Senior Director, AI Engineering

Thisisadeeplytechnicalleadershiprole.Youwillleadthroughmanagersandtechleads,butyouareexpectedtobecredibleintheroom:shapingAIarchitecture,pressure-testingretrievalandevaluationstrategy,questioninginferencecostandlatencytrade-offs,andreadingadesigndocumentorapullrequestwithrealjudgment.Youwillnotbewritingproductionfeaturesdaytoday,butthequalityofyourtechnicalinstinctswillsettheceilingfortheorganization.

• Lead2-3AIengineeringteams(~15-30engineers)throughEngineeringManagersandTechLeads-settingdirection,clarifyingownership,andholdingahighbarforbothdeliveryandcraft.
• Developtheleaderswhoreporttoyou:coachmanagersonhiring,performance,feedback,andtechnicaljudgment,andbuildasuccessionbenchsotheorganizationisnotdependentonanysingleperson.
• Designtheteamtopology-howAIproduct,platform,andappliedresearchresponsibilitiesaresplitsoteamshaveclear,durableownershipandminimalhand-offfriction.
• Createanenvironmentwherestrongengineersdotheirbestwork:focusedroadmaps,lowprocessoverhead,honestretrospectives,andvisiblecareergrowth.

• SetanddefendtheAIarchitectureandtechnicalstrategyforthesystemsyourteamsown-modelselectionandhosting,retrievalandRAGdesign,vectorandfeaturestores,agentorchestration,andinferencepatterns.
• EstablishrigorousevaluationandqualitypracticesforAIsystems:offlineandonlineevalharnesses,goldendatasets,regressiongates,human-in-the-loopreview,andqualitymetricstiedtocustomeroutcomes.
• Drivebuild-vs-buydecisionsacrossfoundationmodels,AWS-nativeAIservices(Bedrock,SageMaker),andthird-partytooling-withaclear-eyedviewofcost,lock-in,latency,anddifferentiation.
• OwncloudandcostaccountabilityforAIworkloadsonAWS:inferencecostperrequest,GPUandtokenspend,cachingandmodel-routingstrategy,rightsizing,andFinOpsdiscipline.
• Leadarchitectureanddesignreviewspersonally,andraisethestandardforhowtheorganizationwritesdesigndocuments,reasonsabouttrade-offs,andvalidatesassumptionsbeforebuilding.
• Keeptheplatformandproductlayershealthytogether-sharedservices,SDKs,observability,andCI/CDthatletAIproductteamsshipquicklyandsafely.

• Ownend-to-enddeliveryforyourteams'commitments:multi-quarterroadmap,dependencymanagement,realisticsequencing,andpredictableshippingwithoutheroics.
• PartnerwithProductManagement,Design,Data,Security,andSREtoturnambiguousproblemstatementsintoshipped,measurableAIcapabilities.
• MoveAIworkfrompromisingprototypetodurableproductionsystem-reliabilitytargets,monitoring,gracefuldegradation,rollback,andon-callownership.
• Makedisciplinedtrade-offsbetweencustomer-visiblequality,deliveryspeed,andlong-termplatforminvestment,andexplainthosetrade-offscrediblytoexecutives.

• OperateasapeertoAIEngineering,product,andarchitectureleadersintheUS-jointlyowningstrategyratherthanreceivingit.
• NegotiateclearcharterandownershipboundariesacrosssitessoIndia-basedteamsownmeaningful,end-to-endproductsurfacesandareaccountableforoutcomes.
• MaintainaworkableoverlaprhythmwithcounterpartsinUSEasternandPacifictimezones,anddesignasync-firstpractices-writtenproposals,decisionrecords,recordeddemos-soprogressdoesnotdependonmeetingtime.
• RepresentIndiaAIEngineeringinglobalplanning,architecturecouncils,andexecutivereviews,andbringbackcontextthathelpsyourteamsmakebetterlocaldecisions.

• OwntheAIhiringmandateforHyderabad:workforceplanning,sourcingstrategy,interviewloopdesign,calibration,andclosingseniorcandidates.
• RaisethetechnicalinterviewbarforAIroles-practicalsystemdesign,appliedMLandLLMdepth,evaluationthinking-andtraininterviewerstoassessitconsistently.
• StrengthenCornerstone'semployerbrandasanAIdestinationinHyderabadthroughmeetups,conferencetalks,technicalblogs,open-sourcecontributions,anduniversityandinternprograms.
• Buildinternalcapabilityalongsideexternalhiring:upskillingpathsforengineersmovingintoAIwork,mentorshipstructures,andacredibleseniortechnicalladderinIndia.

• OwnresponsibleAIpracticeforyourorganization-biasandfairnesstesting,explainability,humanoversight,modelanddatadocumentation,andclearescalationpaths.
• EnsureAIsystemshandlingsensitiveworkforceandHRdatameetprivacy,residency,andsecurityobligations(GDPR,India'sDPDPAct,customercontractualcommitments,SOC2/ISOcontrols).
• PartnerwithLegal,Security,andPrivacyonAIgovernance,vendorandmodelriskreview,andcustomer-facingAItransparencycommitments.
• Buildguardrailsintotheengineeringprocessratherthanboltingthemon:data-handlingstandards,promptandoutputsafetyreview,tenantisolation,andauditabilitybydefault.

• 15+yearsofsoftwareengineeringexperience,with7+yearsleadingengineeringteams,includingexperiencemanagingmanagers.
• ProventrackrecordofshippingAI/MLorGenerativeAIsystemstoproductionatscaleinaproductcompany-notonlypilots,POCs,orinternaltooling.
• Deep,currenttechnicalcredibilityinAIengineering:LLMapplicationarchitecture,RAGandretrievaldesign,embeddingsandvectorsearch,fine-tuningversuspromptingtrade-offs,agentorchestration,andmodelevaluation.
• Strong,hands-on-derivedexpertiseinAWS-designingandoperatingcloud-nativeandAIworkloads(EKS/ECS,Lambda,S3,RDS/Aurora,DynamoDB,Bedrockand/orSageMaker).
• SolidengineeringfoundationsinJavaand/orPython,distributedsystems,API-firstdesign(REST/GraphQL),event-drivenarchitectures,andSQL/NoSQLdatamodeling.
• ExperiencewithMLOpsandproductionMLoperations:CI/CDformodels,featureandvectorstores,modelmonitoringanddriftdetection,observability,andincidentresponse.
• DemonstratedsuccessbuildingandscalingengineeringorganizationsinIndia,includingseniorhiring,leveling,performancemanagement,andretention.
• Experienceoperatingeffectivelyinagloballydistributedengineeringmodel,partneringwithcounterpartsacrossUSEasternandPacifictimezones.
• Excellentwrittenandverbalcommunication-abletowriteacrispstrategydocument,defendatechnicalpositiontoexecutives,andexplainAItrade-offstonon-technicalstakeholders.
• Soundjudgmentoncost,risk,andresponsibleAI,withabiastowardmeasurablecustomerimpactovertechnicalnovelty.

• ExperienceinHRtechnology,talentmanagement,learning,orskillsintelligencedomains,orwithtaxonomyandontology-drivenproducts.
• Backgroundinmulti-tenantenterpriseSaaSwithstrictdataisolation,residency,andcompliancerequirements.
• Exposuretoappliedresearchcollaboration-workingwithresearchscientists,publishing,orproductizingnovelmodelwork.
• ExperiencestandingupanAIplatformorinternaldeveloperplatformusedbymultipleproductteams.
• FamiliaritywithAIgovernanceframeworkssuchastheEUAIAct,NISTAIRMF,orISO/IEC42001.
• Priorexperienceasasiteorsub-siteengineeringleaderwithbudget,vendor,andheadcountaccountability.
• AdvanceddegreeinComputerScience,MachineLearning,orarelatedquantitativefield.

• Youknowthesystems,thepeople,andthecustomerproblemswellenoughtohaveopinions-andyouhaveearnedthetrustofyourmanagers,yourpeersintheUS,andyourproductpartners.
• Youhaveanhonestwrittenassessmentoftheorganization:teamtopology,technicaldebt,AIqualitygaps,deliveryrisks,andhiringneeds.

• Deliveryispredictableandteamshaveclear,durableownership.Roadmapcommitmentsaremetwithoutescalationasthedefaultmechanism.
• AnAIevaluationandqualityframeworkisinplace,andsystemqualityistrackedagainstcustomer-facingmetrics.
• Keyopenrolesarefilledwithstronghires,andtheinterviewloopiscalibratedandconsistent.

• India-basedteamsownsignificantAIproductsurfacesend-to-end,andglobalpartnersroutestrategicworkherebypreference.
• Inferencecost,latency,andreliabilityaremeasured,understood,andtrendingintherightdirection.
• ResponsibleAIpracticesareembeddedintheengineeringprocess,notmaintainedasaseparatechecklist.
• CornerstoneisarecognizedAIengineeringdestinationinHyderabad,withastrongseniorbenchandinternalleadersreadyformorescope.

• RealAIimpact.WorkforceAIshipstomorethan7,000customersandtensofmillionsoflearners-yourteams'workshapeshowpeoplefindskills,learning,andopportunityatwork.
• Genuineownership.Indiaisafirst-classengineeringsite,notadeliverycenter.Youwillownstrategyalongsideglobalpeers.
• Technicalleadership,notjustmanagement.Thisrolerewardsdeeptechnicaljudgmentandgivesyouthescopetoapplyit.
• ModernAIstack.LLMsandGenerativeAIonAWS(Bedrock,SageMaker),JavaandPythonservices,EKS,vectorand
• streamingdatainfrastructure,andaseriousevaluationculture.
• Buildsomethinglasting.AclearmandatetogrowtheAIorganizationandthetalentbrandinHyderabad.
• Corevalues.BepartofacompanythatlivesbyShatteringBoundaries,SparkingGreatness,andSharingSuccess.