VP of Engineering

About the Role As VP of Engineering, you will be responsible for building, scaling, and operating a high-performing software engineering organization capable of reliably delivering Neural Concept’s ambitious product and technology roadmap. You will turn product vision into software reality, while ensuring our teams and culture scale sustainably — in quality, velocity, and people development. What you will do Own engineering execution and delivery * Ensure predictable, high-quality delivery across product and platform initiatives * Translate product and technical strategy into realistic plans, milestones, and commitments * Identify risks early and manage trade-offs transparently Structure the engineering organization * Evolve team structures, ownership boundaries, and collaboration models as we scale * Build and coach engineering managers and tech leads * Continuously adapt the organization to match company growth Build strong and modern engineering processes * Establish lightweight, effective development processes that scale without bureaucracy * Leverage the best of AI technologies to amplify our impact while maintaining small, agile teams * Define and track the right engineering metrics Guarantee technical quality, reliability, and security in practice * Partner with the CTO to uphold architectural principles and long-term technical health * Drive pragmatic approaches to technical debt, qulity testing, and operational excellence * Collaborate with GTM and deployment teams to guarantee smooth, secure deployments across diverse customer scaling scenarios Collaborate closely with leadership and customers * Work together with Product, Research, Deployment, and Leadership * Represent engineering in cross-functional and customer-facing discussions * Act as a key partner to the CTO, providing clear signals on execution, risk, and org health Who you are You are a senior engineering leader who combines strong technical judgment with operational excellence and a deep understanding of how organizations scale. You are product-minded, pragmatic, think in systems and understand how outcomes derive from how people work together. Proven experience leading software engineering organizations at scale * Experience scaling teams, at least x2 and 50+ engineers * Experience managing managers and tech leads * A track record of managing delivery in fast-growing, low-process environments Strong technical credibility * Broad understanding of modern software architecture, infrastructure, and security * Deep understanding about modern AI technology for software engineering * Ability to engage deeply with engineers on design, trade-offs, and reliability * Comfort operating in AI- and data-intensive product environments Product mindset and pragmatism * Ability to balance speed, quality, and long-term sustainability * User-first and product minded * Calm decision-making under pressure * Outcomes-focused, and not perfectionist A people-first leadership mindset * High empathy and strong communication skills * Commitment to growing others and building healthy teams Drive and ownership * Willingness to take responsibility and make hard calls * Track record of inspiring others and building confidence in high-uncertainty environments What You Get * Work with a world-class technology team – our engineers are top-notch, and we always aim for excellence. * Benefit from a competitive salary and rewarding opportunities as we continue to scale. * Thrive in a collaborative, multicultural environment where your work is visible and recognized. * Develop professionally alongside talented colleagues who share knowledge freely and support one another. * Make a global impact by helping customers shift to AI-assisted design, making innovation faster, smarter, and more sustainable. * Balance life and work with a hybrid model and flexible hours—we care about results, not rigid schedules. WE'RE PROUD TO BE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER, AND WE'RE COMMITTED TO BUILDING A DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU CAN THRIVE.

💙 ABOUT BOUNCE... Bounce is building cloud storage for the physical world, starting with the largest global luggage storage network in existence. Bounce's marketplace connects travelers with 30,000+ small business locations worldwide for hyper-local short-term baggage storage. With more locations globally than Burger King, and more locations in New York City than Starbucks, Bounce has served 3M+ users, stored 10M+ bags, and paid over $10M to small business partners. To achieve this, Bounce is a fast-paced and scrappy team. We believe that experimentation fuels innovation, so we move quickly, testing new ideas and adapting in real time. If you're ready to make an impact in a high-energy, close-knit, and collaborative environment, Bounce is the place where you can move fast, think big, and shape the future of travel. Join us as we make the world a lighter, more accessible place! Bounce has been named the Inc5000's fastest-growing travel company in the USA in 2024 and is proudly backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Sapphire. (Learn more about Bounce's Series B HERE and our Japan expansion HERE). ABOUT THE ROLE… As VP of Engineering, you'll own product delivery and engineering hiring at Bounce as we scale from a 25-person engineering team that ships fast to a 50+ person org that ships even faster. You'll inherit a sharp, senior-loaded team across four engineering managers — and you'll be accountable for what we ship, how fast we ship it, and the people we develop while doing it. You'll partner directly with our CTO. The CTO keeps the wheel on architecture, AI, and technical platform; you'll take ownership of product delivery, the engineering org, hiring, and the partnership with Product and Design. Together you'll set the bar for engineering at Bounce and grow the team for the next chapter of the company. You'll be based in Lisbon, in-office, and report directly to the CTO. WHERE YOU COME IN… * Own product delivery end-to-end — be accountable for shipping the product roadmap on time and at quality. Run the planning, sprint, on-call, and incident-response cadences with autonomy. * Manage through managers — coach our four engineering managers into stronger leaders. Make the hire/level/exit calls. Build a bench so Bounce always has the next layer ready. * Own engineering hiring — personally close the senior hires. Hire ~10-15 strong engineers in year one. Own the engineering brand externally — talks, writing, and the candidate experience. * Be a deep partner to Product and Design — build real working partnerships with our Head of Product and Head of Design. Roadmap, prioritisation, and scope trade-offs are made together. Push back when scope is wrong; absorb it when it isn't. * Be a real exec — the engineering voice on the leadership team. Make trade-offs explicit, communicate up and across, and represent engineering externally. * Partner deeply with our CTO on architecture, AI, and technical platform — you'll work through these decisions together. Bring the product-delivery lens, translate technical bets into engineering execution, surface what product delivery needs from them to ship, and help shape platform direction so it accelerates the team. YOUR PROFILE… * You've led engineering organisations of at least 25 people, ideally through a 25→50 or 50→100 growth phase. This is not the first place you'll do this. * You've been a manager of managers for 3+ years — EMs reporting to you, not just senior ICs. * You have a strong technical foundation. You can review a system design, push back on an architectural decision, and earn trust from your Staff ICs. You haven't been promoted away from the technology. * You've personally recruited and closed senior engineers. You treat hiring as a primary part of the job, not something you delegate. * You're excited about being a deep partner to a hands-on technical CTO. You can build a real working relationship without ego, and you know how to make a CTO better at their job by taking the right things off their plate. * You move fast and treat speed as a feature. You don't bring a 50-page process playbook — you bring judgment. * Marketplace, consumer, and physical-world operations experience is a strong plus. So is having been part of an engineering culture known for shipping (Linear, Ramp, Stripe, Vercel, GitHub, DoorDash, etc.) * You're based in Lisbon or willing to relocate — this is an in-office role.