Director, AI Engineering

Role overview

Director, AI Engineering at Cornerstone OnDemand

This role combines organizational leadership, technical strategy, and people leadership to build and sustain a high-performing engineering organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee multiple engineering teams across the full software development lifecycle — from requirements and architecture through implementation, testing, deployment, and operations.
• Ensure effective incident management frameworks, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement for system uptime and performance.
• Lead, mentor, and grow engineering managers and senior technical leaders, building a scalable organizational structure.
• Drive hiring strategy to attract and retain top engineering talent across levels.
• Provide ongoing coaching, performance management, and feedback to leaders and their teams.
• Drive engineering roadmaps aligned with product vision and business objectives.
• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies, tools, and platforms to enhance innovation and efficiency.
• Lead organizational improvements across Agile practices, delivery frameworks, and operational processes.
• Collaborate with DevOps, Infrastructure, Security, and Data teams to ensure operational excellence, scalability, and compliance.

Preferred qualifications and skills

• Experience in SaaS or enterprise product organizations at scale.
• Exposure to AI/ML platforms and integrating AI capabilities into products.
• Experience leading platform modernization, cloud transformation, or large-scale migrations.
• Familiarity with talent management, HR tech, or learning management systems. #LI-Oniste

Employment details

• Location: Hyderabad [India]

About the employer

• Director, AI Engineering – India Cornerstone OnDemand is looking for a Director of AI Engineering who will lead and scale multiple teams of software and AI engineers to deliver high-quality, scalable, and reliable software solutions.

Additional role details

• You will be responsible for setting technical vision, driving engineering excellence, and ensuring successful delivery of strategic initiatives aligned with business objectives.
• In this role, you will… Engineering Leadership & Delivery
• Define and drive technical vision and architecture strategy, ensuring systems are scalable, resilient, and aligned with long-term organizational goals.
• Own end-to-end delivery across portfolios/programs, ensuring alignment with business priorities, timelines, and quality expectations.
• Establish and standardize engineering best practices across teams, including design reviews, code quality standards, testing strategies, and CI/CD adoption.
• Drive consistency and excellence in software development processes, system reliability, and engineering productivity.
• Partner closely with Product, UX, QA, and other stakeholders to ensure effective planning, prioritization, and execution of roadmaps.
• Oversee proactive management of technical debt, system performance, and operational reliability at scale.
• People Leadership & Organizational Development
• Establish clear career frameworks, succession planning, and leadership development initiatives.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, inclusion, and continuous learning across the organization.
• Oversee resource planning, organizational design, and capacity management to align with strategic priorities.
• Strategy & Cross-Functional Leadership
• Partner with executive leadership to define and execute long-term technology and engineering strategy.
• Provide regular executive-level updates, including progress, risks, and investment trade-offs.
• Represent engineering in executive forums, cross-functional planning, and architectural governance discussions.
• You’ve Got What It Takes If You Have… Requirements
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with 5+ years in engineering leadership roles managing managers or multiple teams.
• Proven track record of leading large-scale, complex software programs and distributed engineering organizations.
• Technical Expertise
• Strong background in software engineering, system design, and distributed systems architecture.
• Hands-on experience in technologies such as Java, C#, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Go (prior coding experience expected, even if not day-to-day).
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms, microservices architecture, and API design patterns.
• Strong knowledge of data systems (SQL/NoSQL), caching, and large-scale data architecture.
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps practices, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code.
• Solid understanding of security, scalability, performance engineering, and reliability best practices.
• Leadership & Soft Skills
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence at all levels, including executive stakeholders.
• Strong strategic thinking and decision-making capabilities with a focus on business impact and outcomes.
• Demonstrated success in building and leading high-performing, geographically distributed teams.
• Ability to manage complex priorities, ambiguity, and large-scale organizational challenges.
• Strong collaboration skills with the ability to align cross-functional teams toward common goals.
• High sense of ownership, accountability, and commitment to delivery excellence.