--- title: 'Head of Engineer, Product at Pika' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-engineer-product-pika-united-states-nze1qewm24g3' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-14' --- # Head of Engineer, Product at Pika - **Company:** Pika - **Location:** United States - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-09-15 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/pika/99c13be0-3acc-40cb-b0f9-b546dbd7cf1f ## Job description ## About Pika At Pika, we’re building the next generation of AI creative tools to empower human creativity. Our mission is to make video creation seamless, intuitive, and accessible to everyone, leveraging the power of advanced AI. We believe that AI should amplify creative expression—enabling everyone to create, collaborate, and communicate across media. Our team includes engineers, artists, and product thinkers, all passionate about building tools that unlock new creative possibilities. Pika has raised significant funding and is backed by leading investors, with a collaborative culture based in Palo Alto, CA. We prefer hybrid in-office, sharing ideas and launching products together. ## About the Role We are seeking a Head of Engineer, Product Engineering, to provide visionary leadership for the strategy, architecture, and execution of Pika’s core product engineering initiatives. In this executive-level role, you will define and drive the execution of our technical roadmap for all user-facing products. You will lead and mentor high-performing engineering teams, working closely with product, design, and ML leadership to deliver features that are robust, scalable, and innovative for millions of users. Your technical expertise and leadership will shape product direction, ensuring exceptional engineering standards and prioritizing team growth and cross-functional alignment. ## What You’ll Do - Set and communicate the technical vision and strategy for product engineering across all Pika platforms and user-facing features - Lead, mentor, and scale multiple engineering teams, fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership, and innovation - Architect and oversee the delivery of scalable, high-performing systems, ensuring best practices in system reliability, security, and efficiency - Partner deeply with product, design, and ML teams to define technical solutions aligned with business and user needs - Guide technical decision-making at both strategic and architectural levels, including technology selection and process improvement - Champion standards for software quality, rapid iteration, and best-in-class product experience - Own the technical roadmap, including resource planning and milestone delivery for major product launches and iterations - Represent engineering in executive discussions and drive cross-functional alignment ## What We’re Looking For - 10+ years of progressive engineering experience, with significant time spent managing and scaling product engineering teams - Strong record of technical leadership in developing and launching complex, high-impact, user-facing products (web/mobile) - Proven experience in building and scaling distributed systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, etc.) - Mastery of system and software architecture for high-traffic, media-rich, or AI-powered applications - Emotional intelligence and mentorship skills, with a track record of developing engineering leaders and high-performing teams - Deep experience collaborating with executive leadership to shape organizational vision and drive business outcomes - Outstanding communication and organizational abilities, thriving in a collaborative, dynamic environment ## Nice to Have - Experience with generative AI, creative tools, or large-scale collaboration platforms - Background in high-growth startups or high-ambiguity environments - Open source, hackathon, or competitive coding experience ## Our Stack Python, Go, Node.js, Postgres, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP ## What We Offer - Competitive executive-level salary in the AI industry - Substantial equity in a fast-growing startup defining the future of AI and creativity - Comprehensive health benefits, monthly stipends, and company retreats - A collaborative leadership environment—we’re all building and launching together ## About Pika ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Pika is an AI-native creative platform that enables users to generate, edit, and transform videos—and now "birth" persistent AI agents—from text, images, and voice. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B) - **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States (also has an office in Mountain View, CA) - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Demi Guo (CEO), Chenlin Meng (CTO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Generative AI / AI Video & Agent Platform - **Target customers**: B2C (creators, social media users, marketers) and B2B (developers via Pika API and MCP) - **Mission or purpose**: To make video creation accessible to everyone, and now to give everyone a "creative partner" AI agent ## Products & Services - **Pika Video App**: The core product—an AI video generator that turns text prompts, images, and videos into new clips. Supports styles (3D animation, anime, cartoon, cinematic) and effects like "squish it, melt it, cake-ify it." - **Pika Agent**: A persistent, portable AI agent that users "birth" and own. Multi-modal (text, voice, image, video) and lives across platforms. Users can train it to have personality, memory, and voice—essentially a creative co-pilot. - **AI Trendmaker**: A feature that lets users hop on viral video trends with just a selfie and a sound. - **Pika API**: Hosted API for developers to integrate Pika's video generation capabilities into their own apps and workflows. - **Pika MCP**: Model Context Protocol for connecting agents to external tools and data. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (estimated at ~$470M post-money based on Series B terms) - **Total Funding**: $135M across 4 rounds - Pre-Seed (Jan 2023): $15M led by Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross - Seed (May 2023): Amount undisclosed - Series A (Nov 2023): $35M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners - Series B (Jun 2024): $80M led by Spark Capital - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount grew 27.4% YoY to 59 employees - Monthly website visits: ~1.87M (global rank #25,677) - Talent sourced from top AI labs (TikTok, Jane Street, Runway, Kling AI, Snap Inc.) - 1 active job posting (Head of Engineering) as of mid-2026 - Launched Pika Agent and Pika API in 2025-2026, expanding beyond video generation into agentic AI ## Competitive Advantages - **"Birth and own" agent model**: Pika is pioneering the concept of a user-owned, persistent AI agent that evolves with the user—different from one-off chatbot interactions. - **Multi-modal creative platform**: Combines video generation, agent capabilities, and trend tools in one ecosystem. - **Strong early traction and talent density**: Raised $135M quickly from top-tier investors; alumni from TikTok, Runway, Jane Street, and other elite tech firms. - **Small, high-leverage team**: ~59 people operating globally with a "small, dynamic team" culture that values efficiency and ambition. ## Strategic Focus - **Agent-first future**: Pika is shifting from "just a video tool" to an agent platform where users create and own their AI creative partner. - **Platform expansion**: Opening up via API and MCP to integrate with external apps and workflows. - **Global reach**: Operating in 19 countries with a distributed (but Palo Alto-centric) team. - **Continued R&D in generative video**: Improving realism, style variety, and real-time generation. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: Pika describes itself as "small, dynamic" and values "efficiency, collaboration, and creativity." They seek "intellect, work ethic, and ambition." - **Remote/Hybrid**: Not explicitly stated, but the team is distributed across 19 countries (with the US hub in Palo Alto/Mountain View). Likely hybrid or flexible. - **Notable perks**: The careers page emphasizes "career growth in a culture that fosters both individual and collective development." They also champion an inclusive culture. - **Engineering culture**: Tech stack includes Python, TypeScript, Kubernetes, TensorFlow, React, and more. The team has strong representation from top AI labs and trading firms. The open role is Head of Engineering, suggesting they need a senior leader to scale. - **Impact**: You'd be building the infrastructure for a new category of "owned AI agents" and state-of-the-art video generation—working on cutting-edge generative AI. ## Sources 1. [pika.art](https://pika.art/) – Official website 2. [pika.art/careers](https://pika.art/careers) – Careers page 3. [LinkedIn (Pika Labs)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pika-labs) – Company data, headcount, funding, talent 4. [Craft.co](https://craft.co/pika-art) – Company summary, locations, sectors 5. [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/pika-ai-self-agent/id6758411447) – Pika Agent app details ## Other roles at Pika - [Product Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-pika-united-states-5jmsmgqqc59k) — United States - [Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-pika-united-states-z74nah1052dn) — United States - [Growth Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-engineer-pika-united-states-ve2g8v53yde2) — United States - [Principal Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-product-pika-united-states-5mj1z1a3yqdf) — United States - [Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-product-pika-united-states-0m6ceye0wm3c) — United States - [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-pika-palo-alto-amgp22pfthqa) — Palo Alto, CA - [Head of Sales](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-pika-palo-alto-2vyc6rx4jzs7) — Palo Alto, CA - [Research Intern (BS/MS/PhD)](https://feeny.ai/job/research-intern-bs-ms-phd-pika-palo-alto-rgvx54yph1n5) — Palo Alto, CA - [Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-pika-united-states-ghy7tmfjf3t6) — United States - [Head of Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-growth-pika-palo-alto-wkvx79nkgnhn) — Palo Alto, CA