Vice President of Engineering

Ascendum System Private Limited; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Ascendum System Private Limited seeks a strategic Vice President of Engineering to lead the engineering organization, owning delivery, architecture, and service ownership within a Build / Operate / Govern model. You Build It, You Run It is the core principle, with accountability for reliability, performance, and lifecycle of systems.

The role requires multi-team leadership, cloud-native architectures, and strong governance.

Qualifications

• Must lead large, multi-layered engineering organizations.
• Experience with product-based and platform-based operating models.
• Proven DevOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices.
• Strong architecture and governance experience in shared accountability models.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the engineering strategy and operating model.
• Own end-to-end software delivery lifecycle.
• Establish architecture standards and technical governance.
• Build and lead product- and platform-aligned engineering teams.
• Embed 'You Build It, You Run It' accountability across teams.
• Partner with IT Operations and Security functions.

Skills

You Build It You Run It experience

CI/CD pipelines

Observability

DevOps practices

Architecture governance

Engineering leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in related field

Tools

Azure

DevOps tooling

Job description

The Vice President of Engineering will lead the company's engineering organization, responsible for building scalable, reliable, and high-quality technology platforms that power business growth. This role operates as the "Build" leader within a Build / Operate / Govern model, with full accountability for engineering delivery, architecture execution, and service ownership.
Operating Model
Follow a "You Build It, You Run It" approach, where engineering teams are accountable not only for delivering software, but also for the reliability, performance, and lifecycle of the systems they build. The VP of Engineering is responsible for designing and enforcing this model across the organization.
What Success Looks Like

• Engineering teams deliver predictable, high-quality outcomes aligned to business priorities
• Services are owned end-to-end by engineering teams, with clear accountability for reliability and performance
• Strong partnership across:
• Operate (IT Ops) - service management and operational excellence
• Govern (CISO) - security, risk, and compliance
• Modern engineering practices drive measurable improvements in cycle time, deployment frequency, and defect rates, platform and architecture decisions scale with the business over multiple years

Key Accountabilities / Deliverables

• Define and lead the engineering strategy and operating model, aligned to Build / Operate / Govern principles
• Own the end-to-end software delivery lifecycle, including development, testing, release, and L3/L4 support
• Establish and enforce architecture standards and technical governance, serving as the authority for solution design and technology direction
• Build and lead a product- and platform-aligned engineering organization, including application, platform, data, and DevOps teams
• Design and scale modern engineering systems, including:
• CI/CD and release pipelines
• Test automation and quality engineering
• Observability and reliability practices
• Developer experience and productivity tooling
• Embed "You Build It, You Run It" accountability, ensuring engineering teams own system reliability, performance, and operability
• Partner with Head of IT Operations to:
• Ensure production readiness and service continuity
• Align on incident management, change management, and SLAs
• Partner with the CISO organization to:
• Embed secure-by-design development practices
• Align delivery with risk, compliance, and audit requirements
• Translate business and product demand into sequenced, executable roadmaps

Technical Knowledge and Understanding

• Deep experience leading organizations operating under a "You Build It, You Run It" or similar service ownership model, with clear accountability for reliability and performance
• Strong background in modern software engineering practices, including:
• CI/CD and automated release pipelines
• Test automation and quality engineering
• Infrastructure as code and cloud-native architectures
• Observability (monitoring, logging, tracing) and reliability engineering
• Proven ability to design and scale engineering systems, not just teams, including:
• Delivery lifecycle (build -> test -> release -> operate)
• Developer experience and productivity tooling
• Platform engineering and shared services models
• Demonstrated expertise in enterprise architecture and technical governance, including:
• Defining and enforcing architecture standards
• Leading architecture review and decision processes
• Driving consistency across distributed engineering teams
• Experience partnering effectively with IT Operations and Security functions within a shared accountability model, including:
• Aligning on incident management, SLAs, and operational readiness
• Embedding secure-by-design practices into development
• Experience building and scaling with cloud-based platforms (Azure preferred)

Experience

• Experience leading large, multi-layered engineering organizations
• Proven success implementing product-based and platform-based operating models
• Deep experience in DevOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering practices
• Strong architecture background with experience owning technical direction at scale
• Experience operating in shared accountability models (e.g., engineering + operations + security)
• Ability to drive both organizational design and execution performance
• Bachelor's degree in related field or demonstrated equivalent experience in a related field required.

Nice to Have

• Experience in insurance, financial services, or regulated environments
• Track record implementing and governing a "You Build It, You Run It" or similar ownership models
• Experience reducing vendor dependency and building internal engineering capability
• Exposure to data, AI/ML, and modern cloud-native architectures