Director – Engineering

Location: Hyderabad

Department: Engineering

Reports To: CTO

About Company

Keka has quietly led a revolution in HR technology. With a steadfast focus on building an employee-centric HR platform, we have earned the trust of over 8,000 businesses across India and globally. Today, Keka is India’s #1 platform in our segment, and we are rapidly expanding into new geographies.

Our organization is built by our people. The passion and ownership our team brings are contagious. We embrace transparency, openly acknowledge our shortcomings, and are never afraid to ask for help. When we encounter setbacks, we learn, adapt, and improve. This open culture encourages innovation across all functions and departments.

Our Engineering Team

Keka’s Engineering Team is committed to modern engineering practices and leverages the latest technology stack. Our approach includes:

Maintaining code consistency and continuous refactoring
Embracing DevOps and deployment automation, including blue-green deployments
Enabling flexible, frequent deployments to meet dynamic business needs

We operate in small, cohesive Agile teams focused on delivering exceptional user experiences. Our engineers tackle complex technical challenges, continuously learn and adapt, and—most importantly—enjoy the journey together.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership

· Define and drive engineering strategy aligned with company goals and product vision.

· Influence long-term technology roadmaps and investment decisions.

· Champion innovation and continuous improvement across engineering practices.

· Represent engineering in executive forums and contribute to company-wide strategic planning.

2. Technical Depth

· Provide technical guidance and mentorship to senior engineers and architects.

· Ensure architectural integrity, scalability, and performance of platforms and systems.

· Stay abreast of emerging technologies and evaluate their potential impact.

· Foster a culture of engineering excellence through code quality, automation, and technical rigor.

3. Product & Customer Focus

· Collaborate closely with Product Management, Design, and Customer Success to deliver solutions that delight users.

· Advocate for customer needs and ensure engineering decisions reflect user-centric thinking.

· Drive data-informed decision-making using customer feedback, analytics, and market trends.

· Balance technical feasibility with business impact to prioritize effectively.

4. Engineering Execution & Delivery

· Lead planning, execution, and delivery of complex software projects across multiple teams.

· Establish and monitor KPIs for engineering performance, quality, and velocity.

· Implement Agile methodologies to ensure predictable, high-quality releases.

· Proactively manage risks, dependencies, and resource allocation.

5. People & Team Leadership

· Build, inspire, and retain diverse, inclusive, and high-performing engineering teams.

· Foster a culture of psychological safety, growth, and accountability.

· Support career development through coaching, feedback, and succession planning.

· Promote equity in hiring, promotions, and team dynamics.

6. Cross-functional Collaboration

· Partner with leaders in Product, Design, QA, Security, and Operations.

· Facilitate alignment and transparency across departments to ensure shared goals.

· Drive initiatives that improve collaboration, communication, and operational efficiency.

· Represent engineering in cross-functional planning and governance forums.

What we need in you?

· Proven experience leading software engineering teams at scale (10+ years, with 5+ in leadership roles).

· Strong technical background in software architecture, cloud platforms, and modern development practices.

· Demonstrated success in delivering customer-facing products in agile environments.

· Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and organizational skills.

· Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace.

· Prior experience working in Azure and Microsoft stack if preferred, but not mandatory.

Preferred Attributes

· Experience in a fast-paced, high-growth tech environment.

· Passion for mentoring and developing engineering talent.

· Familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD, and security best practices.

· Track record of driving innovation and transformation.