VP of Engineering

About the role

You will own the full accountability for product delivery and the growth of the engineering organization at Bounce as we scale rapidly. You will lead a sharp, senior-led team spread across four engineering managers and ensure that we ship the right product on time and at high quality. You will partner directly with the CTO to balance architecture, AI, and platform decisions with the realities of product delivery. You will be the primary driver of the engineering hiring agenda, personally closing critical senior roles to build a strong bench for the next phase of growth. You will act as the executive engineering voice on the leadership team, making explicit trade-offs and communicating clearly across the company. You will translate technical strategy into execution, working hand-in-hand with Product and Design to align roadmap, prioritization, and scope. You will shape the future direction of our technical platform so it accelerates delivery and supports our global marketplace operations.

Key facts

What you'll do

Own product delivery end-to-end and be accountable for shipping the roadmap on time and at quality across all initiatives.

Run planning, sprint, on-call, and incident-response cadences with autonomy while maintaining high standards for reliability.

Manage through our four engineering managers, coaching them to become stronger leaders and making clear hire, level, and exit decisions.

Own engineering hiring personally, closing approximately 10 to 15 senior engineers in the first year and building a robust talent bench.

Build and own the external engineering brand through writing, talks, and the candidate experience to attract top-tier professionals.

Partner deeply with the Head of Product and Head of Design to ensure roadmap alignment and make joint prioritization and scope trade-offs.

Be the engineering voice on the leadership team, representing engineering externally and communicating decisions up and across the organization.

Work closely with the CTO on architecture, AI, and technical platform decisions, translating technical bets into clear engineering execution plans.

Surface what product delivery needs from the platform and help shape platform direction so it accelerates the team and removes bottlenecks.

Be a hands-on executive who can review system designs, push back on architectural decisions when necessary, and earn the trust of senior ICs.

Ensure that our marketplace, consumer, and physical-world operations knowledge informs technical decisions and improves delivery outcomes.

Move fast and prioritize speed as a feature, relying on judgment rather than heavy process to keep the team nimble.

Contribute to a culture of shipping by learning from high-performing engineering orgs such as Linear, Ramp, Stripe, Vercel, GitHub, and DoorDash.

Maintain an in-office presence in Lisbon and be willing to relocate to support our Portugal-based operations.

Requirements

You have led engineering organizations of at least 25 people, ideally navigating growth from 25 to 50 or 50 to 100 engineers.

You have managed managers for at least three years, with direct reports who are EMs, not just senior individual contributors.

You possess a strong technical foundation and can review system designs, challenge architectural decisions, and earn the respect of senior engineers.

You have personally recruited and closed senior engineers, treating hiring as a core responsibility rather than a delegated task.

You are excited to partner closely with a hands-on technical CTO, building a real working relationship that enhances their effectiveness.

You move quickly and treat speed as a competitive advantage, favoring judgment over lengthy process documents.

You have marketplace, consumer, or physical-world operations experience, which strongly aligns with our business model.

You have been part of an engineering culture known for high shipping intensity, such as Linear, Ramp, Stripe, Vercel, GitHub, or DoorDash.

You are based in Lisbon or are willing to relocate, as this is an in-office role that requires consistent presence.