Senior Director - Software Engineering, Quality & Innovation

About Us

We are a global leader in primary source verification and background screening, partnering with governments, regulators, licensing authorities, and employers worldwide. Our mission is to protect communities by ensuring professionals are who they claim to be, empowering talent to navigate careers with trust and transparency.

Technology is the engine of that promise. Our engineering teams build and run the secure digital ecosystem that processes verification cases at scale across dozens of countries, in a regulated, data-sensitive environment where accuracy is non-negotiable. We partner with clients across the public and private sectors to assist them in mitigating potential risk by exposing fraudulent activities.

Purpose of the Role

The Senior Director – Software Engineering, Quality & Innovation leads the engineering organisation based in Noida and is accountable for the end-to-end delivery, quality, and reliability of our technology estate. This is a senior leadership appointment reporting directly to the CTO, with broad autonomy, significant scope, and a clear pathway for progression.

The role combines three core responsibilities: consistently delivering software on committed timelines; fostering a quality engineering culture focused on defect prevention; and driving a focused innovation agenda to stay ahead in a fast-moving verification market.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Delivery

• Own the delivery performance of the engineering organisation — predictable releases, credible estimates, and met commitments.
• Lead multiple engineering teams (typically 80–150 engineers) across platform, product, and integration domains, managing them through their line managers.
• Set and enforce engineering standards: architecture governance, code review, CI/CD, observability, security-by-design, and technical documentation.
• Partner with Product, Operations, and Commercial leadership to translate business priorities into a sequenced, resourced engineering plan.
• Manage the engineering budget, vendor and partner relationships, and workforce planning within agreed financial parameters.

Quality Engineering

• Own the quality strategy across the estate — test automation, environment and test data management, performance and resilience testing, and release assurance.
• Drive measurable improvement in defect escape rate, production incident volume, mean time to recovery, and change failure rate.
• Embed quality accountability within delivery teams rather than at a downstream gate, while maintaining independent assurance where regulation or client contracts require it.
• Ensure engineering practices comply with obligations under ISO 27001, GDPR, and the data protection regimes of the jurisdictions we operate in.

Innovation

• Run a small, deliberately scoped innovation function that evaluates emerging technology — particularly applied AI, intelligent document processing, and automation — against real verification problems.
• Take a disciplined approach to experimentation: clear hypotheses, time-boxed proofs of concept, objective termination decisions, and a defined route from prototype into production.
• Advise the CTO and Executive Committee on technology direction, build-versus-buy decisions, and modernization of legacy components.

Leadership

• Build, develop, and retain a strong leadership team; mentor engineering managers and principal engineers for their next career steps.
• Represent the Technology function credibly with executive stakeholders, regulators, auditors, and enterprise clients.
• Serve as deputy for the CTO on operational and governance matters as required.

Experience & Qualifications

Essential

• 18+ years in software engineering, with at least 5 years leading engineering organisations of 50+ people through subordinate managers.
• Demonstrable track record of significantly improving delivery predictability and software quality, evidenced by metrics rather than assertion.
• Deep hands-on expertise in modern engineering practice — cloud-native architecture, microservices, API design, DevSecOps, and test automation — sufficient to provide technical leadership and guidance to architects and principal engineers.
• Experience operating in a regulated, data-sensitive, or compliance-driven environment.
• Proven ability to run an engineering budget and manage third-party delivery partners.
• Proven ability to synthesize information into actionable knowledge for reporting success and driving change.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with strong executive presence and presentation skills.

Desirable

• Experience in background screening, digital identity, FinTech, GovTech, or HRTech.
• Exposure to applied AI or machine learning in a production setting, especially regarding Quality Assurance and automated delivery.
• Experience working across a multi-site, multi-time-zone organisation, ideally with a Middle East or global client base.
• Master’s degree or MBA.

Competencies

We are looking for candidates who demonstrate the following core competencies:

• Ownership — treats delivery commitments as personal commitments.
• Judgement — makes sound calls with incomplete information and explains the reasoning.
• Candour — surfaces bad news early and accurately.
• Talent Builder — demonstrated by the development of strong leaders.
• Commercial Literacy — connects engineering decisions to client outcomes and cost implications.
• Care — leads with empathy while maintaining high standards.

Success in the First 12 Months

• An established, documented baseline of delivery and quality performance, and a published improvement plan.
• Measurable reduction in defect escape rate and production incidents.
• Release predictability materially improved in line with committed dates.
• A strengthened leadership team with succession identified for every critical engineering role.
• At least two innovation initiatives progressed from concept to a production decision.

What We Offer

• A significant senior leadership position with genuine scope, executive visibility, and a clear route for further progression.
• Competitive base salary and performance-related bonus, benchmarked to the upper quartile of the Delhi NCR market, plus comprehensive benefits.
• The opportunity to lead engineering for a global business whose work protects the public in more than 200 countries and territories.
• Working from our Noida office with occasional work-from-home arrangements.
• Occasional international travel.