Senior Director – Software Development (Wireless O-RAN)

Rakuten Asia Pte Ltd; Bengaluru; In loco; INR 4.000.000 - 7.000.000; Tempo pieno

Descrizione del lavoro

Rakuten Symphony in Bengaluru seeks a Senior Director of Software Development (Wireless O-RAN) to own the end-to-end SDLC for a high-impact telecom software group. You will drive 5G/O-RAN architecture, mentor a large team, and set best practices across distributed engineering teams while engaging directly with customers to align on roadmaps and deployment strategies.

You will lead a hands-on, technically deep leadership role with emphasis on architecture, quality, and AI-enabled development,

Competenze

• Strong, hands-on software development background in C and C++, with ability to design, code, debug, and review at a deep technical level.
• Experience in a RAN product organization (vendor/OEM) with exposure to architecture, release cycles, and field deployments.
• Experience owning the complete software development cycle from feature inception through deployment and post-release support.

Mansioni

• Own end-to-end SDLC for the software development organization; ensure high-quality, on-time releases.
• Lead architecture and design reviews for 5G, O-RAN, AI/RAN platforms across PHY, baseband, and platform layers.
• Mentor and grow multi-disciplinary teams; drive delivery outcomes with a strong quality focus and AI-assisted development.
• Engage with customers, manage escalations, and align roadmap with deployment plans.

Conoscenze

C/C++

RAN experience

Team leadership

SDLC ownership

Customer engagement

Formazione

Bachelors/Masters in Electronics/CS/Telecom

Strumenti

AI tools

Descrizione del lavoro

Job Description: Senior Director – Software Development (Wireless O-RAN) Experience: 15+ years Location: Bangalore, India Reports To: VP, Engineering

Key Responsibilities

Software Development & SDLC Ownership Own the end-to-end software development lifecycle for the software development organization — from design and architecture through coding, unit testing (UT), and development integration — while closely partnering with and supporting QA and Deployment teams to ensure high-quality, on-time releases. Establish software development best practices, coding standards, and development processes that scale across distributed teams.

Technology Strategy & Architecture

Enabler for technology strategy and software development architecture for advanced wireless platforms across 5G, O-RAN, and emerging 6G,AI/RAN, spanning, PHY, baseband, and platform layers — ensuring a coherent, scalable architecture that aligns product roadmap with long-term technical direction.

Team Competency & Delivery Excellence

Build and manage team competency through structured skill development and mentorship. Own delivery outcomes end-to-end with a strong focus on quality. Champion the adoption of best software development practices, and drive the use of AI in the development process to improve software quality and increase feature development velocity.

Design Review & Technical Solutioning

Lead and participate in design reviews, providing strong technical direction and solutions for complex engineering problems. Act as a key technical authority the team can rely on for guidance on architecture and design decisions.

Customer Engagement & Escalation Management

Interact directly with customers, articulating problems clearly and driving technical solutions. Manage customer escalations and internal stakeholders, using strong communication skills to align priorities, resolve issues, and build trust on product roadmap, deployment issues, and resolution plans.

Product & Software Development Leadership

Take end-to-end ownership of technology strategy, product development lifecycle. Build, mentor, and manage a multi-disciplinary team of developers and software development managers.

Mandatory Requirements

Strong, hands-on software development background in C and C++, with demonstrated ability to design, code, debug, and review at a deep technical level — not purely a management-track profile. Must have been part of a RAN product organization (vendor/OEM building commercial RAN software products), with direct exposure to product architecture, release cycles, and field deployments — general telecom/wireless experience outside a RAN product org does not meet this requirement. Experience owning the complete software development cycle — from feature inception through design, development, testing, deployment, and post-release support. Demonstrated ability to manage and grow team competency, and own delivery outcomes with a strong quality bar. Hands-on experience introducing or scaling best software development practices, and a demonstrated track record of using AI tools in the development process to improve software quality and increase feature development velocity. Strong development skills with proven ability to lead design reviews and provide sound technical solutions. Prior experience working directly on RAN (Radio Access Network) systems — virtualized, cloud-native, or O-RAN based. Demonstrated experience managing and growing teams of software developers, including performance management and technical mentorship. Good communication skills with the ability to interact directly with customers, articulate problems clearly, and drive technical solutions — including managing customer escalations and internal stakeholders. Experience working closely with QA and Deployment/Release teams to ensure smooth transition from development to production.

Preferred Qualifications

Track record of leading global, distributed software development teams. Bachelor's/Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications, or related field; advanced degree preferred. 15+ years of overall software development experience, with 5+ years in software development leadership/people management roles, including tenure within a RAN product company.

What We're Looking For

A hands-on technical leader who balances architectural vision with operational rigor. You must have a track record of managing teams of 15+ engineers, be a practitioner of modern software engineering who champions AI-driven development, and possess the communication skills to manage customer trust while maintaining an uncompromising bar for quality.

RAKUTEN SHUGI PRINCIPLES

• Always improve, always advance. Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen.
• Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best.
• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.
• Maximize Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.
• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.

Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security. Rakuten Symphony has operations in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East Africa region. For more information, visit: https://symphony.rakuten.com Building on the technology Rakuten used to launch Japan’s newest mobile network, we are taking our mobile offering global. To support our ambitions to provide an innovative cloud-native telco platform for our customers, Rakuten Symphony is looking to recruit and develop top talent from around the globe. We are looking for individuals to join our team across all functional areas of our business – from sales to engineering, support functions to product development. Let’s build the future of mobile telecommunications together!