Starburst is the data platform for analytics, applications, and AI, unifying data across clouds and on-premises to accelerate AI innovation. Organizations—from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises in 60+ countries—rely on Starburst for fast data access, seamless collaboration, and enterprise-grade governance on an open hybrid data lakehouse. Wherever data lives, Starburst unlocks its full potential, powering data and AI from development to deployment. By future-proofing data architecture, Starburst helps businesses fuel innovation with AI.
We are hiring a Director of AI Engineering to lead all engineering initiatives related to Starburst’s rapidly expanding AI platform. This is a foundational role to drive execution across inference, agentic workflows, hybrid search, governance, and integration with customer ecosystems.
As a Director, Engineering - Head of Applied AI at Starburst you will:- Own engineering execution across AI workflows, agents, and model integrations
- Partner with PM and GTM teams to define roadmap and co-own AI strategy
- Build and manage a high-performing AI engineering team (across UX, backend, infra)
- Collaborate across Cloud, Platform, and Product teams to ensure AI cohesion
- Establish architecture principles for inference, vector search, and agentic pipelines
- Represent Starburst Engineering in customer briefings and strategic GTM efforts
- 10+ years engineering experience, 5+ in AI/ML systems, data platforms, or infra
- Deep understanding of LLM lifecycle: embedding, inference, RAG, governance
- Proven leadership of platform teams or AI infra in production
- Familiarity with LangChain, LlamaIndex, NVIDIA NIMs, or similar frameworks
- Hands-on experience with Iceberg, Trino, or other modern data platforms is a plus
- Excellent communication and execution skills
- Ability to Travel: This role will require occasional in-person travel for purposes including but not limited to new hire onboarding, team and department offsites, customer engagements, and other company events. Actual travel expectations may vary by role and business needs.
- Ideally, this role is based in one of our US hub locations, Boston or San Francisco, and follows a hybrid model, with an expectation of being onsite 2-3 days per week.
All-Stars have the opportunity and freedom to realize their true potential. By building alongside top talent, we’re empowered to take ownership of our careers and drive meaningful change. Anchored in industry-proven technology and unprecedented success, All-Stars are taking on the challenge everyday to disrupt our industry – and the future.
Our global workforce is supported by a competitive Total Rewards program that reflects our commitment to a rewarding and supportive work environment. This includes a variety of benefits like competitive pay, attractive stock grants, flexible paid time off, and more.
We are committed to fostering an intentional, inclusive, and diverse culture that drives deep engagement, authentic belonging, and an exceptional All-Star experience. We believe that diversity of thought, perspective, background and experience will enable us to own what we do, drive our success and empower our All-Stars to show up authentically.
Starburst provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state
or local laws.
Top Skills
What the Team is Saying
What We Do
At Starburst, we are working to dismantle the status quo of data silos and vendor lock-in every single day.
Starburst offers a full-featured data lake analytics platform, built on open-source Trino. Our platform includes all the capabilities needed to discover, organize, and consume data without the need for time-consuming and costly migration projects. Today more than 200 leading organizations trust us to make better decisions faster.
Though Starburst has raised $414M in venture funding from top investors, we were founded in a rather unusual way as we bootstrapped the business with customers and revenue from the very beginning! We are a remote-first company with employees all over the world and are proud to be named a Best Place to Work.
Our founders are the creators of Trino (and previously Presto at Facebook). 10 years ago, they created Trino as the analytic database to stand the test of time. Funny enough, they never had any intentions to start a company around it. 5 years ago, we started Starburst with a similarly audacious goal: To build an iconic company that would stand the test of time.
We are solving exceptionally complex and meaningful challenges here and as we innovate, we each have the opportunity to build our careers alongside Starbursts’s growth.
Starburst has raised $414 million in venture funding and we are hiring across all functions to support our massive growth!
Why Work With Us
All-Stars have the opportunity and freedom to realize their true potential. By building alongside top talent, we’re empowered to take ownership of our careers and drive meaningful change. Anchored in industry-proven technology and unprecedented success, All-Stars are taking on the challenge everyday to disrupt our industry – and the future.
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Starburst Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
Working across the world, but more connected than ever We support All-Stars in different locations with a focus on our major offices in Boston, London, Warsaw, and Tel Aviv.
