Director of Engineering

Job Description Job Title: Director of Engineering About Locus Battle-tested in 350+ deployments across 30+ countries, Locus is an agentic Transportation Management System for all-mile, all-channel, trusted by enterprises like Unilever, Nestl, and Siam Makro. The platform unifies orders, capacity, and carrier networks into one living plan, aligning planning, execution, and settlement so promises become proof. AI co-pilots with guardrails surface risk early and recommend the next best move to protect SLAs and reduce empty miles. In 2025, Locus joined the Ingka Group (IKEA Retail) family, marking a major milestone in our journey. Backed by the scale and strength of IKEA, we continue to operate independently while accelerating our mission to make global supply chains faster, smarter, and more sustainable. Our Journey and Impact Since 2015, Locus has been on a mission to make logistics decision-making intelligent, sustainable, and real-world ready. Our platform has powered billions of deliveries across 30 + countries for global enterprises, driving measurable impact in cost savings, carbon reduction, and SLA performance. With the strength of the IKEA ecosystem behind us, we're scaling that impact even further. Our Global Footprint Headquartered in Bangalore, with teams across the U.S., U.K., UAE, and Southeast Asia, Locus brings together 170 + engineers, designers, and problem-solvers united by a single goal: to reinvent how the world moves goods. Traits We Value We look for people who are: - Global in mindset: curious about diverse markets and ideas. - Unrelenting in drive: energized by complex challenges. - Intelligent in approach: analytical, creative, and thoughtful. - Dynamic in execution: adaptive and decisive in fast-moving contexts. - Exact in craft: detail-oriented and committed to excellence. Role Overview As a Director of Engineering atLocus, you will play a mission-critical role in shaping and scaling the core technology that powers global supply chains. You will lead engineering teams that build our agentic Transportation Management System-now operating across30+ countries, used by enterprises likeUnilever, Nestl, and IKEA Retail. The Director of Engineering atLocusis theend-to-end engineering owner of the system, accountable fortechnology excellence, delivery reliability, and team effectivenessacross their portfolio. This role combineshands-on technical leadership,execution ownership, andpeople leadershipto ensure Locus platforms scale reliably, ship predictably, and meet demanding enterprise SLAs. In this role, the Director of Engineering: - Sets and upholds thetechnical barthrough architectural leadership, deep design reviews, and guidance on complex backend, platform, and optimization systems. - Ownsdelivery outcomes, ensuring high-quality, production-ready features are shipped on committed timelines with strong operational readiness. - Builds and developshigh-performing engineering teams, mentoring engineering managers and senior ICs while driving capability uplift across architecture, coding, and execution. - Acts as across-functional leader, partnering with Product, SRE, QA, Data Science, and GTM teams to align priorities, manage trade-offs, and deliver business impact. - Drivesengineering culture and fundamentals, including ownership, craftsmanship, CI/CD quality, observability, reliability, and long-term system health. - Leadsstrategic engineering initiativessuch as platform modernization, AI/optimization scaling, performance improvements, and global infrastructure evolution. Skills & Expertise - Strongsystems thinkingwith the ability to design, evolve, and operate large-scale, distributed platforms. - Sound judgment in balancingtechnical quality, delivery speed, reliability, and cost. - Proven ability toown end-to-end executionof complex, multi-team engineering programs. - - Effectivepeople leadershipskills-coaching, feedback, capability assessment, and succession planning. - Strongcross-functional leadership, partnering closely with Product, SRE, QA, Data Science, and GTM teams. - Ability to communicatetechnical decisions, risks, and trade-offsclearly to executives and business stakeholders. - Deep appreciation forengineering excellence fundamentals: quality, reliability, observability, and operational readiness. - Solid grounding inmodern engineering practices, including agile execution, CI/CD, and continuous improvement. - Business-oriented mindset with an understanding of how engineering decisions drivecustomer outcomes and company growth. Experience & Qualifications - Bachelor's/Master's degree in Computer Science or related field. - 14+ yearsof experience building and scaling enterprise-grade software platformsat least 5-6 yearsin senior engineering leadership roles. - Proven experience leading multiple engineering teams and managers comfortable with20-40 engineering spans. - Hands-on experience with large-scale backend systems, distributed architectures, and cloud environments (AWS preferred). - Strong understanding of microservices, messaging systems (Kafka, Redis, RabbitMQ), and Databases. - Demonstrated ability to take products from concept design delivery operation in production environments. - Track record of building high-performing teams, improving engineering culture, and scaling technology to meet business growth. - - Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, especially for cross-functional and executive-level alignment. Why Join Us Join Locus and become part of a visionary team that is redefining logistics through innovation and smart distribution. We provide competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative environment where your expertise will drive both your growth and that of the organization. Locus is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace.