VP Engineering

About Tylko

Tylko is a Warsaw-based D2C furniture company operating across 28 markets, combining a proprietary 3D configurator with on-demand manufacturing. We're ~200 people and a dynamically growing business heading into the next phase of scale.

Tylko sits at an unusual intersection: the customer experience of a fast D2C brand, the product complexity of an innovative configurator with effectively infinite variants, and the operational reality of an on-demand manufacturing network. We're profitable and growing, and our peak days put more sessions through the configurator than most furniture brands see in a quarter.

A Defining Moment for Engineering

Our technology team of ~40 engineers is in the middle of a major transformation: replatforming our e-commerce stack, migrating core business systems including ERP, and embedding AI deeply across the entire engineering workflow. Reporting directly to the CPTO, the VP Engineering joins at the most consequential moment in Tylko's technical history - owning the architecture decisions that will define how we scale for the next decade.

In this role, you will operate at the system level — designing how engineering works, not just what it builds.

You will drive the development of Tylko's proprietary IP:

• the configurator engine,

• the real-time rendering pipeline,

• and the fully automated, just-in-time production network that turns a customer's design into a manufactured product at scale.

You will empower our "Product Engineers" to deliver world-class solutions where deep technical architecture meets business-driven innovation.

Building an AI-Native Engineering Organisation

AI is reshaping how we design, review, and ship software at Tylko, and we're leaning into it hard.

The company runs on Claude, agents are first-class assignees in Linear, and our engineers work AI-native by default — past the experimentation phase, into daily practice.

What we need now is the next gear: turning what works in pockets into standards, alignment, and acceleration across the entire tech org. Because tech sits at the heart of how the whole company adopts AI, this role also helps drive that broader journey beyond engineering.

Where we are today. We're at an inflection point. The systems we built over the last decade are working and we're in the middle of replacing the foundations underneath them: a composable replatforming, an ERP migration, and a real acceleration in how we build. We've also rolled out a new operating model across product and tech - the frame is in place, and we're now in the phase of making it real in day-to-day execution. The engineering team is strong and ambitious - and at a stage where the next phase needs more structure than they have today: clearer leadership paths and stronger seniority architecture. The company is hungry for the next phase, and serious about innovation. The VP Engineering joins to help take all of that further - faster, sharper, and more aligned across the org.

Our stack reflects the breadth of what we build: Python and Django on the backend with FastAPI where we need it, running on GCP and actively migrating to GKE. The frontend is built on Nuxt with server-side rendering. Our geometry engine powering the configurator is a proprietary TypeScript library; the display layer runs on WebGL, with Unreal Engine called on demand for high-fidelity rendering. Our data platform is built on BigQuery and dbt.
On tooling: we use all major frontier models without vendor lock-in, and Linear is our work management system - including as the surface for agentic workflows.

What you'll do

This role owns the tech operating model, the decision-making structures, and the alignment mechanisms that let engineers move fast without losing coherence across Tylko's domains. Specifically, you will:

• Define and own technical strategy across all of Tylko's domains - spanning customer experience, physical product, fulfilment, and enabling platforms - ensuring architecture decisions hold up through the next phase of growth.

• Partner with the CPTO on product-tech direction and on how engineering connects into the wider company. The operating model that links tech to the rest of the business is set; you own how engineering actually runs inside that frame - the team setup, the engineering practices, the day-to-day way software gets built. Together we co-lead the product and software-development culture.

• Evolve the engineering organization for its next chapter - strengthening the craft culture, clarifying seniority and tech leadership paths that today aren't where they need to be, and building out a strong layer of engineering heads. This isn't about adding headcount; it's about creating the structure and standards that let a talented team operate at a higher level.

• Champion innovation across two frontiers that define Tylko: how AI reshapes the experience of designing and buying furniture, and how technology drives the company's deeper bet on automated, on-demand manufacturing - turning digital configuration and physical production into a single integrated system, and pushing it further toward Industry 4.0.

• Steer the replatforming and ERP migration programs at the architecture and strategy level, ensuring decisions made today hold up as Tylko scales.

• Own the data platform as a strategic asset - shaping how data architecture, analytics, and data engineering support pricing, production, supply chain, and customer experience decisions. Treat data as a product: reliable, well-modelled, and trusted at every level of the business, from a designer iterating on a configurator detail to the board reviewing weekly performance.

• Build the security and compliance foundation Tylko needs for its next phase - we're at the point where this stops being something you handle ad-hoc and starts being something you architect. Establish the practices, ownership, and tooling that protect customer data, manufacturing systems, and the codebase as the surface area grows.

• Oversee the transition towards a modular architecture while balancing innovation with technical debt, system complexity, and maintainability of AI-assisted codebases. 

• Make sure local engineering decisions compose into architecture that scales - team autonomy and system coherence have to reinforce each other, not trade off.

• Sit at the cross-functional leadership table as a peer - shaping company-level decisions where customer experience, manufacturing, and platform choices intersect. Not a tech lead being briefed on strategy, but someone helping set it.

• Define the engineering health metrics, OKRs, and operating cadence that connect technical excellence to business outcomes - and hold the team accountable to them.

Why Tylko?

Being a part of the Tylko team goes beyond clocking in every day. We celebrate inclusivity and work together to build a culture of happy, healthy employees who are truly heard. We provide:

• One bonus day off every month (in addition to regular days off)

• Comprehensive healthcare

• Multisport card

• A generous discount on all Tylko products

• A dog-friendly office!

What we're looking for:

• Multiple years leading engineering at high-growth e-commerce or B2C scale-up environments, with hands-on experience scaling systems and teams through rapid business growth

• Strong technical foundation across backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms - with the credibility to lead and make decisions across the full engineering stack

• Ability to make smart decisions quickly and move on - comfortable with incomplete information, low attachment to being right, high attachment to moving forward

• Actively curious engineer who stays close to emerging tools and AI-assisted development workflows - leading with credibility, not just authority

• Proven ability to attract and hire senior engineering talent - both as a direct skill (you've personally closed strong candidates) and as a system-builder (you've shaped how teams hire, calibrate, and onboard). The Warsaw senior engineering market is competitive; this role wins or loses on the strength of the people you bring in.

• Proven track record in leading major technical transformations or replatforming projects

• Fluent in the loop between technical decisions and business outcomes - comfortable reasoning about how rendering performance moves conversion, how configurator latency shapes AOV, or how production SLOs affect retention. The architecture choices in this role aren't abstract; they show up in the P&L.

• Fluency in engineering effectiveness metrics - from system reliability and delivery flow to developer productivity and platform health 

• Experience with AI-first development workflows - coding agents, code review, testing, documentation - and how to embed them into an engineering team's daily practice

• A strong plus (not a requirement): experience from companies where digital and physical operations are deeply integrated - manufacturing, logistics, hardware, fulfilment-heavy commerce.

• Fluency in Polish (C1) and English (C1)

• Working from our Warsaw office 3 days per week