Job Description
Aerospike is the real-time database for mission-critical workloads, powering millions of transactions per second with sub-millisecond latency and dramatically lower total cost of ownership. Global innovators such as Adobe, Airtel, Barclays, Criteo, DBS Bank, Experian, Grab, HDFC Bank, PayPal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Trade Desk, and Wayfair rely on Aerospike for customer 360, fraud detection, real-time bidding, machine learning, and agentic AI.
Our mission is to unleash the world’s real-time data with a database built for infinite scale, speed, and sustainability. If you’re ready to shape the future of data infrastructure, join us.
Hybrid: 2–3 days/week in office
Role Summary
We are seeking an accomplished Senior Director of Engineering to lead and scale Aerospike’s India Engineering organization. You will own multiple product lines, translate strategy into execution, guide technical direction, and develop high-performing engineering leaders. This role represents India Engineering in global forums and ensures we deliver robust, scalable, and impactful products.
Key Responsibilities
Engineering & Delivery
- Own delivery of major product areas/platforms, driving roadmap execution, quality, reliability, and predictable releases.
- Translate company strategy into actionable engineering plans, staffing models, and quarterly/annual execution.
- Improve engineering velocity, consistency, and technical rigor across teams.
Technical Strategy
- Provide architectural direction and technical oversight for core product areas.
- Champion performance, scalability, security-by-design, and resiliency across systems.
- Lead modernization and long-term platform investments while managing technical debt.
- Guide design reviews, postmortems, and deep technical discussions without becoming a bottleneck.
India Site Leadership
- Serve as the senior engineering leader for India and represent the site in global leadership forums.
- Build a culture of ownership, urgency, and customer impact while managing budgets, headcount, and vendor/tools strategy.Hire, grow, and retain top talent; coach and develop Engineering Managers/Senior Managers.
- Partner closely with teams across the US, EMEA, and APAC to ensure seamless cross-geo execution.
Cross-Functional Influence
- Collaborate with Product, Design, and GTM to drive aligned business outcomes.
- Influence priorities across time zones and functions, resolving tradeoffs effectively.
- Communicate crisply at the executive level with clear written, async, and verbal updates.
Required Experience
Leadership
- 10+ years in engineering, including 7–10 years of engineering management.
- Experience managing multiple managers and leading organizations of 35+ engineers.
- Proven ownership of large product/platform areas with measurable customer or business impact.
Technical Leadership
- Strong technical grounding in database engines, distributed systems, cloud/SaaS, or related architectures.
- Ability to drive technical strategy, balance debt, and dive deep when required.
- Significant experience partnering closely with Product Management.
Site Leadership
- Extensive experience with India-based engineering orgs and distributed global teams.
- Strong understanding of India tech hiring, retention, and leadership development.
- Experience managing budgets, org planning, and scaling teams.
Communication & Influence
- Executive-level communication skills (written, async, and verbal).
- Ability to influence and align stakeholders across continents and functions.
- Strong track record working with cross-geo teams across multiple regions.
Bonus Skills (Good to Have)
- Experience with implementing databases, storage engines, or distributed systems.
- Ability to participate in and guide design and architecture reviews.
- Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures and DevOps practices.
- Expertise in performance and scalability engineering.
- Expertise in systems built for high availability, low latency, and massive throughput.
