Director, Engineering

About the role

About Chalk

Chalk is building the data platform that powers the future of machine learning applications. We tear down complexity, latency, and scale barriers that have traditionally constrained ML capabilities. Our platform combines Rust-speed performance with elegant tools that developers love to use. Leading companies depend on Chalk for everything from stopping fraudulent credit card swipes, verifying identities, and maximizing clean energy capture. We've recently raised a $50 million Series A https://www.reuters.com/business/databricks-competitor-chalk-raises-50-million-series-2025-05-28/, led by Felicis.

About the role

Working directly with our founders, you'll serve as the engineering site lead for our New York office. You'll start by directly managing individual contributor engineers and tech leads, and as we scale the team, you'll hire and develop engineering managers beneath you — building the leadership layer of our NYC organization from the ground up.

This is a rare opportunity to define the technical strategy, organizational structure, and engineering culture of a fast-growing AI infrastructure startup. You'll collaborate with brilliant folks, including Putnam and Advent of Code winners, former Jane Street quants, and Rust compiler contributors — all dedicated to bending the curve of what's possible in AI inference.

We're in the office 5 days a week. When unavoidable conflicts come up, we’re flexible. This is not a hybrid role.

What you will do

- Serve as the engineering site lead for New York, with ownership of all NYC engineering

- Directly manage engineers building Chalk's data platform, and hire and grow engineering managers as the site scales

- Partner with the founding team to set technical strategy and shape our long-term product and platform roadmap

- Design the organizational structure, hiring plan, and leadership pipeline for a rapidly growing engineering site

- Establish engineering processes and operating rhythms that enable high velocity without sacrificing quality

- Work directly with customers and executives to understand requirements and ensure Chalk's platform solves real-world ML challenges

- Define and champion Chalk's engineering culture in New York — you'll set the bar for how we attract, develop, and retain top talent

What we're looking for

- 10+ years of engineering experience with 5+ years of engineering management

- Experience managing managers, or a clear readiness to build and lead a multi-layer organization

- Previous experience at an early-stage startup

- Experience building production ML systems or data infrastructure

- Strong programming skills and systems thinking — you understand how things work under the hood, and you stay close to the technology

- Proven ability to lead through others: hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineers and engineering leaders

- Executive-level communicator who can bridge technical, business, and customer contexts

- Track record of delivering complex, high-stakes projects and scaling teams through rapid growth

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Bonus points

- Experience as a site lead or founding leader of a new office or engineering hub

- Experience with Rust or distributed systems

- Experience with query planners or compilers

- Experience implementing data infrastructure or PaaS-like software

- Experience scaling engineering organizations from single-digit to multi-team in high-growth environments