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kadence

Head of Engineering & Applied AI

kadence, Los Angeles, California, United States, 90079

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Principal Recruiter | Kadence | AI + ML Talent Solutions Head of Engineering / Applied AI Reports to:

Chief Creative Technologist

Company:

Stealth AI Startup at the Intersection of Filmmaking & Advanced Machine Learning

About the Company We’re partnering with a stealth AI startup operating at the cutting edge of filmmaking and machine learning. Founded by a renowned, award‑winning creative leader in entertainment, the company has already delivered production‑grade AI tools used in major studio films generating hundreds of millions in box office revenue.

Backed by top‑tier media and technology investors, the company is preparing for rapid expansion—including a Series A raise and the buildout of its core engineering and applied AI teams. This is a rare opportunity to join early and shape the future of AI‑driven creativity.

Role Overview The

Head of Engineering / Applied AI

will lead the engineering org responsible for building the company’s next‑generation generative AI products. This is not a research role—it's an engineering leadership role for someone with strong software engineering fundamentals who can architect robust systems, guide high‑velocity execution, and partner closely with creative leaders to bring AI‑powered tooling to life.

You will oversee product engineering, applied AI integration, platform reliability, and team growth. You’ll collaborate directly with the Chief Creative Officer to translate creative vision into scalable technical systems used by filmmakers worldwide.

Responsibilities Engineering Leadership

Lead and grow a multidisciplinary engineering team across product engineering, applied AI, backend systems, and infrastructure.

Establish engineering best practices for quality, velocity, reliability, and scalable system design.

Drive technical strategy and architecture for generative AI product lines.

AI Product & Systems Development

Build and ship production‑grade systems that integrate generative AI into real creative workflows.

Oversee model integration, inference optimization, and end‑to‑end application performance.

Collaborate with design, product, and creative teams to deliver intuitive, real‑world film production tools.

Architect and maintain distributed systems supporting high‑traffic AI inference workloads.

Implement CI/CD, observability, and infrastructure automation across cloud environments.

Ensure reproducibility, reliability, and scalability across all deployed AI‑powered features.

Cross‑Functional Partnership

Work with research teams to bring prototype models into production‑ready systems.

Translate creative and product requirements into robust engineering plans.

Act as the engineering voice in executive discussions around product strategy and roadmap.

Qualifications

8+ years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or AI product engineering.

Proven experience shipping complex, real‑time or high‑traffic products in production.

Deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud architecture, and performance optimization.

Hands‑on experience integrating deep learning models into production systems (but not exclusively a researcher).

Strong technical leadership experience—hiring, mentoring, and scaling engineering teams.

Ability to work closely with creative stakeholders and translate ambiguous requirements into engineered solutions.

Experience with generative AI or computer vision products is strongly preferred.

Job Details

Seniority level: Director

Employment type: Full‑time

Job function: Engineering and Product Management

Industries: Software Development, Movies, Videos, Sound, Technology, Information and Media

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