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Pika is building next-generation AI creative tools to empower human creativity, with a focus on making video creation seamless and accessible to everyone. The company is well-funded, backed by leading investors, and operates from Palo Alto with a hybrid-first collaborative culture.
As Head of Product Engineering, you will provide visionary leadership for the strategy, architecture, and execution of Pika's core product engineering initiatives. You will define and drive the technical roadmap for all user-facing products, leading and mentoring high-performing engineering teams while working closely with product, design, and ML leadership to deliver robust, scalable, and innovative features for millions of users.
Key responsibilities include:
- Setting and communicating the technical vision and strategy for product engineering across all Pika platforms
- Leading, mentoring, and scaling multiple engineering teams while fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and innovation
- Architecting and overseeing delivery of scalable, high-performing systems with best practices in reliability, security, and efficiency
- Partnering deeply with product, design, and ML teams to define technical solutions aligned with business and user needs
- Guiding technical decision-making at strategic and architectural levels, including technology selection and process improvement
- Championing standards for software quality, rapid iteration, and best-in-class product experience
- Owning the technical roadmap, including resource planning and milestone delivery for major product launches
- Representing engineering in executive discussions and driving cross-functional alignment
The company's tech stack includes Python, Go, Node.js, Postgres, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS/GCP.
Requirements:
- 10+ years of progressive engineering experience with significant time managing and scaling product engineering teams
- Strong record of technical leadership in developing and launching complex, high-impact user-facing products (web/mobile)
- Proven experience building and scaling distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, etc.)
- Mastery of system and software architecture for high-traffic, media-rich, or AI-powered applications
- Emotional intelligence and mentorship skills with a track record of developing engineering leaders and high-performing teams
- Deep experience collaborating with executive leadership to shape organizational vision and drive business outcomes
- Outstanding communication and organizational abilities, thriving in collaborative, dynamic environments
Nice to have:
- Experience with generative AI, creative tools, or large-scale collaboration platforms
- Background in high-growth startups or high-ambiguity environments
- Open source, hackathon, or competitive coding experience
