Head of Engineering

Why SalesApe?

Join SalesApe, one of the fastest-growing AI companies, recognised as a leader in cutting-edge AI technology and backed by over $20 million from top VCs.

We’re at the dawn of a powerful evolution, set to transform society with our tech. Our mission? To tackle inequality by empowering a huge market of non-tech SMBs—93% of all businesses, think construction, automotive, real estate, and more. While the tech industry has compounded its growth with computing power, these businesses have been technically starved.

With AI agents and our natural language interface technology, we’re unlocking huge productivity gains for our clients. It’s deeply rewarding to see firsthand the transformation in small businesses as they embrace their agent—not just as a tool, but as a trusted, hard-working member of their team. The emotional bond our clients feel toward their agent is undeniable—they often tell us their ‘Ape’ has become part of the family. Our vision is to become the ‘ brain’ of a business spinning out agent worker, freeing up time and simplifying operations, to ensure humans spend more time in real-life interaction.

If you’re ready for intense, high-energy, meaningful work, come make a real impact with us at SalesApe

Our Mission and Purpose:

As we started building with large language models and AI-powered natural language interfaces, I had an aha moment. It hit me just how significant this inflection point is: compute—the raw power of computers—is now accessible to people who don’t use computers."

"And when I thought about that, I realized the closest invention humanity has seen to this shift was electricity. When electricity arrived, it didn’t just light up homes—it transformed industries, democratized wealth, and empowered everyone, from factory owners to farmers, to grow and thrive. Today, with AI, we have the opportunity to do the same for the real economy."

"For the last two decades, the tech industry has had an incredible advantage. Computers have been like co-pilots for us, quietly amplifying our productivity and enabling us to grow faster than ever before. But 95% of businesses—builders, plumbers, and real estate agents—have been technically starved. These businesses make up 50% of GDP, five times larger than the entire tech industry, but they’ve never had access to the tools they need to compete."

"This is the inequality we’re solving. APE AI is democratizing technology, bringing the power of compute to businesses that have been left behind. And what’s so rewarding is that we’re not just helping faceless corporations—we’re empowering real people. Small business owners who pour their hearts into their work. People whose success directly impacts their families, their communities, and society at large. It’s deeply rewarding to see firsthand the transformation in small businesses as they embrace their agent—not just as a tool, but as a trusted, hard-working member of their team."

"For me, this mission is personal. I’ve spent my career building companies that encourage people to connect in real life, to be physically active, and to engage with their communities. This isn’t just about productivity—it’s about health, happiness, and thriving societies. Humans weren’t built to spend their lives staring at screens. We’re wired to interact, to move, to be part of the real world. And what excites me is that Ape AI is helping to make this possible—empowering businesses that create real-world value to thrive at the same pace as the tech giants."

"This isn’t just about technology. It’s about fairness. It’s about giving the power of compute to the people who need it most, so they can grow, thrive, and make a difference. That’s our mission, and it’s something we can all be proud of."

The Role

Head of Engineering (AI/LLM)

This is a unique opportunity for a Head of Engineering to build and scale the technical organization from the ground up. You will be a player-coach, leading by example with a hands-on approach while also defining our engineering culture, technical strategy, and hiring plan. You’ll be a key partner to the CEO, leveraging our AI-first platform to solve critical business problems and drive meaningful user outcomes. If you're a product-minded leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and wants to own the entire engineering function, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities & Scope

This role sits at the intersection of leadership, technology, and product. Your responsibilities will fall into three core areas:

1. Technical Leadership & Execution

• Architect and implement the core technical strategy, setting the standards for code quality, system reliability, and security.

• Drive the engineering roadmap, ensuring timely and effective delivery of features and initiatives that directly impact key business metrics (e.g., conversion, booked meetings).

• Lead by example as a hands-on contributor, spending a significant portion of your time writing code, conducting code reviews, and tackling complex technical challenges.

• Ensure platform reliability, security, and cost-efficiency by establishing and monitoring key metrics (SLOs), implementing robust security protocols, and managing cloud infrastructure costs.

• Own the platform stack from CI/CD and observability to data privacy controls and LLM evaluation pipelines.

2. Team Building & Culture

• Scale the engineering team from four to 10+ engineers over the next 12 months by defining and executing a world-class hiring plan.

• Recruit, mentor, and empower a high-performing team of engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, continuous learning, and psychological safety.

• Define and implement lightweight processes and rituals that improve team efficiency without sacrificing agility (e.g., weekly planning, incident post-mortems, clear communication channels).

• Establish a clear hiring bar and a fair, calibrated engineering ladder that supports both individual contributors and managers.

• Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making and technical excellence.

3. Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with the CEO, Product Manager, and Design lead to translate high-level business goals and user feedback into a compelling product and technology roadmap.

• Collaborate with go-to-market teams to align engineering efforts with business needs and ensure a smooth product launch process.

• Act as the primary technical voice for the company, communicating the vision and strategy to internal and external stakeholders.

Core Technical Competencies

You've successfully built and scaled products in an early-stage environment, and you have deep, hands-on experience in the following two areas:

Technical Leadership & Execution

• Orchestration & Tool-use: Experience with frameworks like LangGraph/LangChain or AutoGen, and a proven track record of building and managing multi-agent workflows.

• Evals & Observability: Hands-on experience with LLM-specific observability tools like LangSmith and Langfuse for tracing, latency/cost/quality analysis, and managing evaluation datasets.

• Safety & Guardrails: A deep understanding of common LLM threats (e.g., prompt injection/jailbreak resilience) and experience implementing robust defenses, including streaming validations, PII redaction, and abuse controls.

Backend & Infrastructure

• Cloud Architecture: Experience with production-grade cloud environments, particularly AWS multi-region deployments, and familiarity with core services like KMS, VPC, and secrets management.

• Observability & Cost Controls: A solid grasp of observability tools like CloudWatch or OpenTelemetry and a history of implementing proactive cost-control measures.

• Data Compliance: Awareness of global data transfer regimes (e.g., EU/UK DPF extension) and experience implementing technical controls to ensure data residency and compliance.