Director / Vice President of Engineering @ Focal Systems

Focal Systems is the industry leader in retail AI solutions. We are headquartered in San Francisco, California with operations in Canada and the UK, and a tech-hub in Poland. We are a Deep Learning first company. Our mission is to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail using deep learning computer vision. Focal Systems has been deployed at scale with some of the top retailers in the world.

We seek smart, creative and passionate people who want to help build a great and enduring company and deploy Deep Learning to the world!

Why Focal Systems
Strong Values and Mission - We are a tightly-knit team with an ambitious mission and a strong set of core values, which define our approach to business and have successfully guided us since inception.

Exceptional Team - We are a team of hard-working, fun-loving professionals from some of the most eminent universities, research labs, and tech companies of our time. We pride ourselves on recruiting exceptional individuals to help us redefine the state-of-the-art.

Outstanding Partners - We work with 10+ of the largest retailers in the world and have a world-class roster of investors, advisors and partners to support & advise us in our endeavors.

What we offer
We care deeply about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of all of our employees. We offer:

• Competitive Salary & Attractive Stock Options
• Paid Time Off
• Team Retreats

Note: Our pay bands are driven by market benchmarks in the target geography for hiring. Our posted ranges typically include multiple job levels. A candidate's level is determined by their performance throughout our talent acquisition process including technical screens, behavior interviews, presentations, work samples, and references. We will communicate transparently with the candidate at final stages regarding how we have leveled them, and what salary range that places them into. Placement within range is equally determined by education, general experience in your profession, specific experience in our domain, and your performance in the talent acquisition process. It is rare to receive an offer at the top of the range for a role.

What we’re looking for

We are looking for a hands-on VP of Engineering to lead and grow our globally distributed engineering teams. We are looking for an individual who is hands-on with development, cares deeply about architecture decisions, and can credibly engage with engineers at every level of the stack.

The core challenge in this role is scale. We are processing a massive and rapidly growing volume of image and shelf data in real time, across geographies and retail environments. The systems that got us here need to evolve - and you will be the person who figures out how. That means driving down COGS, reducing latency, increasing reliability, and building infrastructure that can support millions of deployed cameras without missing a beat.

You will oversee backend, infrastructure, deep learning, embedded, and frontend engineering teams. Beyond the technical work, you are a builder of teams and culture - someone who can hire exceptional engineers, earn their trust, and create the environment where they do their best work.

What you need to be successful

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent
• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems and software development
• 5+ years of experience leading high-performing engineering teams
• Strong, hands-on experience with Python; you can read and write production code, not just review it
• Deep experience with data-intensive applications, microservices, and REST APIs
• Experience with CI/CD tools, Docker, and cloud deployments
• Experience with deployment strategies (blue/green, canary) and production reliability at scale
• Understanding of AI and machine learning techniques is a requirement
• Startup mentality - you take ownership, move fast, and know how to prioritize
• Advanced English skills (written and spoken); Polish is a plus but not required
• Flexible enough to coordinate across time zones with our global team

Focal Systems is the industry leader in retail AI solutions. We are headquartered in San Francisco, California with operations in Canada and the UK, and a tech-hub in Poland. We are a Deep Learning first company. Our mission is to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail using deep learning computer vision. Focal Systems has been deployed at scale with some of the top retailers in the world.

We seek smart, creative and passionate people who want to help build a great and enduring company and deploy Deep Learning to the world!

Why Focal Systems
Strong Values and Mission - We are a tightly-knit team with an ambitious mission and a strong set of core values, which define our approach to business and have successfully guided us since inception.

Exceptional Team - We are a team of hard-working, fun-loving professionals from some of the most eminent universities, research labs, and tech companies of our time. We pride ourselves on recruiting exceptional individuals to help us redefine the state-of-the-art.

Outstanding Partners - We work with 10+ of the largest retailers in the world and have a world-class roster of investors, advisors and partners to support & advise us in our endeavors.

What we offer
We care deeply about the health, happiness, and wellbeing of all of our employees. We offer:

• Competitive Salary & Attractive Stock Options
• Paid Time Off
• Team Retreats

Note: Our pay bands are driven by market benchmarks in the target geography for hiring. Our posted ranges typically include multiple job levels. A candidate's level is determined by their performance throughout our talent acquisition process including technical screens, behavior interviews, presentations, work samples, and references. We will communicate transparently with the candidate at final stages regarding how we have leveled them, and what salary range that places them into. Placement within range is equally determined by education, general experience in your profession, specific experience in our domain, and your performance in the talent acquisition process. It is rare to receive an offer at the top of the range for a role.

,[Lead and grow our globally distributed engineering organization, with a strong presence in Europe, Personally engage with the hardest scaling problems - architectural decisions, performance bottlenecks, cost reduction, Oversee scalable, data-heavy backend infrastructure built on Python, FastAPI, Kafka, and related technologies, Work closely with engineering teams to understand backend needs and ensure data persists in usable formats for frontend, middleware, diagnostics, and deep learning pipelines, Drive development of deployment monitoring tools, blue/green and canary deployment strategies, and CI/CD practices that support smooth, zero-downtime releases, Build and improve processes and tooling that create an outstanding developer experience across the team, Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of backend infrastructure with frontend UIs and deep learning systems, Recruit, hire, and onboard new engineers as we continue to scale, Set clear objectives, performance expectations, and development goals; provide regular coaching and feedback, Foster a team environment that encourages creativity, ownership, and continuous improvement] Requirements: FastAPI, Python, Flask, Git, Docker, Kafka, REST API, MySQL, CI/CD, Microservices, REST, Redis, Snowflake, MLOps, Golang, dbt, Kubernetes, Terraform Tools: Linear, GitHub, Notion, Ruff, GIT, CircleCI. Additionally: Training budget, Small teams, International projects, Flat structure, Startup atmosphere, No dress code, In-house hack days.