Lemi AI
Founding Head of Engineering, Vietnam
Build Lemi’s engineering organisation in Vietnam and own the architecture and production quality behind our first enterprise deployments.
Why this role exists
Build and lead Lemi’s engineering organisation in Vietnam. You will own the architecture and production quality behind our first enterprise deployments, hire the initial local engineering team and remain hands-on with the systems we ship.
This is a hands-on leadership role. You blend multi-year technical direction with the ability to dive into AI architecture, ML infrastructure, and code-level delivery quality alongside your team.
What you will own
Enterprise delivery & technical readiness
- Serve as a primary technical point of contact for strategic partnerships — translate business agreements into engineering specs and product timelines.
- Own engineering readiness, stability, and timely execution for early product shipments in Vietnam.
- Adapt technical baselines to Vietnamese regulatory constraints, data privacy requirements, AI safety parameters, and local infrastructure realities.
Engineering organisation
- Build, scale, and mentor the Vietnam engineering team from the ground up — software, infrastructure, and ML.
- Establish practical methodologies: code review, CI/CD, and QA practices that fit an early-stage team.
Architecture & production quality
- Lead architecture design reviews across ML stacks, AI infrastructure, scalability, and performance.
- Set a clear quality bar for production — testing, model integration checks, and risk-mitigation dry runs before deployment.
- Collaborate with local system integrators, compute providers, and vendors when needed to meet deployment requirements.
What you may work on
- Architecture and production quality for first enterprise deployments in Vietnam.
- Hiring and mentoring the initial local engineering team.
- Translating partnership agreements into engineering specs and delivery timelines.
- Adapting systems to Vietnamese regulatory, privacy, and infrastructure constraints.
What success looks like
After 90 days
- You have a clear view of architecture priorities and production risks for early deployments.
- Hiring plans for the initial Vietnam engineering team are underway, with a defined quality bar.
- You are hands-on enough that the founding team trusts your read on delivery readiness.
After one year
- A functioning Vietnam engineering organisation exists — people, practices, and ownership — not just a hiring plan.
- Early enterprise deployments meet a production quality bar you set and can defend.
- Architecture decisions you led are durable enough for the next wave of deployments to reuse.
How this role works with the team
The Deployment Strategist owns why and what we build for an enterprise problem. The Founding Engineer owns how an individual deployment is technically built. The Head of Engineering owns the platform, engineering standards and organisation that allow those deployments to scale.
These are not rigid boundaries. On an early team, people work across disciplines when the work requires it.
What we are looking for
- Deep AI or ML infrastructure background — scalable ML infrastructure, training/deployment pipelines, and large-scale AI production environments.
- 8+ years total technical experience with at least 3+ years in senior leadership (VP/Director/Head of Engineering) delivering complex enterprise AI or hardware-software integrated systems.
- Prior experience with conglomerates, SOEs, or strategic cross-corporate stakeholders preferred.
- Strong understanding of Vietnam's technical infrastructure, operations, and tech talent market.
- Exceptional bilingual communication in English and Vietnamese — bridging regional developers, local partners, and executives.
Why join Lemi
- Our team and advisors have shipped at Meta, Google, Tesla, TikTok, Reddit, and Walmart Labs, and include operators from McKinsey, Visa, and the World Bank. We're not a research lab chasing benchmarks. We're people who have built at scale and worked inside large institutions, which is what actually deploying AI into one requires.
- Ground-floor opportunity to build Lemi’s engineering organisation in Vietnam.
- Engineering-first culture: technical substance, velocity, and real-world impact over bureaucracy.
- Work directly with founders on early enterprise deployments.
Hiring process
Five rounds to learn how you think, build, and work with clients. Communication is weighted as heavily as coding. Each stage earns the next.
Round 1 — Screen (~30 min)
Resume review and a short screen on motivation, logistics, and fit — gatekeeping before deeper investment on both sides.
Round 2 — Technical (~60 min)
Hiring-manager technical screen: hands-on coding currency and client-facing judgment.
Round 3 — Panel (CTO & CPO) (~90 min (2×45))
Two segments: product sense and scoping under ambiguity, then a technical deep dive on architecture and live problem-solving. CPO / Product: Product sense and scoping under ambiguity. CTO: Technical deep dive on architecture and live problem-solving.
Round 4 — CEO (~45 min)
Values and behavioral conversation: honesty, augment-not-replace, and long-horizon commitment.
Round 5 — Offer
References and clearance, then offer.
The process may vary slightly by role.
Apply
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