Director, AI Platform

About Couchbase

Couchbase is an operational data platform designed for AI workloads that enables enterprises to harness their data for innovative customer experiences and AI applications. Leading organizations rely on our unified platform that delivers performance, scalability, and flexibility by replacing fragmented legacy systems. The platform supports seamless application extensions across cloud and edge environments, emphasizing agility, security, and cost efficiency.

Position Overview

We are looking for a seasoned technology leader to oversee the development and expansion of our Operational AI platform capabilities. This important leadership role involves defining strategy, architecting, delivering, and ensuring operational excellence across Couchbase's AI Cloud Platform. You will guide a large, multi-tiered engineering group focused on building the operational data platform for AI, collaborating closely with Product, Design, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and Go-To-Market teams. Your leadership will be fundamental in driving company growth, customer uptake, platform stability, and maintaining a competitive edge.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and develop high-performing engineering teams building AI-focused operational data platforms.
• Drive architecture decisions that intersect databases, platform-as-a-service, and AI technology.
• Guarantee production-ready scalability to manage large workloads effectively.
• Collaborate with Product, Field, Support, and Customer Success teams to deliver advanced enterprise AI functionalities.
• Balance innovation with operational discipline ensuring high levels of reliability, security, and performance.
• Foster strong collaboration across core database, storage, and cloud infrastructure groups.
• Engage with executive leadership teams to align on initiatives.
• Manage risks, investments, and optimize engineering efficiency.
• Mentor engineering managers and senior technical leaders to strengthen leadership capabilities.
• Implement metrics and key performance indicators to track engineering effectiveness, reliability, and productivity.

Required Qualifications

• More than 15 years in software engineering with at least 5 years managing multiple teams.
• Extensive experience with distributed systems, databases, or large-scale cloud platforms.
• Proven expertise in cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure.
• Direct experience with Data and AI infrastructure components including vector search, indexing, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), embedding pipelines, large language model (LLM) inference systems, agent architectures, and memory systems.
• Track record of designing and operating scalable SaaS services in production environments.
• Deep knowledge of performance optimization, reliability engineering, and cost management in cloud environments.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Go, Python, or Java.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Couchbase welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and is committed to fostering a diverse workplace that includes women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ members, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. We encourage you to apply even if you do not fulfill every qualification but are passionate about the role and can contribute meaningfully.

Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process upon request.

Why Join Couchbase?

We offer a forward-thinking cloud database platform, Capella, which is trusted by over 30% of Fortune 100 companies to build innovative applications efficiently and economically. Our awards include being among the Best Places to Work in the Bay Area and the UK.

Benefits

• Generous leave policies supporting work-life balance.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and employee assistance programs (varies by country).
• Financial planning options including retirement programs and business travel insurance.
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth.
• Comfortable ergonomic setups for office and remote work with catering for onsite employees.
• Additional benefits depending on country-specific programs.

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Couchbase is an equal opportunity employer, considering all candidates without discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, or other legally protected categories. We encourage joining our inclusive culture to make a meaningful impact.