Director of AI Engineering

Couchbase India Private Limited; Bengaluru; Hybrid; INR 6,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous Time Off

Wellness Benefits

Retirement program

Career Growth

In-office/WFH setup

Snacks & meals

Job summary

Couchbase India Private Limited is seeking an Executive Director-level leader to architect and scale the Operational AI platform, aligning strategy, delivery, and operational excellence across distributed systems and cloud-native infrastructure.

You will lead a large engineering organization, partnering with Product, Design, SRE, and GTM teams to drive enterprise AI capabilities and platform reliability at scale.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience with 5+ years leading multiple teams.
• Strong background in distributed systems, databases, or large-scale cloud platforms.
• Hands-on experience with Data and AI infrastructure concepts (vector search, RAG, embeddings, LLMs).
• Experience building and operating production SaaS services at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow engineering teams focused on the Operational Data platform for AI.
• Drive architectural decisions for platform capabilities at the intersection of Databases, PaaS and AI.
• Ensure production-grade scalability for large-scale workloads.
• Partner with Product, Field, Support, and Customer Success to deliver enterprise AI capabilities.
• Balance innovation with operational rigor, ensuring reliability, performance, and security.
• Build cross-functional collaboration with database, storage, and cloud infra teams.
• Partner at the Executive Level across functions.
• Manage risk, investment, and efficiency.
• Mentor engineering managers and senior tech leaders to build leadership.
• Drive execution excellence at scale with KPIs for performance and reliability.

Skills

Distributed systems

Databases

Cloud platforms

Go

Python

Java

LLM

RAG

Vector search

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Director, AI Engineering

Couchbase, the operational data platform for AI, empowers businesses to succeed by bringing data to life in new ways. Major market-leading companies rely on Couchbase for mission critical operational, analytical, mobile and AI workloads. Built to replace legacy infrastructure and fragmented data services, Couchbase empowers enterprises with a unified platform architected for performance, flexibility and global scale. With Couchbase, organizations bring their data to life, launching game‑changing customer experiences, exploring the limitless potential of AI, and seamlessly extending applications from the cloud to the edge and beyond. Couchbase’s AI‑ready technology and enterprise partnership model eliminate complexity and reduce total cost of ownership, enabling teams to stay agile, innovative and secure. Couchbase believes data should never slow you down, but act as the foundation for your next breakthrough. Discover why Couchbase is trusted to help the world’s biggest players scale, move fast and stay resilient, no matter what’s next on their roadmap.

Location: Bangalore (Hybrid - in office at least 3 days/week)

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced and visionary technology leader to lead the development and scaling of our Operational AI platform capabilities. This role will own the strategy, architecture, delivery, and operational excellence of Couchbase AI Cloud Platform capabilities. This is a strategic leadership role at the intersection of distributed systems, cloud-native platforms, and AI. You will lead a large, multi-layered engineering organization responsible for delivering The Operational Data Platform for AI, while partnering closely with Product, Design, SRE, and Go-To-Market teams. Your leadership will directly influence company growth, customer adoption, platform reliability, and Couchbase’s competitive position in the market. This role requires a balance of strategic vision, organizational leadership, and technical depth.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and grow high-performing engineering teams focused on building the Operational Data platform for AI.
• Drive architectural decisions for multiple platform capabilities at the intersection of Databases, PaaS and AI.
• Ensure production-grade scalability for large-scale workloads.
• Partner closely with Product, Field, Support, and Customer Success to deliver differentiated enterprise AI capabilities.
• Balance innovation with operational rigour and ensuring reliability, performance, and security standards are met.
• Build strong cross-functional collaboration with core database, storage, and cloud infrastructure teams.
• Partner Cross-Functionally at the Executive Level
• Manage Risk, Investment, and Efficiency
• Mentor engineering managers and senior technical leaders to build a strong leadership team.
• Drive Execution Excellence at Scale by establishing metrics and KPIs for engineering performance, reliability, and productivity.

Required Qualifications

15+ years of experience in software engineering, with 5+ years leading multiple teams. Strong background in distributed systems, databases, or large-scale cloud platforms. Deep Experience in Cloud Platforms - AWS, GCP, Azure Hands-on familiarity with Data and AI infrastructure concepts such as: Vector search and indexing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Embedding pipelines LLM and inference systems Agent architectures and memory systems Experience building and operating production SaaS services at scale. Deep understanding of performance engineering, reliability, and cost optimization in cloud environments. Experience in Go, Python or Java.

At Couchbase, we believe innovation thrives when diverse perspectives are at the table. We actively encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds—including women, people of color, LGTBQIA+ professionals, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. If you see a role that excites you, but don’t meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply. Studies show underrepresented talent is less likely to apply unless they meet all the criteria. We encourage you to apply if you’re excited about the role and can bring strong contributions to our team. If you require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let your recruiter know—we’re happy to support you. We value diverse educational and career backgrounds. If your experience aligns with the role’s goals—even if it doesn’t follow a traditional path—we’d love to hear from you.

Why Couchbase?

Modern customer experiences need a flexible cloud database platform that can power applications spanning from cloud to edge and everything in between. Couchbase’s mission is to simplify how developers and architects develop, deploy and consume modern applications wherever they are. We have reimagined the database with our fast, flexible and affordable cloud database platform Capella, allowing organizations to quickly build applications that deliver premium experiences to their customers– all with best-in-class price performance. More than 30% of the Fortune 100 trust Couchbase to power their modern applications and build innovative new ones. See our recent awards to learn why Couchbase is a great place to work. We are honored to be a part of the Best Places to Work Award for the Bay Area and the UK.

Benefits

• Generous Time Off Program - Flexibility to care for you and your family
• Wellness Benefits - A variety of world class medical plans to choose from, along with dental, vision, life insurance, and employee assistance programs*
• Financial Planning - Retirement program* and Business Travel Insurance
• Career Growth - Be valued, Create value approach
• Fun Perks - An ergonomic and comfortable in-office / WFH setup.
• Food & Snacks for in-office employees.
• And much more!

*Note: some programs are not applicable to all countries. Please discuss with a Couchbase recruiter to learn more.

Disclaimer: Couchbase is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans’ status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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Experience Level Executive Level