Define and lead the Engineering Platforms org — structure the org, direct report team, and establish ownership across defined pillars
Drive the platform shift — help transition Sembi from centralized DevOps to a platform engineering model where the road and guardrails are built for internal teams own their services end-to-end
Build the data and AI infrastructure layer — canonical data strategy across 8 products; AI platform foundations (model gateway, eval framework, training pipeline) that power Sembi's product AI roadmap
Govern cloud and infra — multi-brand cloud strategy, cost optimization, security posture, and vendor relationships
Partner with brand engineering leads — your platforms are their enabler; you'll build with them through innersourcing while reducing cognitive load so they can scale faster
Translate technical complexity into business outcomes — communicate platform strategy and tradeoffs clearly to the VP of Engineering, ELT, and board where relevant

Track record and passion for collaboratively building and scaling platforms used by development teams
Ability to think of platforms as products and convincingly connect the work to human value and business outcomes
Experience leading and growing engineering teams of employees, contractors, and agents
Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, delivery patterns, observability, data infrastructure, and AI/ML concepts
Able to cast compelling AI vision for others while leading by example with personal usage
Tenacity for building high value services
Clear communication and ability to work with a distributed workforce
Nice to have: Experience with internal developer platforms (Backstage, custom IDP, or equivalent)
Development/engineering background
Experience in multi-product or multi-brand business environments
Familiarity with AI infrastructure patterns (model gateways, RAG pipelines, eval frameworks, MCP)
Not required but noted: Specific tooling we use: AWS, GCP, Azure, GitHub, Bitbucket, ArgoCD, Netbird, OTEL, Grafana, Prometheus, MongoDB

Greenfield scope — you'll define the function, not inherit someone else's vision
Direct impact on how 8 product engineering teams build and ship AI-forward environment — Sembi is actively building AI into its products and its engineering workflow
Reporting line with access and visibility — direct to VP of Engineering with active ELT support for the platform direction
A leadership team that believes platform investment is a strategic multiplier, not overhead

Director of Engineering Platforms

Key skills