Sr Director, AI Platform Engineering - 11309

Coupa Software Inc.; Foster City (CA); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Global Wellness Days

Birthday Time Off

Volunteer Time Off

Employee Assistance Program

Travel protection

Job summary

Coupa Software Inc. is seeking a Senior Director of AI Platform Engineering to lead the next phase of our AI platform. You will expand model training capabilities, strengthen data infrastructure, and scale AI features across Coupa’s enterprise suite.

You will build and lead a team across the US and India, guide partnerships, and deliver measurable improvements in model accuracy and efficiency. You will report to senior engineering leadership and brief C-level stakeholders on strategy, progress,

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of software engineering with 5+ years in engineering leadership (Director or Sr. Director).
• Experience leading AI/ML engineering teams across multiple geographies and delivering enterprise AI/ML products.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the technical strategy and delivery roadmap for expanding Coupa's AI platform capabilities.
• Build and manage a high-performing engineering team across the US and India.
• Drive strategic partnerships with AI infrastructure and cloud providers.
• Prioritize AI use cases with highest accuracy and business impact with product leadership.
• Expand model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure beyond frontier models.

Skills

Executive communication

Leadership

Vendor management

AI/ML leadership

Distributed teams

Strategic thinking

Education

Advanced degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

ML platforms

Model training & serving

Job description

Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.

Why join Coupa?

• Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.
• Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.
• Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.

Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.

The Impact of a Sr. Director, AI Platform Engineering at Coupa:

Coupa's AI platform already powers conversational and autonomous agents, frontier model integrations, production ML models, and customer-facing AI experiences through Navi and Agent Studio. The Sr. Director, AI Platform Engineering will lead the next phase of this platform, expanding our model training capabilities, deepening our data infrastructure, and scaling our AI-powered features across the full breadth of Coupa's enterprise suite. You will build and lead a team of engineers across the US and India, manage strategic technology partnerships, and deliver measurable improvements to model accuracy, efficiency, and coverage. This role reports to senior engineering leadership with regular visibility to C-level stakeholders.

What You'll Do:

• Lead the technical strategy and delivery roadmap for expanding Coupa's AI platform capabilities.
• Build and manage a high-performing engineering team across the US and India, hiring across ML, data engineering, and platform disciplines.
• Drive strategic partnership evaluations with AI infrastructure and model providers.
• Define and prioritize AI use cases that deliver the highest accuracy and business impact, working closely with product leadership.
• Expand model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure beyond frontier model integrations.
• Own data strategy for AI, ensuring the right data pipelines, quality frameworks, and privacy-safe practices feed model development.
• Coordinate with existing AI platform, data platform, application platform, and cloud operations teams.
• Manage budget, hiring plan, and delivery milestones for the AI platform engineering organization.
• Present strategy, progress, and results to VP/SVP/C-level stakeholders.
• Ensure data safety, tenant isolation, and responsible AI practices across all AI capabilities.

What You Will Bring to Coupa:

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in engineering leadership (Director or Sr. Director level).
• Track record building and leading AI/ML engineering teams of 15+ people across multiple geographies.
• Deep technical understanding of ML/AI systems, including model training, fine-tuning, RAG, and model serving. Must be able to evaluate technical decisions and challenge architects.
• Experience delivering AI/ML products in an enterprise B2B SaaS environment.
• Experience scaling engineering teams and shipping complex AI capabilities from concept to production.
• Strong partnership and vendor management experience with major AI and cloud providers.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure at enterprise scale.
• Track record managing distributed teams across US and India.
• Excellent executive communication, translating technical strategy into business impact for C-level audiences.
• Understanding of data privacy, tenant isolation, and responsible AI practices.
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

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The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.

At Coupa, we are 100% committed to creating and nurturing an environment that supports your physical, mental, and community well-being. We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits designed to help you and your family thrive:

Global Well-Being Perks (For All Employees Globally)

• Global Wellness Days:Enjoy two designated, company-wide paid wellness daysoffeach year (typically the first Friday in March and the last Friday in September) so the entire global team can unplug, step away, and recharge together.
• BirthdayTime-Off:Celebrate your day!Coupa provides a paid dayoffon yourbirthdayor another day of your choice within yourbirthdaymonth.
• VolunteerTimeOff(VTO):Giving back is in our DNA.We offer 40 hours of paid VTO annually to support the community initiatives and volunteer programs you are passionate about.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP):Access free, confidential, 24/7/365 counseling and resources for emotional support, work-life solutions, financial advice, legal guidance, and support for new parents.
• Business Travel Protection:Travel with peace of mind.Zurich Travel Assist provides medical, safety, pre-trip planning, and emergency support during any business travel.
• Referral Bonus Program:Share the Coupa experience!Receive generous monetary referral bonuses when you successfully refer talented friends or acquaintances who are hired into open roles.

Please note: In addition to these global well-being perks, Coupa offers highly competitive, location-specific benefits packages (which include comprehensive medical/dental insurance, retirement/pension plans, and life or accident protection) tailored to your primary work location. Your recruiter will walk you through the specific regional benefits package for this role during the interview process.

Coupa complies with relevant laws and regulations regarding equal opportunity and offers a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, or evaluating performance are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees.

Please be advised that inquiries or resumes from recruiters will not be accepted.