Director, Engineering - Head of Applied AI
Starburst
About Starburst
Starburst is the data platform for analytics, applications, and AI, unifying data across clouds and on-premises to accelerate AI innovation. Organizations—from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises in 60+ countries—rely on Starburst for fast data access, seamless collaboration, and enterprise-grade governance on an open hybrid data lakehouse. Wherever data lives, Starburst unlocks its full potential, powering data and AI from development to deployment. By future-proofing data architecture, Starburst helps businesses fuel innovation with AI.
About the role
We are hiring a Director of AI Engineering to lead all engineering initiatives related to Starburst’s rapidly expanding AI platform. This is a foundational role to drive execution across inference, agentic workflows, hybrid search, governance, and integration with customer ecosystems.
As a Director, Engineering - Head of Applied AI at Starburst you will:
- Own engineering execution across AI workflows, agents, and model integrations
- Partner with PM and GTM teams to define roadmap and co-own AI strategy
- Build and manage a high-performing AI engineering team (across UX, backend, infra)
- Collaborate across Cloud, Platform, and Product teams to ensure AI cohesion
- Establish architecture principles for inference, vector search, and agentic pipelines
- Represent Starburst Engineering in customer briefings and strategic GTM efforts
Some of the things we look for:
- 10+ years engineering experience, 5+ in AI/ML systems, data platforms, or infra
- Deep understanding of LLM lifecycle: embedding, inference, RAG, governance
- Proven leadership of platform teams or AI infra in production
- Familiarity with LangChain, LlamaIndex, NVIDIA NIMs, or similar frameworks
- Hands-on experience with Iceberg, Trino, or other modern data platforms is a plus
- Excellent communication and execution skills
- Ability to Travel: This role will require occasional in-person travel for purposes including but not limited to new hire onboarding, team and department offsites, customer engagements, and other company events. Actual travel expectations may vary by role and business needs.
Where could this role be based?
- Ideally, this role is based in one of our US hub locations, Boston or San Francisco, and follows a hybrid model, with an expectation of being onsite 2-3 days per week.
Build your career at Starburst
All-Stars have the opportunity and freedom to realize their true potential. By building alongside top talent, we’re empowered to take ownership of our careers and drive meaningful change. Anchored in industry-proven technology and unprecedented success, All-Stars are taking on the challenge everyday to disrupt our industry – and the future.
Our global workforce is supported by a competitive Total Rewards program that reflects our commitment to a rewarding and supportive work environment. This includes a variety of benefits like competitive pay, attractive stock grants, flexible paid time off, and more.
We are committed to fostering an intentional, inclusive, and diverse culture that drives deep engagement, authentic belonging, and an exceptional All-Star experience. We believe that diversity of thought, perspective, background and experience will enable us to own what we do, drive our success and empower our All-Stars to show up authentically.
Starburst provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state
or local laws.