Head of Engineering

Company Overview

SmartVerify is a funded, seed-stage startup built with all ex-AWS professionals. SmartVerify is on a mission to empower enterprises to own their data security in the age of AI.

Traditional application security is no longer enough. In a world of third-party applications, AI agents, and LLMs, the focus must shift to the data layer itself. SmartVerify is building the foundational, mission-critical layer that manages all data orchestration between applications and datasets. We act as a universal, non-disruptive policy engine that provides Just-in-Time (JIT) access, granular control, and continuous verification, ensuring that our customers' data remains secure.

We are looking for a passionate and experienced Head of Engineering to lead the team building the core of our highly scalable, multi-cloud SaaS platform. This is a rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor and build a world-class security service with a massive market impact. You will work closely with CEO to build out the initial MVP and scale the company. This is an excellent opportunity to grow into a much bigger role in a rapidly growing area of the industry.

Job Description

As head of engineering, you will be responsible for leading a team of talented engineers to build, scale, and operate the SmartVerify control and data planes. You will own the complete software development lifecycle for the services that form the backbone of our product: our central policy and orchestration engine (the "Hub") and our cloud-native data adapters (the "Spokes") that interact with AWS, Azure, GCP, on-prem

This role demands a leader who is both a strong people manager and a deeply technical architect. You are not afraid to be hands-on, and you know what it takes to drive for operational excellence in a high-stakes, security-focused environment. You will be instrumental in shaping our engineering culture, defining our technical roadmap, and delivering a product that enterprise customers trust with their most valuable asset: their data. Most importantly, you have to be able to deal with ambiguity, and chart a path forward in the midst of uncertainty and change.

Prior experience working with high-scale services on AWS is a must.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical owner and strategist
  : Be a key participant in setting technical direction of the service, identifying and implementing optimizations, and helping drive overall technical vision of the service
• Lead and Mentor:
   Manage and grow a team of highly skilled, AWS-focused engineers. Foster their professional growth and maintain a high bar for performance.
• Own the Full Lifecycle:
   Take end-to-end ownership of the design, development, testing, deployment, and operation of the core SmartVerify backend services, including the Request & Orchestration Service, Policy Engine, and JIT credential generation logic.
• Drive Technical Strategy:
   Partner with the founding team and advisors to define the architecture and roadmap for a highly available (Multi-AZ), secure, and scalable SaaS platform.
• Insist on the Highest Standards:
   Champion engineering best practices, including robust testing, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Terraform/CloudFormation, and comprehensive documentation.
• Be Hands-On:
   Leverage your recent SDE experience to actively participate in design reviews, architecture discussions, and code reviews to ensure quality and technical rigor.
• Recruit and Hire:
   Play a key role in attracting, interviewing, and hiring top engineering talent to scale the team for multi-cloud expansion.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of professional software development experience.
• A minimum of 
  2 years of experience as a Software Development Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  , managing a team of software engineers.
• A minimum of 
  2 years of experience as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  .
• Must have been in a hands-on SDE role within the last 5 years.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven experience building and operating highly scalable, mission-critical SaaS or cloud services.
• Deep technical knowledge of core AWS services, including Lambda, IAM, STS, S3, RDS, and DynamoDB.
• Experience in the cybersecurity, data security, or Identity and Access Management (IAM) domain.
• Familiarity with building multi-cloud infrastructure and services across AWS, GCP, and Azure.
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) and modern CI/CD practices.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup environment, demonstrating a high degree of ownership and comfort with ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences.