Director, Engineering and Research

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive multi-year technical and research roadmaps, ensuring seamless integration of scientific discovery with scalable engineering implementation.
• Champion a culture of deep collaboration between research and engineering, breaking down silos to accelerate innovation and solution delivery.
• Guide architectural direction, modern engineering practices, and the adoption of technologies emerging from internal and external research.
• Provide expert leadership on the transition from research prototypes to reliable, secure, production-grade systems.
• Establish cross-functional standards and processes that support both research excellence and engineering efficiency.

Organizational & People Management

• Build, mentor, and scale high-performing interdisciplinary teams, including both ICs and managers.
• Lead talent strategies—recruitment, retention, performance management, and career development—for a diverse, technically excellent organization.
• Communicate vision, goals, and priorities across functions, ensuring strong alignment and shared ownership.
• Optimize resource allocation across multiple product lines and initiatives, balancing delivery velocity with long-term innovation.
• Accountable for resource planning and budgetary oversight.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Business Impact

• Partner with executive stakeholders in Research, Product, Business, and Operations to align on technical direction and deliver integrated solutions.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives by uniting research and engineering contributions toward shared business goals.
• Serve as a technical and scientific ambassador internally and externally, representing the team’s innovation and capabilities.
• Identify and support strategic partnerships and business development opportunities that leverage the team’s research-engineering synergy.

Qualifications

• Exceptional leadership in defining, communicating, and executing multi-year technical and research roadmaps for complex, large-scale systems.
• Proven track record of building, coaching, and scaling interdisciplinary engineering and research organizations that deliver innovative, research-informed software products.
• Mastery of the full software development lifecycle, modern DevOps practices, and a commitment to engineering quality and scientific rigor.
• Demonstrated ability to align and influence executive stakeholders across Research, Product, Business, and Operations on strategic, cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong technical acumen in AI/ML domains, including LLMs, NLP, search, recommendation systems, and conversational AI.
• Experience or strong potential for engaging in strategic partnerships and business development initiatives.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Master’s or Ph.D. preferred.
• A Ph.D. in a relevant AI/ML research field (e.g., Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Statistics, Operations Research) is highly desirable.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and/or applied research, including 5+ years in senior manager or director-level leadership roles.
• Significant hands-on experience with large-scale, distributed systems and modern cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Proven ability to translate AI/ML research advancements—including Deep Learning, NLP, LLMs, and conversational AI—into scalable production systems.
• Demonstrated success in leading large, interdisciplinary teams toward high-impact outcomes that combine research excellence with engineering precision.