Director / Vice President of Engineering

Focal Systems is the industry leader in retail AI solutions headquartered in San Francisco, California, with operations in Canada, the UK, and a tech hub in Poland. The company focuses on automating and optimizing brick and mortar retail using deep learning computer vision and has deployments at scale with top global retailers.

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent
• 10+ years of experience in distributed systems and software development
• 5+ years of experience leading high-performing engineering teams
• Strong, hands-on experience with Python, including production code writing
• Deep experience with data-intensive applications, microservices, and REST APIs
• Experience with CI/CD tools, Docker, and cloud deployments
• Experience with deployment strategies (blue/green, canary) and production reliability at scale
• Understanding of AI and machine learning techniques
• Startup mentality with ownership, fast movement, and prioritization skills
• Advanced English skills (written and spoken); Polish is a plus but not required
• Flexibility to coordinate across time zones with a global team

Nice to have:

• Experience with Redis, Snowflake, MLOps, Golang, dbt, Kubernetes, Terraform

• Lead and grow a globally distributed engineering organization with a strong presence in Europe
• Personally engage with architectural decisions, performance bottlenecks, and cost reduction
• Oversee scalable, data-heavy backend infrastructure built on Python, FastAPI, Kafka, and related technologies
• Work closely with engineering teams to ensure data persists in usable formats for frontend, middleware, diagnostics, and deep learning pipelines
• Drive development of deployment monitoring tools, blue/green and canary deployment strategies, and CI/CD practices for zero-downtime releases
• Build and improve processes and tooling to create an outstanding developer experience
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate backend infrastructure with frontend UIs and deep learning systems
• Recruit, hire, and onboard new engineers
• Set clear objectives, performance expectations, and development goals; provide regular coaching and feedback
• Foster a team environment encouraging creativity, ownership, and continuous improvement