Senior Director, Engineering - Applied AI

Senior Director, Engineering - Applied AI at Zapier

At Zapier, we build and use automation every day to make work more efficient, creative, and human. Using AI tools responsibly and transparently during the application process is encouraged. Please refer to Zapier’s guidance on How to Collaborate with AI During Zapier’s Hiring Process for details.

Zapier is on a mission to make automation accessible to everyone, empowering people and businesses to be more efficient and productive. We’re seeking a Senior Director, Engineering - Applied AI to lead our AI Orchestration engineering organization. In this role, you’ll manage multiple engineering squads to innovate and deliver AI solutions, leading AI engineering execution across the build organization.

This role reports to Zapier’s CPTO (Chief Product and Technology Officer) and partners with the Director of Product - AI.

We understand that applying for a new job requires a leap of faith. To help you feel comfortable and excited to apply at Zapier, we provide several resources for an inside look at life at our company:

• Our Commitment to Applicants
• Culture and Values at Zapier
• Zapier Guide to Remote Work
• Zapier Code of Conduct
• Diversity and Inclusivity at Zapier

Zapier is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

About You

You are a hands-on technical leader thriving at the intersection of AI innovation and real-world product impact. You possess a deep understanding of AI and ML systems, applying them pragmatically to ship customer-facing products that solve meaningful problems.

You are passionate about applied AI engineering, staying at the forefront of AI development and experimentation. Your peers look to you for insight, vision, and guidance on leveraging AI for customers and in day-to-day execution.

You are driven to ship user-facing ML and LLM-powered products, with hands-on experience building, shipping, training, tuning models, and integrating them into end-to-end products. Beyond AI, you are a trusted technical architect who makes pragmatic tradeoffs to deliver quickly and with impact.

You think strategically and act pragmatically, seeing where AI is heading to guide near-term architecture, tradeoffs, and execution. You are comfortable with ambiguity and can chart a path forward even with evolving technology.

You are customer-obsessed, deeply understanding customer needs and passionately delivering high-quality solutions. You thrive on building products that delight internal and external customers, making their jobs easier and more productive, and enjoy working directly with customers and support teams towards common outcomes.

You can develop and sell a vision and strategy to your team and across the organization. You translate strategy into successful execution through experimentation and continuous improvement, partnering closely with product management, design, marketing, and support organizations to achieve business outcomes.

You are motivated by shaping what’s next, aiming to define how millions of people experience automation in the AI era and help lead Zapier’s next generation of customer-facing products.

You are a skilled mentor, coach, and engineering leader who holds a high bar for talent. You have a passion and track record of mentoring engineers and leaders, while growing your own skills. You've introduced and broadened engineering practices and enhanced engineering cultures, increasing talent density through effective hiring, upskilling, and performance management.

Things You’ll Do

• Lead Zapier’s AI Orchestration Zone in partnership with Product and Design, co-owning a strategic initiative that unifies core AI capabilities, drives technical direction, and shapes AI application across products.
• Prototype and push the boundaries of applied AI by experimenting with new models, tools, and approaches to deliver impactful, production-ready AI features.
• Build and mentor a world-class engineering organization, attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent while fostering a culture of technical excellence, curiosity, and velocity.
• Drive a culture of innovation and technical rigor, balancing exploration with execution by turning emerging AI capabilities into scalable, reliable features with measurable customer impact.
• Foster cross-functional alignment by collaborating with Product, Design, and Go-to-Market partners to define the AI roadmap, ensure execution against company strategy, and translate bold ideas into tangible outcomes.
• Champion engineering excellence by guiding architectural decisions, evolving Zapier’s AI infrastructure, and upholding best practices in reliability, scalability, and agile development.
• Shape Zapier’s next chapter, playing a key role in defining AI-powered automation for millions of customers and evolving Zapier into an intelligent orchestration platform.

How To Apply

At Zapier, we believe diverse perspectives make us better, which is why we have a non-standard application process designed to promote inclusion and equity. We encourage you to apply even if your skills and experiences don’t exactly match the job description. We ask that you answer a few in-depth questions typically asked at the start of an interview; the resume and CV fields are optional.

Education is not a requirement for our roles; however, if you receive an offer, you will need to include your most recent educational experience as part of our background check process.

You will hear back from us—even if there isn’t an immediate fit. We strive to never go more than seven days without letting you know your application status. If you have questions about your standing or the process, please ask your recruiter!

Zapier is an equal-opportunity employer and committed to diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equity. Our code of conduct guides our company, and we celebrate differences that allow us to serve a global user base. We consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws. Zapier prioritizes customer information security and adheres to data privacy laws.

Zapier is committed to inclusion. If reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact jobs@zapier.com.

The anticipated application window is 30 days from the job posting date, unless applicant numbers require it to close sooner or later, or if the position is filled.

Even as an all-remote company, we have geographical considerations. Please check our resources for a list of countries where we currently cannot have Zapiens permanently working.

Key skills/competency

• AI Orchestration
• Machine Learning Systems
• Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Product Impact
• Technical Leadership
• Engineering Management
• Strategic Vision
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Architectural Design
• Talent Development