VP of Engineering

Overview Join to apply for the VP of Engineering role at Advocate. About AdvocateAdvocate is transforming how Americans access government benefits. Using cutting-edge AI technology, we're reducing months-long disability application processes to days, helping vulnerable citizens get the support they deserve. After 2.5 years of rapid growth, we've built systems with increasing scale and complexity. Now we need an architectural visionary to design our next-generation platform. The Opportunity We're seeking a VP of Engineering who sees elegant simplicity where others see overwhelming complexity. You'll partner with our CTO to head architecture and engineering, reimagining how case development platforms should work in an AI-first world. This role is for an architect who finds simple elegance in design, creating minimal technical surface area to deliver maximum value. You understand that the best systems grow incrementally but are guided by a coherent vision from day one - not through endless complexity or components without consideration for the whole. The Role You'll lead and mentor a team of engineers while partnering with our CTO to define platform architecture. This uniquely combines deep technical architecture, strategic thinking, and hands-on engineering leadership. You'll need world-class system design skills paired with the ability to inspire brilliant engineers toward a unified vision. The Person We0're Looking For Essential Background You are an accomplished architect and engineering leader who has designed sophisticated platforms that model human workflows with AI to transform facts into meaningful insights. You've led teams through platform transformations and built best-in-class user experiences. Most importantly, you've fully integrated AI into your workflow - it's not a tool you use, it's a partner that amplifies your capabilities 10x. Location & Work Requirements This position requires candidates who are currently authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and are based in the US. The role requires travel to our SF and NY office locations at least 6 times per year for strategic planning sessions, team collaboration, and key company events. Unfortunately, we are unable to consider international applicants or provide visa sponsorship at this time. Core Responsibilities Architectural & Engineering Leadership: Partner with the CTO to design enterprise-grade systems that seamlessly blend event-driven architectures, stream processing, workflow orchestration, and AI pipelines. Build and mentor a high-performing engineering team, creating a culture where engineers grow while delivering exceptional results. Your architectural reviews are teaching moments; your pair programming sessions demonstrate AI-amplified development. AI-Native Development Culture: Champion the use of AI in every aspect of development. At Advocate, we believe in human intellectual amplification through AI partnership; youll establish workflows and practices that make AI collaboration second nature for the entire team, teaching others to achieve 10x productivity through AI partnership. Platform Evolution: Design systems that handle data changing over time through human and machine steps. As humans review data and AI generates insights, your architecture must elegantly handle cascading changes while maintaining perfect audit trails. Transform existing systems into clean, scalable patterns while maintaining 99.99% uptime. Simplicity Through Sophistication: Create architectures that are profoundly simple despite underlying complexity. The best solution to a 10-component problem might be 3 elegant abstractions, not 20 micro-services. Technical Excellence AI & Architecture Mastery: You understand AI partner dynamics, distributed systems patterns (event sourcing, CQRS, saga), and AWS services deeply. You are fluent with Claude Code, Codex, GPT-5, and other AI systems, and you know when to use Kafka vs. Kinesis vs. neither. Framework & Performance Expertise: Experienced with modern orchestration (Temporal, Airflow), data processing (Spark, Flink), and application frameworks. You design security-first systems where protection is inherent. Cognitive Approach Systems Thinker: You see connections between data, algorithms, and human processes; you design from first principles. Right, A Lot: You have a track record of successful architectural bets that proved transformative. Extreme Ownership: You take ownership of challenges and drive breakthroughs. Intellectual Humility: You acknowledge when you are wrong and adapt quickly. Communication Clarity: You make architecture understandable to diverse stakeholders. Leadership Excellence Technical Influence: Engineers follow your vision due to clarity and competence. Team Builder: You identify talent, develop potential, and elevate engineers to think architecturally and collaborate with AI. Decisive Under Uncertainty: You make architectural decisions with limited information and adjust as you learn. Unique Qualifications Interdisciplinary Background: Experience across software engineering, data science, user experience, and organizational behavior. Speed & Outcome Obsession: Iterations counted in hours and days; a working solution today beats a perfect one next quarter. Invention Track Record: You have created novel architectural patterns and think in terms of what7s possible, not just what7s been done. Technical Environment Event-driven architectures (Kafka/Kinesis/EventBridge) Multi-tier data platforms (Aurora, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, S3) Orchestration (Temporal, Step Functions, custom engines) Real-time processing (Flink/Kinesis Analytics) Container orchestration (ECS/EKS) Infrastructure as Code (CDK/Terraform) AI/ML pipelines throughout AI Orchestration (LlamaIndex, LangChain) Are You Ready? If you read this and thought "finally, a role that values both architectural elegance and AI amplification" - send us: A complex system you7ve architected and your key design decisions How AI has transformed your development workflow Your approach to building AI-native engineering teams This role is for those rare individuals who can hold an entire platform in their mind while inspiring others to build it - those who see AI as a partner in invention, not just automation. Join us in building the platform that will revolutionize government services. We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us. Seniority level Not Applicable Employment type Full-time Job function Engineering and Information Technology Industries Technology, Information and Internet Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Advocate by 2x San Francisco, CA Location and salary range placeholders retained for context: $250,000.00-$330,000.00 We do not include further postings or extraneous job cards here to maintain focus on the VP of Engineering role. #J-18808-Ljbffr