Director, AI Platform

About the role

We are seeking an experienced and visionary technology leader to own the strategy, architecture, delivery, and operational excellence of Couchbase’s AI Cloud Platform. This senior role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, cloud‑native platforms, and AI, influencing company growth and platform reliability.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and grow high‑performing engineering teams building the Operational Data platform for AI.
• Drive architectural decisions for platform capabilities across databases, PaaS and AI.
• Ensure production‑grade scalability for large‑scale workloads.
• Partner closely with Product, Field, Support, and Customer Success to deliver differentiated enterprise AI capabilities.
• Balance innovation with operational rigor, meeting reliability, performance, and security standards.
• Build strong cross‑functional collaboration with core database, storage, and cloud infrastructure teams.
• Partner cross‑functionally at the executive level.
• Manage risk, investment, and efficiency.
• Mentor engineering managers and senior technical leaders to strengthen the leadership team.
• Drive execution excellence at scale by establishing metrics and KPIs for engineering performance, reliability, and productivity.

Required profile

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years leading multiple teams.
• Strong background in distributed systems, databases, or large‑scale cloud platforms.
• Deep experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, and Azure.
• Hands‑on familiarity with data and AI infrastructure concepts: vector search, indexing, Retrieval Augmented Generation, embedding pipelines, LLM inference, and agent architectures.
• Experience building and operating production SaaS services at scale.
• Deep understanding of performance engineering, reliability, and cost optimization in cloud environments.
• Proficiency in Go, Python or Java.

Required skills

• Go
• Python
• Java
• AWS
• GCP
• Azure
• Distributed systems
• Databases
• Vector search
• Indexing
• Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Embedding pipelines
• LLM inference
• Agent architectures

What we offer

• Generous Time Off Program with flexibility for family care.
• World‑class wellness benefits including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and employee assistance programs.
• Financial planning options such as retirement programs and business travel insurance.
• Career growth opportunities with a valued‑and‑create‑value approach.
• Fun perks like ergonomic office/WFH setups and food & snacks for in‑office employees.