Senior Director Of Engineering

About this role

<p>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 <strong>Adobe, Airtel, Barclays, Criteo, DBS Bank, Experian, Grab, HDFC Bank, PayPal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, The Trade Desk, and Wayfair</strong> rely on Aerospike for customer 360, fraud detection, real-time bidding, machine learning, and agentic AI.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><strong>Hybrid: </strong><strong>To foster strong team alignment and productivity, Bangalore based team members are expected to work from the office 3 times per week.</strong></p> <h3><strong>Role Summary</strong></h3> <p>We are seeking an accomplished <strong>Senior Director of Engineering</strong> 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.</p> <h3><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Engineering & Delivery</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Own delivery of major product areas/platforms, driving roadmap execution, quality, reliability, and predictable releases.</li> <li>Translate company strategy into actionable engineering plans, staffing models, and quarterly/annual execution.</li> <li>Improve engineering velocity, consistency, and technical rigor across teams.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Technical Strategy</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Provide architectural direction and technical oversight for core product areas.</li> <li>Champion performance, scalability, security-by-design, and resiliency across systems.</li> <li>Lead modernization and long-term platform investments while managing technical debt.</li> <li>Guide design reviews, postmortems, and deep technical discussions without becoming a bottleneck.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>India Site Leadership</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Serve as the senior engineering leader for India and represent the site in global leadership forums.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Partner closely with teams across the US, EMEA, and APAC to ensure seamless cross-geo execution.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Cross-Functional Influence</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Collaborate with Product, Design, and GTM to drive aligned business outcomes.</li> <li>Influence priorities across time zones and functions, resolving tradeoffs effectively.</li> <li>Communicate crisply at the executive level with clear written, async, and verbal updates.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Required Experience</strong></h3> <h3><strong>Leadership</strong></h3> <ul> <li>10+ years in engineering, including 7–10 years of engineering management.</li> <li>Experience managing multiple managers and leading organizations of <strong>35+ engineers</strong>.</li> <li>Proven ownership of large product/platform areas with measurable customer or business impact.</li> <li>Extensive experience with India-based engineering orgs and distributed global teams.</li> <li>Strong understanding of India tech hiring, retention, and leadership development.</li> <li>Experience managing budgets, org planning, and scaling teams.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Technical Leadership</strong></h3> <ul> <li> <div>Proven experience in implementing database engines.</div> </li> <li> <div>Strong technical grounding in distributed systems, cloud computing, or related architectures.</div> </li> </ul> <h3><strong>Communication & Influence</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Executive-level communication skills (written, async, and verbal).</li> <li>Ability to influence and align stakeholders across continents and functions.</li> <li>Strong track record working with cross-geo teams across multiple regions.</li> </ul> <h3><strong>Bonus Skills (Good to Have)</strong></h3> <ul> <li>Experience with implementing databases, storage engines, or distributed systems.</li> <li>Ability to participate in and guide design and architecture reviews.</li> <li>Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures and DevOps practices.</li> <li>Expertise in performance and scalability engineering.</li> <li>Expertise in systems built for high availability, low latency, and massive throughput.</li> </ul>