Director Software Engineering - Continuous Delivery

Position Summary

Join Harness, a high-growth startup transforming how software is delivered. Our mission is to help 30 million developers ship code faster, more securely, and with greater reliability—fueling innovation and improving the developer experience. Backed by $425M in funding and led by AppDynamics founder Jyoti Bansal, we’re recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for DevOps Platforms and consistently ranked on Glassdoor, Forbes, Inc., and LinkedIn’s top workplace lists.

Our CD platform is the fastest and most intelligent on the market—enabling customers to deploy with confidence across any infrastructure. This is your chance to drive innovation in a product line that’s reshaping how modern engineering teams deliver software.

We’re looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our CD business. This is a hands-on, high-impact leadership role combining product ownership, architectural oversight, and close customer collaboration. You'll define the long-term vision, deliver against strategic outcomes, and orchestrate engineering excellence across a globally distributed team.

About the role

As the Director of Engineering for Continuous Delivery, you'll own the vision, execution, and technical direction of the flagship product. You’ll split your time between technology leadership (40%), product and roadmap ownership (30%), and communication and collaboration (30%)—interfacing across executive leadership, customers, and cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the long-term vision and strategy for Harness CD, grounded in market trends and customer value.
• Make high-impact decisions in ambiguous, cross-functional environments that shape company direction.
• Partner directly with customers to inform roadmap priorities, manage escalations, and ensure adoption success.
• Lead delivery of cutting-edge CD features, including Agent deploys, GitOps Deploys, and Deployments to different infrastructures.
• Ensure deep integration of Harness CD across the SDLC, supporting any SCM, language, or platform.
• Hire, grow, and lead globally distributed engineering teams; foster a high-performance, feedback-driven culture.
• Provide hands-on architectural leadership in areas like Kubernetes, Serverless, Azure, and AWS.
• Modernize backend systems with a focus on distributed systems, Go, and GCP.
• Continuously improve internal processes, cross-team collaboration, and technical scalability across the org.

About you

We’re looking for a seasoned technology leader with a startup mindset and deep technical roots—someone who approaches challenges like a product engineer and thrives in complexity.

Required Experience & Qualifications:

• 14+ years of backend software development experience; 6+ years leading high-performing engineering or DevOps teams.
• Proven success building and scaling orgs in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Strong track record in the software delivery/lifecycle domain with hands-on architectural and design leadership.
• Expertise in building high-throughput platforms, scalable APIs, and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with GCP, Go, and Kubernetes; strong grasp of the Google cloud-native ecosystem.
• Clear communicator and collaborator across teams, executives, and customers.
• Organized, action-oriented leader who can navigate complexity while driving results and team health.
• BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Attributes:

• Domain knowledge in CD or software delivery platforms.
• Experience leading incident management, including drafting external-facing RCAs.
• Reputation for work ethic, accountability, and high standards.
• Advanced degree or equivalent practical experience.