VP Engineering
This role helps build Lucy, the proactive AI coach from Lucy Labs that lives on your desktop as a cloud-backed app, while the product is in development with design partners.
Owns the whole engineering organisation, reporting to the CEO.
About the role
At Lucy Labs, this role owns the purpose described below.
The VP Engineering at Lucy Labs owns the entire engineering organization—architecture, delivery, quality, culture, and team growth. This is a senior leadership role (reports to CEO) responsible for building a world-class engineering team that ships high-quality products at speed. The VP Engineering ensures technical excellence, operational efficiency, and strategic alignment with business goals.
This role is 50% people leadership (hiring, culture, performance) and 50% technical/strategic leadership (architecture, roadmap, delivery).
The mission
At Lucy Labs, this role's mission is defined by the outcome and work below.
Build an engineering organization that:
- Ships production-ready features consistently and reliably
- Maintains technical excellence and manageable technical debt
- Scales from 15 to 50+ engineers over 2 years
- Attracts and retains top engineering talent
- Delivers on product roadmap commitments
What you'd own
At Lucy Labs, this role turns its mission into concrete responsibilities in each area.
1. Engineering Leadership (People & Culture)
For 1. Engineering Leadership (People & Culture), Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Hire, develop, and retain engineering leaders (Engineering Managers, Senior ICs)
- Build high-performance engineering culture (ownership, quality, velocity)
- Manage 2 Engineering Managers + senior engineers directly
- Conduct 1:1s, performance reviews, career development
- Set compensation, promotions, and performance standards
- Resolve conflicts and escalations
2. Technical & Architectural Leadership
For 2. Technical & Architectural Leadership, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Own overall system architecture and technical strategy
- Make build vs. buy decisions (infrastructure, tools, vendors)
- Balance technical debt vs. feature velocity
- Ensure security, scalability, and reliability standards
- Drive architectural reviews and technical decision-making
- Stay current with industry trends (Ai, desktop, cloud)
3. Delivery & Execution
For 3. Delivery & Execution, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Own engineering roadmap execution (on time, high quality)
- Partner with Product on feasibility, scoping, and prioritization
- Manage cross-team dependencies and delivery risks
- Improve engineering velocity and release cadence
- Implement processes that scale (Agile, sprints, planning)
- Communicate progress and risks to CEO and board
4. Quality & Operational Excellence
For 4. Quality & Operational Excellence, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Ensure production stability (uptime, performance, incident response)
- Establish quality gates (code review, testing, monitoring)
- Drive postmortem culture and process improvements
- Implement DevOps and reliability practices
- Manage cloud costs and infrastructure efficiency
- Ensure SOC 2, ISO 27001 readiness
5. Strategic Planning & Budgeting
For 5. Strategic Planning & Budgeting, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Build multi-year engineering hiring plan
- Forecast team growth and capacity needs
- Make technology investment decisions
- Represent engineering in board and investor meetings
- Partner with CEO on company strategy
What success looks like
Lucy Labs defines these milestones as role outcomes, not metrics for measuring the person.
- 60 days
- Team operating smoothly under new leadership
- 90 days
- Delivery velocity improving, culture strengthening
- 6 months
- Engineering org scaled to 25 people, shipping reliably
- 12 months
- Platform complete, Series B ready, engineering world-class
Experience and fit
Lucy Labs looks for the essential experience listed here and treats the rest as helpful, not an automatic barrier.
Must have
- 10+ years software engineering experience
- 5+ years engineering leadership experience (managed 15-50+ engineers)
- 2+ years VP/Director level experience
- Deep technical expertise (architecture, system design)
- Track record building engineering teams from 10 to 50+
- Experience shipping SaaS products at scale
- Strong communication and executive presence
- Experience with Agile, DevOps, modern cloud infrastructure
Nice to have
- Startup or 0→1 product experience (Seed to Series B)
- Ai/ML product engineering background
- Desktop application development (Electron, native)
- Experience with compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR)
- Managed distributed/remote engineering teams
- Background in productivity or developer tools
- Technical recruiting expertise
How you work
Lucy Labs looks for these working traits alongside technical experience.
Role DNA
Lucy Labs evaluates these traits as part of the fit for this role.
- Strategic thinker with execution excellence
- Servant leader (team success > personal credit)
- Technically deep but people-focused
- Clear and decisive communicator
- High emotional intelligence
- Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change
- Ownership and accountability mindset
Leadership principles for the role
Lucy Labs expects this role to apply the following leadership principles.
- People first, technology second—great teams build great products
- Quality and velocity are not mutually exclusive
- Technical debt kills startups—manage it ruthlessly
- Clarity prevents waste—over-communicate
- Build systems and culture that scale
- Hire for potential, not just experience
- Trust through transparency—no surprises to CEO or board
Apply for this role
The Lucy Labs application form opens with this role already selected. You can review the message before sending it.
Apply for this roleFrequently asked questions
Is this role open at Lucy Labs?
Yes. Lucy Labs confirmed this role is open on 25 August 2026.
Where does Lucy Labs base this role?
Lucy Labs bases this role in Madrid, Spain. The exact working arrangement is confirmed during the application conversation.
What does this role own at Lucy Labs?
At Lucy Labs, this role has one central responsibility: Owns the whole engineering organisation, reporting to the CEO. The full description sets out the mission, responsibilities, and relevant experience.
How do I apply to Lucy Labs?
At Lucy Labs, use the application form. The role is selected automatically, and you can review it before sending.
