineering roadmap; ensure plans are realistic, risks are transparent, and outcomes are repeatable.
• Infrastructure & DevOps: Strengthen SDLC practices, including automated testing, release discipline, and the strategic migration of CI/CD pipelines to GitHub.
• Incident Management: Rebuild "Keep the Lights On" (KTLO) workflows to move from reactive firefighting to disciplined, proactive operations with clear observability standards.
  
  
  

Data & AI Strategy

• Oversee the Data Engineering roadmap to ensure data quality and operational reliability for our core audience products.
• Drive the pragmatic integration of AI-enabled workflows where they measurably improve product capability or engineering velocity.
  
  
  

Strategic Partnership

• Partner with the Head of Product and the Chief of Staff to translate and deliver the portfolio roadmap into reliable, transparent, and data-driven engineering delivery.
  
  
  

What You Will Need To Succeed

• Proven Leadership: 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years managing other managers in a high-growth startup environment.
• Scale Experience: Proven track record of scaling organizations and leading transitions from services to SaaS/API‑first models.
• Technical Depth: Architectural familiarity with C#, TypeScript, Python, and Go. Hands-on experience with GCP, AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, and Snowflake is highly preferred.
• Operational Rigor: A disciplined approach to incident management, observability, and release safety. You prioritize durable, scalable systems over "heroics."
• AdTech Savvy: Understanding of the complexities of data-driven marketing platforms, including multi-tenancy, data privacy, and high-volume processing.
• Executive Communication: The ability to communicate complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders with clarity and brevity.
  
  
  

Location: Cincinnati, OH in Over-the-Rhine; Hybrid role, in office 2 days per week

Why NaviStone?

We offer a culture that values both high performance and personal well-being.

• Growth-Focused: Countless professional development opportunities to fuel your ambitions.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Generous medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans.
• Work-Life Harmony: Unlimited vacation, generous paid holidays, and a culture that understands even "rocketships" need to recharge.