Director of Product Engineering

📋 Description

• • Are you a visionary engineering leader with a passion for building cutting-edge AI products and empowering developers? Twelve Labs is seeking a Director of Product Engineering to spearhead our innovative agentic platform and the developer experience surrounding it. This pivotal role offers the unique opportunity to shape the future of video-native agents, from the core platform capabilities to the flagship end-user applications that showcase its power. You will be instrumental in defining and executing the technical strategy, building and nurturing high-performing engineering teams, and ensuring the delivery of exceptional products that delight both developers and end-users.
• • At Twelve Labs, we are at the forefront of AI, enabling developers to build sophisticated, video-native agents. As the Director of Product Engineering, you will own the entire product journey, encompassing the development of our robust agent platform and the creation of intuitive APIs, SDKs, and tooling that empower developers. Simultaneously, you will be responsible for the conception, development, and iteration of flagship end-user applications that serve as powerful demonstrations and accelerators for our platform. This is a hands-on leadership role for a builder who thrives on technical challenges and is driven by the satisfaction of shipping high-quality, impactful products in a dynamic AI landscape. You possess a rare blend of deep technical expertise, a close connection to the code that matters, and the strategic acumen to navigate ambiguity, make sound technical and product trade-offs, and lead from the front.
• • Your responsibilities will span several critical areas:
• • *LEAD VIDEO AGENT PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT:**
• • Drive the end-to-end development of TwelveLabs' sophisticated video agent platform, ensuring it is robust, scalable, and feature-rich.
• • Oversee the development of advanced video ingestion and indexing capabilities, crucial for enabling complex agentic workflows and deep video analysis.
• • Lead the design and implementation of the agent orchestration runtime, including core capabilities such as intelligent planning, seamless tool use, and multi-step reasoning to power advanced AI agents.
• • Champion the creation of essential tooling for evaluation, observability, and debugging, providing engineers and developers with the insights needed to build and refine agentic systems.
• • Ensure the reliability, low latency, and cost-effectiveness of agent workflows, optimizing for performance and operational efficiency.
• • Implement robust safety measures and guardrails for agent actions, ensuring responsible and secure AI development and deployment.
• • *OWN END-USER APPLICATION DELIVERY:**
• • Take full ownership of the end-to-end delivery of flagship end-user applications, guiding them from initial concept through successful launch and continuous iteration.
• • Ensure these applications not only showcase the platform's capabilities but also provide genuine value and a delightful user experience.
• • *OWN PLATFORM PRODUCT SURFACE:**
• • Define and own the platform's product surface, with a strong emphasis on intuitive API design and comprehensive SDKs that empower developers to integrate Twelve Labs' technology seamlessly.
• • *OWN DELIVERY & EXECUTION:**
• • Be accountable for delivery, quality, and operational excellence across all your engineering teams.
• • Foster and drive fast, predictable release cycles through effective planning, rigorous weekly reviews, and insightful retrospectives that continuously improve processes.
• • Translate high-level product and company objectives into clear, actionable technical plans, defining key milestones and realistic timelines. You will be adept at making explicit trade-offs and proactively managing dependencies across multiple teams.
• • *BUILD AND LEAD THE ORGANIZATION:**
• • Build, lead, and grow your engineering teams, effectively managing Engineering Managers and Senior/Staff Individual Contributors.
• • Attract, hire, and retain exceptional talent, consistently raising the bar for engineering excellence within the organization.
• • Mentor and develop emerging leaders, manage performance decisively, and establish clear, motivating growth paths for both managers and individual contributors.
• • Cultivate a culture of strong ownership, rapid execution, and meticulous craft, where teams are empowered to ship with urgency without ever compromising on reliability or user experience.
• • *DRIVE TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE & ARCHITECTURE:**
• • Remain hands-on in critical areas, including architectural decision-making, conducting code reviews for high-impact components, and addressing technically challenging or high-risk areas.
• • Establish and rigorously enforce a high-quality bar across the entire technology stack, encompassing testing strategies, performance optimization, reliability engineering, observability practices, and CI/CD pipelines.
• • Own production readiness, ensuring robust instrumentation, effective incident management protocols, low latency, strong security postures, and optimized cost-to-serve.
• • *PARTNER ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION:**
• • Collaborate closely with Product Management, Design, and Research teams to define product strategy and ensure engineering execution aligns perfectly with the product vision.
• • Work hand-in-hand with modeling teams to translate cutting-edge model capabilities into reliable, production-grade product features.
• • Represent the engineering function in key leadership forums and contribute significantly to the company-wide technical strategy.
• • This is an unparalleled opportunity to make a profound impact on the trajectory of Twelve Labs and the future of AI-powered video agents.