Vice President Of Engineering

<p><strong>$32M ARR | Bootstrapped | Elite Technical Operator</strong></p><p><strong>Location:</strong> San Francisco, CA (In-Person/Hybrid – Non-Negotiable)</p><p><strong>Reports to:</strong> CEO (Manick Bhan)</p><p><strong>The Mission:</strong> Scale the Engine from $32M to $100M ARR</p><div><hr></div><div><div><h4>The Mandate: Execute at Scale, Lead with Depth</h4><p>Search Atlas is a Silicon Valley anomaly: we bootstrapped to <strong>$32M ARR without a dollar of VC funding</strong>. We built systems that crawl millions of pages daily and serve Fortune 500s with 99.99% uptime. Now, we are pioneering <strong>Agentic Marketing</strong>—AI systems that don’t just analyze data; they act on it autonomously.</p><p>We don’t need a spreadsheet jockey. We need a VP of Engineering who possesses the technical rigor of a <strong>Staff+ IC</strong> and the strategic vision of a <strong>Founder</strong>. You will own the execution engine that takes us to $100M ARR. You won’t be trapped in conference rooms; you’ll be in the trenches of architecture, reviewing critical-path code, and mentoring the next generation of elite engineers.</p><hr><h4>Your Arena: Two-Mode Leadership</h4><h6>Mode 1: Technical Gravitas &amp; Architecture (40% High-Leverage Execution)</h6><ul><li><p><strong>Guardian of the Critical Path:</strong> You aren't shipping routine tickets, but you own the final architectural blueprint. When our Celery task architecture needs to scale to billions of background jobs, you design the solution.</p></li><li><p><strong>Code Review Authority:</strong> You set the gold standard. Your presence in PR reviews isn't to micromanage, but to ensure distributed systems anti-patterns and N+1 queries never see the light of production.</p></li><li><p><strong>Forensics &amp; Resilience:</strong> When the system faces extreme load, you lead the diagnosis. You use Datadog, Sentry, and Grafana as forensic tools to maintain sub-100ms latency across our agentic stack.</p></li></ul><h6>Mode 2: Engineering Velocity &amp; Culture (60% Organizational Scaling)</h6><ul><li><p><strong>Elite Operations:</strong> Evolve our 100+ engineer organization into a world-class unit. You implement processes that increase velocity by removing friction, not by adding bureaucracy. TDD, CI/CD, and trunk-based development are your religion.</p></li><li><p><strong>Leader of Leaders:</strong> Mentor Tech Leads and Principal Engineers through action. Your team should grow faster by watching you solve a "hard" problem on a whiteboard than they would in a year of seminars.</p></li><li><p><strong>Talent Magnet:</strong> Build a culture that the top 1% of SF engineers quit their jobs to join. You know how to identify "operators" and filter out "tourists" within a 15-minute conversation.</p></li></ul><hr><h4>The Technical Reality (The Stack You Own)</h4><ul><li><p><strong>Backend:</strong> Python 3, Django REST Framework, Celery (Async processing at massive scale).</p></li><li><p><strong>Data:</strong> PostgreSQL (Transactional optimization), ClickHouse (Analytics), Elasticsearch (Search), Redis.</p></li><li><p><strong>Infra:</strong> Kubernetes, Docker, Microservices—managing terabytes of data and sub-100ms latency requirements.</p></li><li><p><strong>AI/ML:</strong> LLM orchestration, agentic systems architecture, and vector databases in production environments.</p></li></ul><hr><h4>Who You Are</h4><ul><li><p><strong>The Profile:</strong> 10+ years of shipping production code, with 3+ years leading organizations of 50+ engineers. You have the title of a VP but the current, sharp skills of a Staff Engineer.</p></li><li><p><strong>Proven Track Record:</strong> You’ve successfully scaled SaaS platforms from $20M to $100M+ ARR in capital-efficient environments.</p></li><li><p><strong>Shipping Obsession:</strong> You measure cycle time, deployment frequency, and MTTR. You hate waste and love aggressive iteration.</p></li><li><p><strong>SF-Based:</strong> You understand that high-bandwidth leadership happens in person. You thrive in whiteboard wars and rapid, face-to-face iteration.</p></li></ul><hr><h4>The Partnership &amp; Compensation</h4><p><strong>The Package (SF 2026 Executive Standard):</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Base:</strong> $200,000 – $425,000+ (Based on technical depth and leadership track record).</p></li><li><p><strong>Equity:</strong> Meaningful ownership in a profitable, high-growth, bootstrapped rocket ship.</p></li><li><p><strong>Benefits:</strong> Premium Health/Dental/Vision, Unlimited PTO, Paid Parental Leave.</p></li><li><p><strong>The "Edge":</strong> Company-paid Lasik (visual clarity for the mission), $500/quarter professional development budget, and a zero-politics environment.</p></li></ul><p><strong>The Culture:</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Ship-or-Die Velocity:</strong> We deploy daily. We optimize hourly.</p></li><li><p><strong>Ownership Cult:</strong> Engineers own features end-to-end. We don't have "project managers" to shield you; we have owners who ship.</p></li><li><p><strong>Radical Candor:</strong> Direct feedback, brutal honesty, and extremely high expectations.</p></li></ul><div><hr><h4>Recruitment Process</h4><ol><li><p><strong>Technical Calibration:</strong> 45-min deep dive into distributed systems and architecture.</p></li><li><p><strong>Leadership &amp; Scale:</strong> System design under pressure + organizational scaling strategy.</p></li><li><p><strong>Founder Session:</strong> Technical sparring with Manick Bhan on the future of Agentic AI.</p></li><li><p><strong>The Offer:</strong> We move fast for the right person.</p></li></ol><hr><h5><strong>How We Work</strong></h5><div><h6><strong>Hybrid in San Francisco</strong></h6><ul><li><p>2-3 days/week in-office for deep collaboration and whiteboarding</p></li><li><p>Flexible remote days for focused research and coding</p></li></ul></div><div><h6><strong>Our Rhythm</strong></h6><ul><li><p>Weekly model releases, continuous research, constant measurement.</p></li><li><p>End-to-end ownership: you build it, you ship it, you monitor it.</p></li><li><p>Direct access to founders and executive team.</p></li></ul></div><div><h6><strong>Our Culture</strong></h6><ul><li><p><strong>Autonomy:</strong> We hire experts and trust them to make decisions.</p></li><li><p><strong>Impact:</strong> Every model connects to business outcomes.</p></li><li><p><strong>Craft:</strong> We value scientific rigor and elegant engineering.</p></li></ul><hr><h4><strong>About Search Atlas</strong></h4><div><p>We build autonomous marketing software for Fortune 500s and high-growth startups:</p></div><div><p><strong>OTTO SEO - </strong>Fully autonomous technical optimization</p></div><div><p><strong>Content Genius - </strong>Semantic AI content generation</p></div><div><p><strong>Site Explorer - </strong>Real-time search intelligence</p></div><div><p><strong>BrandVault - </strong>AI-driven knowledge graphs</p></div><div><p><strong>GBP Galactic - </strong>Local SEO automation</p></div><div><p><strong>Smart Ads - </strong>Autonomous PPC management</p></div><div><p></p><p><strong>Recognition:</strong> Inc. 5000, Nevada's #1 Small Business Workplace, Great Place to Work Certified</p></div><div><p><strong>$32M ARR. Bootstrapped. Profitable. Growing fast.</strong></p><hr><p><strong>Search Atlas is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members.</strong></p></div></div><hr></div></div></div><p><strong>Apply with evidence of craft. No cover letters. Just systems, code, and results.</strong></p><p><em>Search Atlas is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members.</em></p><p><em>Must be currently authorized to work in the US without future sponsorship.</em></p>