Director - Engineering

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Job Title: Director of Engineering

Level in Organization: Level 8 (of 10)

Reporting Manager: Chief Technology Officer

Location: Mumbai, India

Seeking a Director of Engineering to lead technology strategy and execution across multiple product lines. This role will oversee multiple engineering managers and teams (25+ engineers), ensuring the delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions that power fan engagement experiences for millions of users globally.

The Director of Engineering will partner closely with the CTO, Product, and Business teams to define and execute the engineering vision, while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic & Technical Leadership:

- Define and drive the long-term engineering vision, architecture strategy, and technology roadmap in alignment with business goals.

- Oversee design and implementation of highly scalable backend systems, APIs, and distributed platforms.

- Ensure engineering excellence through best practices in coding standards, security, scalability, observability, and performance optimization.

- Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to strengthen product innovation and efficiency.

People & Organizational Leadership:

- Lead, mentor, and inspire a high-performing engineering organization of 25+ engineers across backend, frontend, DevOps, and QA.

- Build and scale engineering teams by hiring top talent, growing leaders, and enabling career progression.

- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and innovation.

- Drive organizational alignment, ensuring effective collaboration between engineering, product, and design.

Delivery & Execution:

- Own delivery of complex, large-scale projects on time and with high quality.

- Partner with Product Management on roadmap planning, prioritization, and execution.

- Implement robust Agile practices, CI/CD processes, and DevOps culture to ensure smooth and predictable releases.

- Ensure reliability and uptime of mission-critical systems that serve millions of concurrent sports fans.

Business & Stakeholder Engagement:

- Act as a trusted technology advisor to the CTO and executive leadership team.

- Translate business objectives into technical strategies and execution plans.

- Build strong relationships with cross-functional stakeholders, balancing innovation with practical delivery.

Background and Experience:

- 12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with at least 5+ years in senior leadership roles (Engineering Manager/Head of Engineering/Director).

- Proven track record of leading multiple engineering teams in building scalable, distributed, and high-traffic applications.

- Strong expertise in backend technologies (Node.js preferred; Java, Python, Golang acceptable), with solid understanding of frontend frameworks (React/Vue).

- Deep experience with cloud-native development (AWS), container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines.

- Expertise in databases (SQL/NoSQL), caching, messaging systems, and event-driven architectures.

- Strong understanding of system design, scalability, observability, and security principles.

- Experience collaborating with C-level executives and product leaders to shape technical direction.

- Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills.

Good to Have:

- Background in building consumer-facing, large-scale applications with millions of concurrent users.

- Experience with real-time systems (WebSocket, data streaming, GraphQL APIs).

- Familiarity with serverless architectures (AWS Lambda, GCP Cloud Functions).

- Hands-on exposure to observability and monitoring tools (Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch).

- Previous experience in the sports, gaming, or media-tech industry is a plus.

Other competencies:

- Problem Solving: Has a solution-oriented mindset, provides effective solutions for key challenges.

- Leadership Skills: Provides leadership by example, able to take sound decisions, inspires others.

- Strategic Thinking: Identifies with the company vision to meet the short, medium, and long-term goals.

- Communication: Able to understand and articulate with clarity, presents well-reasoned arguments.

- Sporting knowledge: Follows or participates in sport in any capacity, is familiar with basic rules, awareness of major sporting events and sports persons.