VP of Engineering

Qdrant is an open-source vector search engine powering the next generation of AI applications, from semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to AI agents and real-time recommendations. Trusted by global leaders like Canva, HubSpot, Tripadvisor, Bosch, and Deutsche Telekom, we’re building the retrieval infrastructure layer for modern AI. Recently raising $50M in Series B funding, we are growing rapidly and committed to transforming how AI understands and interacts with data. As a remote-first company, we believe diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences fuel innovation. Here, you’ll own meaningful work, tackle challenges, and grow alongside passionate individuals dedicated to shaping the future of AI. We're looking for an exceptional VP of Engineering to lead and grow our engineering organization at a pivotal moment — post-Series B, as we scale from a beloved open-source tool into the definitive vector search platform for enterprise AI. You will partner directly with our CEO and leadership team to shape technical direction, build an engineering culture, and ship products that developers and enterprises trust for their most critical workloads. This role combines technical leadership, organizational scaling, and ownership of product delivery. You will be responsible for building and operating our cloud platform, delivering commercial features, and ensuring enterprise-grade reliability, security, and scalability — while staying deeply aligned with our open-source core. You will work closely with the executive team, Product, and Go-to-Market functions to translate the company's strategy into engineering execution. WHAT YOU WILL OWN - Lead and scale a distributed engineering organization across core database infrastructure, cloud platform, and developer experience — owning hiring, culture, and team design. - Partner with the leadership team on product roadmap and architectural decisions, translating company strategy into executable engineering plans. - Drive reliability, performance, and velocity across Qdrant's core engine, Qdrant Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and emerging products like Cloud Inference and Qdrant Edge. - Establish engineering excellence: code quality standards, incident response, observability, and the operational rhythm needed to run a production database at scale. - Work closely with Product, Developer Relations, and Customer Success to ensure engineering efforts are tightly aligned with the needs of Qdrant's developer community and enterprise customers. - Define and own the engineering hiring plan to meet aggressive growth targets, with a focus on Rust, distributed systems, and ML infrastructure talent. - Champion a culture of rigor, ownership, and craft — the kind of culture that builds a custom storage engine from scratch because the off-the-shelf solution isn't fast enough. WHO YOU ARE - 10+ years in engineering leadership, including senior roles in cloud/platform engineering. - Experience building and scaling B2B SaaS platforms. - Proven track record in managing distributed teams. - Deep experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native architectures. - Experience operating high-scale, production-critical infrastructure. - Experience with enterprise security and compliance frameworks. Technical Depth - Strong background in distributed systems - Experience running large-scale infrastructure in AWS/GCP/Azure - Deep knowledge of observability, reliability engineering, and automation - Strong understanding of DevOps, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code Leadership Traits - Strategic thinker who can also dive deep technically - Strong decision-making in high-growth, fast-changing environments - Clear communicator across technical and business stakeholders - Data-driven and customer-focused NICE TO HAVE - Experience with search engines, databases, storage systems, or data infrastructure - Experience in open-source companies - Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure or vector search systems WHY JOIN US - A remote-first, international team working on cutting-edge AI infrastructure. - A competitive salary with additional perks. - Flexible working hours and async-friendly culture. - High ownership and real impact. - Open-source, engineering-driven culture. - Choose your own laptop equipment. For US-based candidates, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package including 401k match, health, dental, and vision insurance, plus flexible PTO policy. Qdrant is an equal-opportunity employer. We believe the best ideas come from diverse teams, and we actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If this role excites you but you don't check every single box, we'd still love to hear from you! We don't want to miss out on great people because of a checklist. COME BUILD WITH US! FOR INFORMATION ON HOW WE HANDLE YOUR PERSONAL DATA, PLEASE REFER TO OUR RECRUITMENT PRIVACY POLICY https://qdrant.tech/legal/recruit