Vice President Software Engineering Jobs in California

Knightscope is seeking an exceptionally strong engineering executive in the role of Vice President Software Engineering & AI with end-to-end responsibility for the software and AI backbone of the nation's first Autonomous Security Force. Reporting directly to the EVP & Chief Intelligence Officer / Chief Information Security Officer, you will be her technical and leadership partner a true second-in-command for everything software, data and AI.

Signals is the AI-driven command platform a real-time digital twin fusing autonomous security robots, emergency communication devices, sensors and licensed security agents into one operating picture for our 24/7 Risk & Threat Exposure operations. Your first mission: bring Signals development fully in-house owning the architecture, the codebase, the roadmap and the team and then scale it across a nationwide fleet of 10,000+ machines serving more than 400 clients in 42 states.

You should be equally comfortable architecting cloud and edge infrastructure, debating ML pipeline design, pair-programming with an engineer, briefing the executive team, and rebuilding an organization assessing talent honestly, recruiting relentlessly, and raising the bar at every position. We are a fast-paced environment your personal drive and abilities will define execution speed and results.

Ability to handle a chaotic workload in a startup environment is critical. Willing to deal with vendors, throw out the trash, code something yourself, debug a data pipeline at 2am, help recruit, handle menial administrative tasks while also working on major big picture strategic work as a key contributor. Person is a general and a soldier.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the insourcing of the Signals platform from external development partners own the transition plan, the architecture, and the delivery without missing a beat in operations
• Assess, recruit and build a high-performing software, data and AI engineering organization from individual contributors through engineering leaders
• Own cloud and edge platform engineering: fleet management, observability, real-time data pipelines, enterprise APIs and analytics across a nationwide deployment of autonomous machines
• Drive the Company's AI strategy into production agentic AI, computer vision, sensor fusion and ML operations that multiply the effectiveness of every machine and every human on the force
• Champion AI adoption across the engineering lifecycle autonomous coding agents, modern SDLC, and operational rigor with mission-critical SLAs
• Architect for federal readiness secure-by-design infrastructure supporting FedRAMP and government client requirements in partnership with the CISO
• Make significant architectural and technical decisions sometimes with a majority of information available and sometimes without any reliable information

Qualifications:

• 15+ years of software engineering experience including 7+ years leading engineering organizations through hypergrowth (0 to 1 and 10 to 100)
• Proven experience building and operating cloud and edge platforms for physical fleets robotics, autonomous systems, IoT or comparable real-world machine operations
• Deep, hands-on background in distributed systems, real-time data infrastructure, ML pipelines and modern AI including generative and agentic AI in production
• Track record of rebuilding teams: honest talent assessment, recruiting senior engineers, and establishing a culture of operational excellence with 99.9%+ service reliability
• Experience operating in or delivering to regulated and government environments (FedRAMP, FedRAMP High, or equivalent)
• Technical Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree a plus

Bonus Points:

• Early employee at venture-backed startups with successful exits
• Robotics-as-a-Service or autonomous fleet operations experience
• Security industry experience cybersecurity, physical security or public safety technology

Compensation & Benefits:

Base Salary: $300,000 $375,000 DOE

Bonus: Target annual bonus of up to 30% of base salary

Equity: Significant equity grant in the form of stock options every member of the team is an owner

Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, 401(k), and paid time off

Location Requirement: Full-time, on-site at Knightscope HQ, Sunnyvale, CA

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.