Role
Our first product-focused engineer
Takes high-level direction (e.g., "analyze X") and drives to results
Success looks like a LanceDB platform that is even more tightly focused on our ICP, and providing clarity on what engineering builds
Day-to-day
Shape roadmap with CTO + eng leadership
Deep dives into competitors, users, and adjacent tech
Talk to users constantly; turn insight into product changes
Drive cross-team decisions on priorities (eng, field, support)
Work with engineering directly as a technically-respected peer
Qualifications
5–8+ years as a software engineer or in a highly technical product role
Shipped and iterated on products end-to-end
Experience working on large-scale data platforms (e.g., databases, data infra, ML/AI systems)
Understanding of AI researcher persona - what success looks like for them, what are their pain points, what increases their happiness
Regularly engaged with users (interviews, support, design partners, or community)
Demonstrated ownership of ambiguous projects with minimal guidance
Experience influencing or driving roadmap / prioritization decisions
Strong written and verbal communication (can drive alignment across teams)
Comfortable using data (metrics, experiments, usage) to guide decisions
Experience contributing to or working with open source communities
Why
Help define and execute product at LanceDB
Work directly with teams building real AI systems in production
Sit at the center of infra + product—few roles like this exist
High ownership, zero PM theater
Early seat in shaping a category (AI-native data layer)
Clear path to owning larger product scope over time