Acentra - Director - Engineering Excellence

Description:

Director - Engineering Excellence

Work Location: Hyderabad or Chennai (open to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, NCR)

Work Arrangement: Requires a minimum of 9 working days per month from the Chennai office, with the remaining days flexible to be worked from any of the other listed locations.

About The Role:

We are seeking a visionary and technically accomplished leader to serve as Director Engineering Excellence. This role is pivotal in driving organization-wide engineering transformation through strategic leadership, innovation, and operational excellence.

The Director will champion modern software development practices, foster high-performing teams, and lead the adoption of cutting-edge technologies including cloud-native architectures, AI-augmented development, and DevOps automation.

This position requires close collaboration with product, delivery, and technology teams to ensure scalable, secure, and high-quality software solutions aligned with business goals.

Key Responsibilities:

Engineering Strategy & Vision:

- Define and implement the engineering excellence strategy and roadmap.

- Align engineering initiatives with business objectives and measurable outcomes.

- Lead transformation efforts including adoption of Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud-native technologies.

Innovation & Technology Oversight:

- Drive Generative AI initiatives for development, testing, and operations using tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT.

- Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies such as AI/ML, low-code platforms, and observability tools.

- Lead proof-of-concept (POC) efforts and enforce coding, security, and architectural standards.

- Architect scalable, secure, and user-centric software solutions.

Team Leadership:

- Build and mentor high-performing engineering teams.

- Establish performance goals, conduct reviews, and foster continuous improvement.

- Guide career development and leadership growth for engineering managers and team members.

- Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability, and innovation.

Operational Excellence:

- Define and track KPIs for productivity, quality, and delivery timelines.

- Maintain dashboards and reporting systems for visibility into team performance.

Candidate Profile:

Education & Experience:

- Bachelors or masters degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field.

- 10+ years in software engineering, with 5+ years in leadership roles.

- Experience in healthcare or regulated industries preferred.

Technical Expertise:

- Software Development Leadership: Strategic delivery using modern methodologies.

- System Design: Expertise in cloud-native, distributed, microservices-based architectures.

- Development Lifecycle Management: Deep understanding of SDLC and DevOps practices.

- Cloud Strategy: AWS, Azure, GCP, and infrastructure automation tools.

- Quality Assurance: Oversight of manual and automated testing processes.

- CI/CD Enablement: Establishment of robust pipelines for agility and stability.

- Data Governance: Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data integrity.

- Security & Compliance: Embedding security frameworks and ensuring regulatory adherence.

- Stakeholder Engagement: Effective collaboration using version control and PM tools.

- Technical Communication: Ability to articulate complex concepts to diverse audiences.

Additional Qualifications:

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

- Excellent communication skills for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

- Cloud certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Developer, Azure Solutions Architect) are desirable.