Senior Manager - Engineering

At Freshworks, we build uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Our enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive. Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency. And over 4,500 Freshworks employees make this possible, all around the world.

Responsibilities:

At Freshworks, we are building the future of customer and employee engagement. Our Platform is the bedrock upon which our products are built, enabling thousands of businesses to champion their customers daily. We are looking for a visionary technology leader to take the charge of our Platform group, a leader who makes bold moves and inspires their teams to set high standards for craftsmanship, resilience, and scale.

As the Senior Director of Engineering for Platform, you will be empowered to make an impact by owning the strategic vision and technical execution for all core services. You will lead a world-class organization of engineers and managers, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration where we win as one team. This is a pivotal role with the opportunity to influence our entire product portfolio and deliver the speed and reliability our customers depend on.

What You'll Do (Responsibilities)

• Lead & Inspire: Cultivate a high-performance, inclusive culture across a multi-tiered organization of engineers and managers. Mentor the next generation of technical leaders and build a world-class team that is known for its technical excellence and execution velocity.
  

• Own the Platform Vision: Develop and execute the long-term strategic roadmap for our core platform services. Drive architectural decisions that ensure our systems are scalable, reliable, and secure, directly enabling our product teams to innovate faster.
  

• Execute with Excellence: Master the entire development lifecycle, from strategic planning and roadmap management to deployment and operations. Champion agile and iterative development methodologies to ship exceptional products under ambitious deadlines and evolving business priorities.
  

• Drive Technical & Architectural Strategy: Act as the ultimate technical authority for the platform. Guide your teams in building large-scale, distributed cloud systems and microservices architecture, ensuring we are always adopting best practices and cutting-edge technologies.
  

• Collaborate to Win: Build powerful partnerships with leaders in Product, Operations, and GTM to ensure the platform roadmap is perfectly aligned with business needs and customer expectations. Foster a "one team" mindset to solve complex, cross-functional challenges.
  

• Champion Innovation & Quality: Foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and the adoption of new technologies. Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure platform health, reliability, and business impact.
  

Qualifications

What You'll Bring (Qualifications)

• A Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.
  

• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a proven track record of at least 5 years in a senior leadership role (manager or above) managing platform or core infrastructure teams.
  

• Demonstrable experience building, scaling, and leading high-performing product and engineering organizations in an enterprise SaaS environment.
  

• A strong technical foundation in building and operating large-scale, distributed systems on public cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
  

Skills Inventory

• Leadership & Talent Management:
  

  • Inspirational Leadership & Mentorship
    

  • Talent Acquisition & Retention
    

  • Organizational Design & Scaling
    

  • Performance Management & Career Development
    

• Technical & Architectural Acumen:
  

  • Cloud Computing & Microservices Architecture
    

  • Large-Scale Distributed Systems Design
    

  • DevOps, CI/CD, and SRE Principles
    

  • Data Security & Compliance Frameworks
    

• Strategic & Business Acumen:
  

  • Long-Term Strategic Planning & Vision Setting
    

  • Roadmap Development & Prioritization
    

  • Budget & Resource Management
    

  • Data-Driven Decision Making & KPI Management
    

• Execution & Collaboration:
  

  • Agile & Iterative Development Methodologies
    

  • Cross-Functional Influence & Stakeholder Management
    

  • Exceptional Communication & Interpersonal Skills
    

  • Problem-Solving & Crisis Management
    

Additional Information

At Freshworks, we are creating a global workplace that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. We are committed to providing equal opportunity for all and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer work environment that advances the goals of our employees, communities and the business.