VP, Engineering

About Skillz

If you want to build, own, and see your impact — join Skillz and level up your career.

Skillz is the competition infrastructure platform that powers real-money, skill-based tournaments inside mobile games. We didn't just enter the competitive gaming market — we invented it. Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and inventor Andrew Paradise, Skillz built the category from scratch: the patented matchmaking, identity, payments, fraud protection, and developer tools that make fair, real-stakes competition possible at scale.

Skillz hosts billions of casual mobile gaming tournaments for millions of players worldwide and is revolutionizing the gaming industry. By fostering social competition within games, the Skillz platform helps developers build multi-million dollar franchises by enabling real-money activity in their games and providing operational support while connecting players through fair, enjoyable, and meaningful competition.

Today, Skillz is part of FIRY — a global holding company operating at the intersection of gaming, AI-powered performance marketing, and developer infrastructure. Alongside RZR, our AI-driven ad network, and Beamable, our backend and LiveOps platform, Skillz sits at the center of a compounding data flywheel that no standalone competitor can replicate. 800,000+ daily tournaments. $7.5 billion in lifetime prizes paid to players. 90 million registered users.

We're a high-conviction team of builders who came from Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, X, Roblox, Zynga, Samsung, Lyft, EA, Riot, Nexon, Gameskraft, PlayStation, Unity, Scopely, Tinder, Intel, Deloitte, EY, Twitch, DraftKings, Wynn Resorts, and more. We operate like a startup, hold ourselves to high standards, and move fast with purpose. If you want to work on infrastructure that matters — and be part of a team that fights for what it builds — Skillz is the right place.

About the Role

As VP of Engineering at Skillz, you will own the full engineering organization across the US and Bangalore - including product engineering, platform, infrastructure, and data - and be accountable for its reliability, velocity, and culture. Reporting directly to the General Manager of Skillz, you will define and execute the technical strategy for Skillz's platform, manage engineering processes and delivery across both offices, and develop the careers of every engineer on your team. This role requires deep technical credibility, strong executive presence, and a genuine passion for gaming. If you thrive at the intersection of people leadership, technical strategy, and operational excellence - this is the role for you.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and multi-year roadmap for Skillz's platform, aligning engineering investments with business strategy and product priorities.
• Own the full engineering organization - product engineering, platform, infrastructure, and data - driving reliability, velocity, and quality across all disciplines.
• Hire, retain, coach, and develop engineers and engineering managers at every level; build a culture of accountability, high performance, and continuous growth.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Finance, Data Science, and executive leadership; track delivery milestones, proactively surface risks to upper management, and develop mitigation plans to protect critical outcomes.
• Drive architectural decisions and champion engineering best practices including CI/CD, observability, incident response, and security-by-design to ensure the platform scales with the business.
• Interface cross-functionally to prioritize features and functionality based on available resources and business impact, serving as the primary engineering voice in executive-level planning.

Key Competencies

• Executive communication - translates technical complexity for C-suite and board audiences; manages stakeholder expectations proactively and with clarity.
• People leadership - develops managers and engineers with intention, builds high-trust teams, and creates psychologically safe environments where people do their best work.
• Technical credibility - hands-on in system design and code review; earns respect from engineers at all levels and makes sound architectural judgment calls.
• Risk management - identifies delivery risks early, develops concrete mitigation plans, and keeps cross-functional partners aligned through ambiguity.
• Operational discipline - sets and enforces standards for on-call, incident response, and platform reliability; owns SLAs/SLOs with a continuous improvement mindset.

Experience

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years managing managers at a VP or Senior Director level in a high-growth technology company.
• Gaming industry experience is required; active gaming engagement is a strong plus.
• Hands-on background in system design, distributed systems, and mobile backend architecture; experience with real-time systems, payment infrastructure, or fraud/trust systems is a plus.
• Proven track record of building and scaling engineering organizations at a consumer-facing platform.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent industry experience; experience at a publicly traded or late-stage venture-backed company preferred.

Total Starting Compensation including Base + Bonus + Equity: $350,000

Location: Hybrid in San Francisco, California

Travel Requirement: Less than 10%

#LI-Hybrid #LI-SC1

Skillz embraces diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As part of our commitment to diversifying our workforce, we do not discriminate on the basis of age, race, sex, gender, gender identity, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or disability status, and we operate in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance_._