This may initially be offered as a Director Engineering role, with the possibility of moving into a VP Engineering / Head of Engineering role over the next 6-12 months, based on performance, impact and leadership maturity.

Why This Role Has Been Created:

My client looking to bring in a more savvy, mature and high-bar engineering leader who can help the company move faster, adopt AI more deeply, improve engineering decision-making and build a stronger India engineering culture.

The company already has a product and an existing engineering team. The immediate need is for someone who can:

- Drive product and engineering velocity.

- Bring AI-native thinking into the way the team builds and works.

- Improve technology decisions and engineering roadmap quality.

- Work closely with founders and US customers.

- Raise the bar on talent, execution, accountability and culture.

- Scale the team thoughtfully and plan staffing for the year.

- Operate in ambiguity and still deliver market-relevant iterations quickly.

Key Responsibilities:

Engineering Leadership:

- Lead and strengthen the India engineering team.

- Own engineering execution, delivery quality, architecture direction and roadmap alignment.

- Make strong technology decisions in line with business and product priorities.

- Bring clarity, structure and accountability in a fast-moving startup environment.

- Drive engineering velocity without compromising quality.

AI Adoption & AI-Native Engineering:

- Bring strong AI fluency and a practical understanding of how AI can be embedded into products and engineering workflows.

- Help the team adopt AI-native ways of working.

- Build AI product capabilities where relevant, in partnership with founders and product stakeholders.

- Drive intelligent automation, faster development cycles and modern engineering practices.

Product & Customer Alignment:

- Work closely with founders on product direction, customer needs and engineering priorities.

- Understand US customer expectations and translate them into scalable engineering execution.

- Ensure iterations are market-relevant and delivered with speed.

- Bring a product-led engineering mindset, even though this is not a pure product management role.

Team, Culture & Talent:

- Build a high-performance engineering culture.

- Set a high bar for talent, ownership and execution.

- Identify people who are scaling well and those who may not be scaling with the companys needs.

- Hire strong engineers and future leaders.

- Plan staffing for the year in line with product and business goals.

- Create a culture of accountability, speed, ownership and technical depth.

Scale & Process:

- Bring experience of working in ambiguity and scaling teams/processes without over-engineering.

- Build the right level of process for a startup-stage company.

- Improve engineering predictability, release velocity and cross-functional collaboration.

- Ensure the team is able to support integrations, customer needs and product expansion.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

Must-Have Experience:

- 15+ years of experience.

- Strong B2B SaaS engineering leadership experience.

- Startup experience is very important.

- Should have worked in ambiguity and fast-changing environments.

- Should have experience scaling engineering teams, systems and execution.

- Strong AI fluency and comfort with AI adoption / AI-led product thinking.

- Strong US customer interfacing experience.

- Strong technology decision-making ability.

- Ability to work directly with founders.

- Ability to build culture, not just manage delivery.

- BE / BTech preferred.

Preferred Background:

Ideal candidate may have a combination of:

- One high-growth startup experience.

- One scaled company / larger tech company experience.

- One company where they have seen a scale-up journey closely.

- Experience in B2B SaaS, workflow platforms, productivity platforms, customer-facing enterprise SaaS or AI-led SaaS.

Age / Career Stage Preference:

- Preferably below 45 years.

- Should be hands-on enough to understand technology deeply, but mature enough to lead teams and influence founders.

- Should be ready for a Director Engineering role today and capable of becoming VP Engineering / Head of Engineering in 6-12 months.

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