Senior Director of Engineering

Weekday AI (YC W21); Bengaluru; On-site; INR 13 - 16; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering in Bengaluru to lead multiple product lines and drive operational excellence. This role carries full ownership of major platforms and will represent the India Engineering team in global leadership forums. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience, including numerous years in management, with a strong technical background in distributed systems and database management. Effective cross-functional communication and leadership are essential for success in this position.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of engineering experience, including 7-10 years in engineering management.
• Experience managing multiple managers and leading organizations of 35+ engineers.
• Strong understanding of hiring, retention, and leadership development in India.

Responsibilities

• Own the delivery of major product areas and platforms.
• Translate company strategy into actionable engineering plans.
• Drive improvements in engineering velocity and operational consistency.
• Serve as the senior engineering leader for India.

Skills

Distributed Systems

Database Engine Development

Database Design & Management Systems

Storage & Persistence Layers

Replication & Metadata Management

Cloud-Native Architectures

Observability & Scalability Engineering

Job description

This role is for one of the Weekday's clients

Min Experience: 15 years

Location: Bengaluru

JobType: full-time

We are seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead multiple product lines, translate strategic vision into execution, and build a high-performing engineering organization. This role carries full ownership of major platforms and represents India Engineering in global leadership forums. You will ensure the delivery of scalable, reliable, and high-impact products while developing strong engineering leaders and fostering a culture of ownership, urgency, and customer focus.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Delivery

• Own the delivery of major product areas and platforms, ensuring roadmap execution, quality, reliability, and predictable releases
• Translate company strategy into actionable engineering plans, including org design, staffing models, and quarterly/annual execution frameworks
• Drive improvements in engineering velocity, operational consistency, and technical excellence across teams
• Lead modernization initiatives while balancing innovation with technical debt management

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Provide architectural direction and technical oversight across core product domains
• Champion performance, scalability, security-by-design, and system resiliency
• Guide design reviews, deep technical discussions, and postmortems without becoming a bottleneck
• Drive long-term investments in platform scalability and distributed systems architecture
• Oversee initiatives related to database engines, storage systems, replication protocols, and persistence layers

India Site Leadership

• Serve as the senior engineering leader for India and represent the organization in global leadership forums
• Build and nurture a culture of accountability, urgency, and customer impact
• Manage budgets, headcount planning, and vendor/tooling strategy
• Hire, mentor, and retain top engineering talent, including Engineering Managers and Senior Managers
• Partner closely with US, EMEA, and APAC teams to ensure seamless cross-geography execution
• Drive leadership development and succession planning within the India organization

Cross-Functional Influence

• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and GTM teams to deliver aligned business outcomes
• Influence priorities across time zones and functions, effectively managing trade-offs
• Communicate clearly and confidently at the executive level through written, asynchronous, and verbal updates

Required Experience

Leadership

• 10+ years of engineering experience, including 7-10 years in engineering management
• Experience managing multiple managers and leading organizations of 35+ engineers
• Proven ownership of large-scale product or platform domains with measurable customer or business impact
• Extensive experience leading India-based engineering organizations within distributed global teams
• Strong understanding of hiring, retention, and leadership development in India
• Experience managing budgets, organizational planning, and scaling teams

Technical Expertise

• Strong experience with database engine implementation and database systems architecture
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud computing, and large-scale architectures
• Expertise in performance optimization, high availability, low latency, and massive throughput systems
• Experience with storage systems, replication protocols, metadata management, and persistence layers
• Familiarity with observability, monitoring, and DevOps practices
• Experience with NoSQL and relational database technologies

Communication & Influence

• Executive-level communication skills (written, asynchronous, and verbal)
• Demonstrated ability to influence and align stakeholders across regions and functions
• Strong track record of working effectively with cross-geography teams

Core Skills

• Distributed Systems
• Database Engine Development
• Database Design & Management Systems
• Storage & Persistence Layers
• Replication & Metadata Management
• Cloud-Native Architectures
• Observability & Scalability Engineering