VP of Engineering

BLUECARGO

About BlueCargo

BlueCargo is a fast-growing, VC-backed technology company transforming the logistics and supply chain industry. As the leader in container visibility and freight audit automation, our platform integrates fragmented data from terminals, carriers, and ports to deliver a single, intelligent interface that empowers shippers and logistics providers to make better, faster decisions. Our mission is to bring transparency, efficiency, and automation to global trade—one container at a time.

Backed by Y Combinator (W18) and leading investors, we raised our Series A in 2022 and are entering an exciting growth stage. Our platform is already trusted by hundreds of active customers and is helping them eliminate millions in unnecessary freight costs each year. As we scale, we’re investing deeply in engineering leadership to evolve our architecture, expand product capabilities, and lead the industry in data-driven logistics.

Why Join Now?

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of a company with strong product-market fit, a modern tech stack, and real-world impact. You’ll work alongside a mission-driven founding team (including two female YC alumni), take ownership of a fast-growing engineering org, and play a key role in building a category-defining product that powers the global supply chain.

Our Tech Landscape

• Backend: Python / Django
• Frontend: JavaScript
• Infrastructure: AWS (Lambda, RDS, S3), CircleCI
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Team: 12 engineers + 5 in product
• Location: Hybrid from our HQ in Culver City, Los Angeles

OPPORTUNITY OVERVIEW

Mission / Responsibilities

The VP of Engineering plays a pivotal role in defining and executing the strategic vision of the company, aligning engineering efforts with business goals by collaborating closely with product, design, and executive teams to shape the roadmap, manage budgets, and allocate resources effectively. They provide strong technical leadership, making key architectural decisions, reviewing technical specs, and managing technical debt to ensure systems are scalable and maintainable.

They drive operational excellence by fostering agile best practices, tracking KPIs, and optimizing processes for delivery speed, product quality, and team productivity. They build and lead high-performing engineering teams—front-end, back-end, data, and AI—by hiring top talent, ensuring structured onboarding, conducting regular performance reviews, and supporting ongoing career development.

The VP also champions innovation, encouraging R&D initiatives and staying ahead of emerging technologies—including AI agents, LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and automation frameworks—with a practical understanding of how they can be evaluated and integrated into the platform.

They maintain high standards for security and compliance, ensuring alignment with SOC2 and other regulatory frameworks, while mitigating technical and operational risks. Additionally, they drive cross-functional collaboration, acting as a key liaison between engineering and departments like sales, product, and customer success. The VP fosters an inclusive, remote-first team culture, ensuring everyone feels supported and connected.

Qualifications for VP of Engineering

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, including 5+ years in senior leadership roles (Director or VP level).
• Proven success aligning engineering strategy with business and product goals through close collaboration with executive stakeholders.
• Deep experience scaling engineering teams—hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and managing performance in high-growth environments.
• Strong technical acumen in system design, architecture, and managing technical debt at scale.
• Proficiency with modern cloud-native infrastructure (preferably AWS) and dev stacks like Python/Django, JavaScript/React.
• Track record of implementing agile development, setting and tracking engineering KPIs, and driving delivery excellence.
• Experience with budgeting, vendor management, and resource planning for engineering orgs.
• Deep understanding of compliance and security standards, including SOC2, and ability to uphold best practices across the team.
• Familiarity with AI/ML ecosystems, including LLMs, RAG pipelines, AI agents, vector databases, and how to assess and integrate them in a scalable, maintainable way.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams, acting as a strategic connector between engineering, product, customer success, and GTM teams.
• Experience supporting remote-first and hybrid teams with a strong emphasis on collaboration, inclusion, and team wellbeing.
• Domain knowledge in logistics, supply chain, or data platforms is a strong plus.

We're open to offering the CTO position to the right candidate.