Global Head, Applications Engineering (AI‑Driven)

Forward; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 270,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Forward is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the Applications engineering organization. Reporting to the SVP of Engineering, you will own an organization of approximately 40 engineers across the US and India responsible for the customer-facing application layer of the Forward platform, spanning both backend and frontend.

A significant majority of the organization is based in India, where we expect to continue growing.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams and managers.
• Experience leading a sizable, multi-team organization across geographies.
• Strong background building sophisticated enterprise software with backend/frontend breadth.
• Proven track record delivering complex software with accountability for schedule and quality.
• Experience partnering with Product Management and UX/Design.

Responsibilities

• Lead a ~40-person engineering organization across the US and India, including managers and senior leaders.
• Build scalable leadership structures with clear ownership and fast decision-making across regions.
• Coach and develop engineering managers into strong leaders and grow leadership in India.
• Recruit, retain, and develop exceptional talent and cultivate an engineering culture across geographies.
• Own application development end-to-end from requirements through release and improvement.
• Partner with Product Management and UX to shape product direction and tradeoffs.
• Establish realistic plans, identify risks early, and drive predictable execution.
• Communicate progress, risks, and changes to engineering leadership.

Skills

Software engineering

Engineering leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Architectural review

Java backend

Frontend (Svelte)

Enterprise software

Job description

Forward is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the Applications engineering organization. Reporting to the SVP of Engineering, you will own an organization of approximately 40 engineers across the US and India responsible for the customer-facing application layer of the Forward platform, spanning both backend and frontend.

A significant majority of the organization is based in India, where we expect to continue growing.