Head of Engineering
Pipekit is hiring a Head of Engineering to own engineering leadership, people management, and execution.
Your primary job is to turn a small, talented team into a high-impact, low-friction execution engine that reaches product-market fit and then scales rapidly.
What We’re Building
Pipekit is building the software infrastructure that powers modern data and AI systems. As the primary maintainers of the open-source Argo Workflows project, we advance Kubernetes-native workflow computing - pushing the performance, scalability, and reliability of distributed systems.
We work directly with some of the largest Argo users in the world, supporting mission-critical deployments at organizations like Bloomberg, Intuit, CrowdStrike, and Centrica Energy. The learning from these relationships drive upstream improvements to the runtime and help us develop our proprietary enterprise control plane.
Help us push the limits of Kubernetes-native infrastructure.
What you own
Engineering productivity, processes and execution strategy
Own delivery, quality, reliability, and focus across services + product engineering
Turn company priorities into clear plans, milestones, and shipped outcomes
Balance speed and pragmatism in a pre-PMF environment
Design lightweight execution systems that help the team ship faster with less coordination overhead
Stakeholder management for Engineering function, interfacing with Management Team, Product, Go-to-Market, etc.
Engineering org growth strategy
Full ownership of: hiring, onboarding, performance management, feedback loops, standards
Run 1:1s, address issues early, prevent “management/culture debt”
Set and enforce operating norms (communication, accountability, professionalism)
Design the org and team for where we’re going, not where we’ve been
Own interview loops, leveling, offers, and close strategy
Build a team optimized for ownership and customer impact (not bureaucracy)
Working with Product
Partner closely with the product manager and Founders to translate priorities into executable plans
Provide clear input on feasibility, trade-offs, and sequencing
Push back when scope, timelines, or priorities create execution risk
Actively shape priorities by bringing engineering perspective. Not just execute on priorities.
Ensure engineering has strong ownership, not just ticket execution.
Open source strategy
Work collaboratively with the Founders to continuously update Pipekit’s open source strategy
Own stewardship + execution of our open-source strategy (what/when/how)
Develop close relationships with key stakeholders & partners
Be a senior technical voice externally (community, partners, key users)
What success looks like (first 90 days)
Team delivers consistent weekly progress against clearly prioritized goals (visible plan, low thrash)
Every initiative has a directly responsible engineer; fewer escalations and handoffs
Lightweight planning + tracking (e.g., weekly planning, simple milestones, fast feedback loops) that increases throughput
Explicit standards for code quality, reviews, and reliability are followed
Calibrated hiring bar, active pipeline, and a repeatable interview & onboarding loops in motion
Founders trust engineering execution without needing to intervene daily
PM ↔ Eng collaboration produces realistic scopes, fewer re-plans, and faster decisions
Who you are
Senior engineering leader who has built and led high-performing startup teams
Enjoys leadership work on a small team
Credible technically to earn trust quickly across strong engineers
Strong people manager who likes leadership work (standards, coaching, hard calls)
Comfortable in ambiguity and early-stage, pre-PMF reality
Pragmatic, low ego, decisive, and direct communicator
Experienced with building open source and open-core products
This role is not a good fit for you if
You prefer stable roadmaps over evolving priorities
You default to adding process instead of simplifying
You are uncomfortable making decisions with incomplete information
You prefer purely managerial roles without technical involvement
