Job description

About nTop nTop builds parametric design software for the hardest geometry problems in aerospace, defense, propulsion, and industrial energy. Our platform lets engineers define a design as a parametric program — not one aircraft or turbine, but every variant a program might need — and explore design spaces that were previously too large to search. Our product platform spans implicit modeling, GPU-accelerated physics simulation, optimization, and distributed computing. It is the engine inside everything nTop ships. The Role We're hiring a Director of Engineering to lead the engineering organization behind nTop's product platform: the teams that build our modeling and rendering engine, our simulation capabilities, our distributed computing platform, and the quality function that spans all three. You will report to the CTO, lead a team of engineering managers, and own how the platform roadmap gets executed. This is a newly created role at an inflection point for the company. Alongside the products our customers rely on today, we are building the next generation of nTop: a deeply collaborative engineering environment where teams of engineers and AI agents work together on the same design at the same time. It is a zero-to-one product with a demanding timeline, and delivering it while continuing to ship for existing customers is the central challenge of this job. Meeting that challenge means changing how we build software. nTop is moving to an AI-assisted software development lifecycle, working with leading AI and hardware partners, with the goal of improving our operating tempo by an order of magnitude. The Director of Engineering will lead that transformation across the platform teams — not as a side project, but as the way the roadmap gets delivered. The CTO sets direction. This role makes it real: translating strategy into plans, plans into shipped software, and an ambitious vision into an organization that can execute on it. What You'll Do Own execution of the product platform roadmap. Turn the direction set by the CTO and our platform Product Managers into engineering plans with clear ownership and sequencing, and hold the organization to them. When plans meet reality, decide, communicate, and adjust. Lead and grow the engineering management team. Hire, develop, and coach the engineering managers who run the platform teams, and build them into a leadership team that operates with clear expectations, individualized coaching, and disciplined project management. Drive the shift to AI-assisted development. Lead the adoption of an AI-native software development lifecycle across the platform organization: define what it looks like in practice, measure its impact, and partner with our external AI and hardware partners to accelerate it. Make the engineering process faster end to end. Own the path from idea to shipped software — planning, development, review, quality, release — and systematically remove the delays between steps. Automate what can be automated, including how we test and validate what we ship. Deliver zero-to-one and one-to-n at once. Stand up the next-generation product while keeping current products shipping and improving, and make the staffing and sequencing calls that let both succeed. Partner with Product. Work as a peer with the Director of Product Management for the platform and the platform PMs. Bring grounded technical judgment on feasibility, sequencing, and risk, and propose alternatives when plans don't account for real constraints. Represent platform engineering. Be the voice of the platform engineering organization with the CTO, the broader R&D leadership team, and the company. What Success Looks Like In your first months , you have a clear read on each team and each manager, a working relationship with your Product counterparts, and a map of where the engineering process is fastest and where it slows down. In your first year , the platform organization has a full and effective management team, ships measurably faster and with substantially more automation than it does today, and has delivered the first release of the next-generation product to early customers — without letting the existing products fall behind. Who You Are Required • Significant experience leading engineering organizations, including managing engineering managers across multiple teams. • A record of making an engineering organization faster — you've changed how a team plans, builds, tests, or ships, and you can point to the result. • You've delivered a new product from zero to one while keeping existing products healthy. • Hands-on experience leading the adoption of AI-assisted development in an engineering organization, and a clear point of view on how it changes process, staffing, and quality. • Enough technical depth to be credible with expert engineers in geometry, GPU computing, physics simulation, or distributed systems. • Exceptional at prioritization and decision-making under an ambitious timeline, and creative about how work gets done. Preferred • Experience in CAD, CAE, PLM, or other engineering software, or another domain where mistakes are costly and customers move deliberately. • Experience building real-time collaborative or multi-user systems. • Experience modernizing quality engineering toward automated, continuous testing. • Experience leading distributed teams across US and European time zones. • Familiarity with C++ and Python codebases and GPU-accelerated computing. Why This Role Engineering software is moving from a single engineer at a screen to teams of humans and AI agents designing together, and nTop intends to lead that shift. You will run the engineering organization that builds it, report directly to the CTO, and be measured on whether an ambitious vision actually ships. nTop is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

Requirements

Must-haves

The CTO sets direction. This role makes it real: translating strategy into plans, plans into shipped software, and an ambitious vision into an organization that can execute on it.
Deliver zero-to-one and one-to-n at once. Stand up the next-generation product while keeping current products shipping and improving, and make the staffing and sequencing calls that let both succeed.
Represent platform engineering. Be the voice of the platform engineering organization with the CTO, the broader R&D leadership team, and the company.
What Success Looks Like
In your first months , you have a clear read on each team and each manager, a working relationship with your Product counterparts, and a map of where the engineering process is fastest and where it slows down.
Significant experience leading engineering organizations, including managing engineering managers across multiple teams.
A record of making an engineering organization faster — you've changed how a team plans, builds, tests, or ships, and you can point to the result.
You've delivered a new product from zero to one while keeping existing products healthy.
Hands-on experience leading the adoption of AI-assisted development in an engineering organization, and a clear point of view on how it changes process, staffing, and quality.
Enough technical depth to be credible with expert engineers in geometry, GPU computing, physics simulation, or distributed systems.
Exceptional at prioritization and decision-making under an ambitious timeline, and creative about how work gets done.

Nice-to-haves

Experience in CAD, CAE, PLM, or other engineering software, or another domain where mistakes are costly and customers move deliberately.
Experience building real-time collaborative or multi-user systems.
Experience modernizing quality engineering toward automated, continuous testing.
Experience leading distributed teams across US and European time zones.
Familiarity with C++ and Python codebases and GPU-accelerated computing.
Why This Role
nTop is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

Application prep

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Keywords to mirror

aipython

Platform: gem
Effort: medium

Benefits

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Vision