VP of Engineering, Navigation

What We Do

The Navigation organization SDK and Dash teams builds frameworks, APIs, SDKs and applications that power navigation everywhere. Customers of our SDK include automotive, logistics, and consumer apps on Android, iOS, and Linux, small and large. Our developers build apps and navigation experiences that top the App Store and Play Store rankings, and we are constantly working together to help them build what’s next, whether that’s an AI-powered experience, a popular consumer app, an enterprise app for large fleets or rideshares, or an autonomous driving experience.

The teams at Mapbox are revolutionizing in-car experiences with technology to build fast, industry-leading maps and navigation for any vehicle. We’ve launched products such as MapGPT, Mapbox for EV, and we’re enhancing the visual experience of in-vehicle navigation with 3D styling with our new Mapbox Standard through web and mobile SDKs. Mapbox has worked with automotive partners—including BMW, Toyota, GM, and more—and on-demand logistics fleets to bring the best aspects of mobile app development into in-vehicle navigation and infotainment.

• Mapbox Navigation: A Guide to Navigation SDK & APIs
• Mapbox Newsroom: AI Features in New Navigation SDK
• Mapbox Blog: Introducing 3D Live Navigation

What You'll Do

As the VP of Engineering for Navigation at Mapbox, you will be responsible for driving technical and operational excellence, leading high-performing teams, and defining and executing the roadmap that is advancing our Navigation SDK, API, and app & Dash offerings and shaping the way people, packages, and vehicles move around the world. You will work closely with cross-functional teams, including Product and Design, customers, and market makers. You'll set the vision, create the strategy, and drive the execution to achieve market success by delighting our customers as we embed navigation into the fabric of their applications.

This position will report directly to the SVP of Location Services and will oversee several engineering teams within our Navigation org, including Dash Apps & 3D Live Navigation Experiences, SDKs, Directions, Traffic, Incidents, and Automotive Integrations. The ideal candidate will have a passion for building seamless, data-driven mobility solutions and have a background in developing mobile or embedded SDKs and apps across platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Linux). This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of in-vehicle navigation and drive advancements across verticals and geographies.

In this role, you will

• Shape the Vision: Play a key role in envisioning and evolving our Navigation products, contributing to business and product planning.
• Drive Strategic Objectives: Align your team’s work with company and product goals, ensuring strategic cohesion.
• Promote Collaboration and Innovation: Build an inclusive and collaborative environment where data-driven decisions fuel success.
• Architecture & Innovation: Lead architectural decisions and drive the adoption of new technologies to maintain a competitive edge.

What We Believe are Important Traits for This Role

• Leadership Experience: 15+ years leading engineering orgs, including managing managers and scaling teams of 200+ engineers.
• Technical Expertise: 15+ years of software engineering experience with deep technical judgment.
• Strong academic foundation: A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Ownership & execution: Own the vision, lead the strategy, and guide the team in building the future of our navigation SDKs, APIs, and apps.
• Organization building: You understand the 10X difference between good and great organizations and strive to be the force multiplier to help your org get there.
• Customer focus. You care deeply about your customers and their problems, and you work tirelessly to innovate on their behalf.
• Growth mindset: Have the humility to accept mistakes, learn, and grow from them.
• Strong written and vocal communication skills. You can talk and write about complex ideas concisely to a broad audience.
• Operational excellence: You drive a culture of quality and continuous improvement in your organization
• Data-informed mindset: You believe in the value of data-informed decision-making and strive to measure things that are not straightforward but essential. You also have the right instincts to make speedy decisions in the absence of perfect & comprehensive data.
• Hire & elevate: Great leaders understand the importance of hiring the best talent and creating a culture where team members can learn & grow with the organization. You demonstrate investment in coaching and stretching colleagues across all levels.
• Experience bringing products to market: You have a proven track record of shipping successful products. You have experience coordinating deadlines, setting pricing, developing a marketing strategy, and enabling support teams.

Valuable but Not Required Experience

• Background in navigation, mapping, or routing technologies.
• Experience managing OEM integrations and technical partnerships.
• Experience managing P&L and balancing budgets with investments to drive growth and efficiency.

What We Value

In addition to our core values, which are not unique to this position and are necessary for Mapbox leaders:

• We value high-performing creative individuals who dig into problems and opportunities.
• We believe in individuals being their whole selves at work. We commit to this through supportive health care, parental leave, flexibility for the things that come up in life, and innovating on how we think about supporting our people.
• We emphasize an environment of teaching and learning to equip employees with the tools needed to be successful in their function and the company.
• We strongly believe in the value of growing a diverse team and encourage people of all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and sexual orientations to apply.

Our annual base compensation for this role ranges from $290,000 - $370,000 for most US locations and 5% to 10% higher for US locations with a higher cost of labor. Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

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We are committed to a fair and equitable hiring process. We do not discriminate against any protected class.

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