Role Purpose

At Coats Digital, we build SaaS applications for the fashion industry, helping brands and manufacturers with planning, costing, and optimising their operations. AI is central to the next generation of our products.

As Director, Software Engineering (AI), you will own the AI and machine learning portfolio for Coats Digital — leading the development of recent AI-powered products and driving the integration of AI capabilities into our existing SaaS applications. You will manage a team of engineers and testers, with a mandate to grow the function by building out specialist AI/ML roles as the portfolio matures.

This role combines strategic leadership with technical depth. You will define Coats Digital’s AI roadmap, make build-vs-buy decisions on AI technologies, and work hands-on enough to prototype, evaluate approaches, and set technical direction. Today, the focus is on LLM integrations using services such as Azure OpenAI; over time, you will build the team’s capabilities in classical machine learning — including custom model development for domain-specific problems in the apparel industry.




You will collaborate closely with the other Software Engineering Directors, embedding AI features into their product portfolios while delivering your own.

People Management Responsibility (direct / indirect reports)

5 (scaling to ~10)

Indicate the number of people managed in total

☒

Matrix Manager – (projects/dotted line)

☒

Manager of a team

☐

Teams Manager (manager of multiple teams)

Key Relationships
(For new roles or where reporting relationships have change, please attach an organisation chart)

Internal (excluding direct team and manager)

External

Software Engineering Directors
Development Teams
Product Managers
Scrum Masters
Quality Assurance Team
DevOps

AI/ML Vendors and Research Partners
Cloud AI Teams (e.g. Azure AI, OpenAI)
Security Auditors
Data Governance Functions

Education, Qualifications and Experience
(Include skills and competencies requir

📌 Director - AI (India)
🏢 Coats
📍 India