Director of Product Engineering

Company: Timbuk2 AI Location: Cape Town (Hybrid) Compensation: Executive-Level Salary + Significant Foundational Equity StakeOur Mission: Mapping the UnmappedTimbuk2 AI is building the market intelligence engine for Africa's informal economies. We transform real-world, often-hidden data (from informal retail, micro-enterprises, and high-movement zones) into actionable insights. We empower businesses with the tools to drive location planning, retail strategy, and targeted engagement in the markets that everyone else ignores.The Role: This is Not a 'Business as Usual' JobThis is a "greenfield-on-a-brownfield" mission. We've built a V1 platform that has proven our market, but it was not built for scale or speed. It was built with a "PDF-generation" mindset, not a modern, reactive UI mindset.We are not looking for a "process manager" to just oversee tickets. We are looking for an AI-First Architect and Player-Coach to partner directly with the CEO, take "truth-teller" ownership of our entire tech stack, and re-architect it for the "Vercel-Native" generation.You are the single-threaded owner for technical quality, architecture, and velocity. Your mission is to fix the "sins of the past" (a slow, monolithic backend) and build a world-class, "Data-First" platform that is fast, reliable, and "just works."Core ResponsibilitiesArchitectural "Truth-Teller": You will own the technical roadmap. You will immediately diagnose our performance bottlenecks, stop the "migration of the problem," and implement a scalable, decoupled, UX-first architecture.AI-Native Leadership: You will be the "Head of AI" and "Head of Eng" in one. You will lead the development of our core LLM-based insights engine, championing Context Engineering and using AI-native tools (Cursor, etc.) to 10x the team's output.A-Player "Player-Coach": You will ship production-grade Python code. You will lead, mentor, and level-up our engineering team. You will be the "bar-setter" for quality and accountability, managing in A-Players and managing out B-Players.Product & Velocity Obsession: You will be the CEO's key partner in translating product vision into a high-velocity, high-quality, MVP-driven roadmap. You will obsess over shipping, and you will cringe at slow load times.NON-NEGOTIABLE Requirements (The "Who")We are looking for a specific archetype. You must have:7+ Years of Experience: A minimum of 7 years in engineering, with a clear progression to a Principal, Staff, or Director-level role.The "Monolith-Slayer" (Proof): You have personally led the re-architecture of a monolithic application into a performant, decoupled microservices system. You must be able to diagram this from memory.The "AI-First" Builder (Proof): You have personally shipped a production-level product where Generative AI/LLMs were core to the user value, not just a minor feature.Hands-On Python Expert: You are a "player-coach" who can write world-class, production-grade Python (FastAPI, Django, etc.) and set the standard for the team.Product-Obsessed: You are a UX-minded architect. You understand that the backend serves the frontend. You are disgusted by anything that makes a user wait."AI-Native" Fluency: You don't just "know about" AI tools. You use Cursor (or similar) daily and are fluent in the "Vercel-Native" stack (Vercel, Next.js, Serverless, Neon/KV).Why You Should Join Timbuk2 AIMassive Impact: You will be solving a world-first problem—creating the definitive intelligence engine for Africa's $1 Trillion informal economy.Foundational Equity: This is a Director-level role with a significant, life-changing equity stake. You are not an employee; you are an owner.Total Autonomy: You have a direct mandate from the CEO. There is no bureaucracy. Just find the truth, and build.