Director of Engineering, AI

Klaviyo, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Boston, MA

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• As Director of Engineering, AI at Klaviyo, you will lead the technical vision and execution of AI-powered capabilities across the company’s product surface, turning AI strategy into tangible, daily value for hundreds of thousands of customers by building scalable, production-grade AI systems that are safe, reliable, and deeply integrated into core workflows.
• You will own the AI engineering charter, defining the roadmap for LLM-powered and agentic systems, translating strategy into clear OKRs and milestones, and ensuring alignment with product, design, data science, and GTM teams to ship impactful AI-native experiences that move beyond demos to real customer outcomes.
• Day to day, you will design and evolve the AI platform architecture — including orchestration, tool/function calling, retrieval, memory, evaluation harnesses, observability, and safety guardrails — while partnering with engineering, product, and design teams to prioritize high-value use cases and break them into shippable iterations.
• You will establish rigorous success metrics and guardrails for AI systems (e.g., hallucination rates, latency, time-to-first-value, uplift over baselines), build monitoring and observability tooling, and drive continuous improvement in production to ensure safety, reliability, and measurability are non-negotiable.
• You will integrate AI systems deeply with Klaviyo’s data and platform stack, collaborating with Data Platform, Production Infrastructure, and product engineering teams to ensure secure, privacy-compliant, and efficient data access while respecting governance constraints.
• You will raise the bar on AI engineering craft by building shared patterns, libraries, and best practices for prompt design, chain execution, human-in-the-loop review, and evaluation, championing rigorous experimentation, A/B testing, and fast feedback loops that other teams can reuse.
• You will lead high-performing engineering teams (ICs and managers), hiring, developing, and retaining diverse talent, setting clear expectations, coaching for impact, and fostering a culture of urgency, accountability, and psychological safety where people do their best work.
• You will partner across Klaviyo with GTM, Support, and Customer Success to safely roll out AI capabilities, enable the field, and close the loop between customer feedback, product decisions, and system improvements.
• You will own a clear scorecard for your area — tracking adoption, activation, uplift vs. baselines, quality/satisfaction, AI system reliability, and developer velocity — using it to drive prioritization and investment decisions.
• You will transform workflows by putting AI at the center, building smarter systems and ways of working from the ground up, and continuously experimenting with AI tools in engineering development cycles to keep Klaviyo ahead of the curve.
• You will work closely with Product, Design, ML, and Data Science to define what to build, ship it quickly and safely, and measure real impact in customer outcomes — not just model demos — ensuring AI delivers step-change improvements, not just incremental shortcuts.
• You will translate complex AI/ML and systems topics into clear narratives for non-technical partners, influence peers and executives, and drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Data, and GTM while modeling Klaviyo’s values of customer obsession, humility, and hunger.
• You will stay close to the work, dive deep when needed, and lead teams through ambiguity and change with clarity and calm, practicing AI-first ways of working by experimenting with agentic coding workflows and encouraging your team to use AI responsibly in daily development.
• You will leverage your 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading multiple teams and managers in high-growth SaaS, to build user-facing products that customers love — not just infrastructure for its own sake.
• You will draw on hands-on experience with LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, and agent frameworks — designing multi-step flows, tool calling, memory, evaluation, and safety guardrails — even if you’re not coding every day.
• You will apply deep systems and product thinking, reasoning from first principles about customer workflows and jobs-to-be-done to identify where AI can produce transformative value.
• You will operate as an outcome-oriented operator, defining clear success metrics, holding teams accountable, saying “no” to low-impact work, narrowing scope, and iterating fast.
• You will build and nurture inclusive, high-performing engineering teams, hiring diverse talent, growing new leaders, and creating environments where people feel respected and empowered to do their best work.
• You will adapt and remain resilient, staying close to the work, leading through ambiguity, and maintaining clarity and calm during change.
• You will be excited to explore new AI tools and workflows, finding ways to make your own work smarter and more efficient through responsible experimentation.

🎯 Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading multiple teams and managers building user-facing products in high-growth SaaS or similar environments.
• Hands-on experience leading teams building with LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, or agent frameworks — including designing multi-step flows, tool calling, memory, evaluation, and safety guardrails.
• Proven ability to define clear success metrics, hold teams accountable to outcomes, and drive prioritization based on impact — not just technical feasibility.
• Demonstrated track record of hiring, developing, and retaining diverse, high-performing engineering teams and fostering cultures of psychological safety, accountability, and inclusion.
• Exceptional collaborator and communicator who can translate complex AI/ML and systems topics into clear narratives for non-technical partners and drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Data, and GTM.
• Adaptable and resilient leader who stays close to the work, leads through ambiguity with clarity and calm, and practices AI-first ways of working (e.g., experimenting with agentic coding workflows).

🏖️ Benefits

• Competitive base salary range of $244,000–$366,000 USD, reflecting cost of labor across U.S. geographic markets.
• Participation in the company’s annual cash bonus plan and potential equity compensation as part of total rewards.
• Comprehensive health, welfare, and wellbeing benefits based on eligibility, including medical, dental, vision, and mental health support.
• Access to Klaviyo’s commitment to equal opportunity and non-discrimination, with accommodations provided as needed for AI fluency and responsible use.
• Opportunity to work in a mission-driven environment where AI is used responsibly — with attention to privacy, security, bias awareness, and human-in-the-loop principles.
• Support for professional growth through access to learning resources, experimentation with AI tools, and a culture that encourages responsible innovation and continuous learning.

Skills & Technologies

Onsite

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Klaviyo, Inc.

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About Klaviyo, Inc.

Klaviyo is a cloud-based marketing automation platform that aggregates customer data from e-commerce stores, email, SMS, and ads to build unified profiles. Marketers use its segmentation, predictive analytics, and omnichannel campaigns to personalize messages, trigger flows, and measure revenue attribution. Designed for online retailers, it integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and major payment gateways, offering real-time dashboards and GDPR-compliant tools to grow repeat sales and customer lifetime value.

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