Spacture AI builds ML-powered, privacy-first systems for real-time theft detection in retail environments. Our platform combines computer vision, distributed backend services, and cloud infrastructure, and is built by engineers from Meta, Google, Apple, and Walmart . Backed by top Silicon Valley investors, we work closely with leading NYC retailers like Amish Market and Foodcellar to ship reliable, scalable security software in production.

The Head of Engineering will lead and scale the Ankara-based engineering organization building our ML-powered SaaS security platform. You will combine hands-on technical leadership with people management, ensuring the team ships high-quality software that aligns with product and business goals.

This role partners very closely with the CEO and CTO and involves clear communication with both the Ankara team and US-based leadership, plus select customer-facing conversations when needed. You will help set engineering culture, processes, and standards while managing a team of 15+ engineers across ML and SaaS product work.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow an engineering team of 15+ engineers, including performance management and career development.
• Set and enforce standards for code quality, code review, testing, deployment, and documentation across the team.
• Oversee design and delivery of SaaS features and ML-powered capabilities, ensuring reliability, scalability, and security.
• Review code for critical paths and guide architectural decisions across frontend, backend, data, and ML components.
• Collaborate closely with product, CEO, and CTO to align the engineering roadmap with business priorities and customer needs.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including building and operating SaaS products.
• 2+ years of people management experience (e.g., team lead, engineering manager, or head of engineering), managing engineers teams.
• Broad technical background across web application stacks, with exposure to both ML systems and traditional SaaS architectures.
• Strong track record of setting and maintaining high standards in code quality, testing, deployment, and incident response.
• Experience working with both relational and document databases, cloud infrastructure, and modern DevOps practices.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience communicating with customers on technical topics.
• Comfortable working at startup pace, handling ambiguity, and balancing hands-on work with leadership responsibilities.

Bonus Skills

• Experience managing or closely partnering with ML / data science teams in a product setting.
• Prior leadership experience in a high-growth SaaS or security-focused company.
• Background working in or with distributed teams across multiple time zones.

Why Join

• Lead the core engineering hub in Ankara for a venture-backed AI security company, shaping team structure, culture, and technical direction.
• Work closely with the CEO and CTO on product and technology strategy while staying close to the code and technical decisions.
• Build and mentor a strong engineering team that spans ML and SaaS, with direct impact on customers in both Türkiye and the US.

Compensation

• Salary range: Gross, Contractor, 72,000 – 120,000 USD per year, depending on experience and fit.
• Equity range: 0.5% – 1.0% ownership as a founding member, subject to standard vesting.