SeniorDirector,AIEngineering:

Experience: 15+yearsinsoftwareengineering,including7+yearsleadingengineeringleadersandteams,and4+yearsdeliveringproductionAI/MLorGenerativeAIsystems
Reportsto: [VP/SVP,AIEngineering]
Scope: 2-3engineeringteams(~15-30engineers)inHyderabad,ledthroughEngineeringManagersandTechLeads,withamandatetogrow
Shift: Generalshift,withregulareveningoverlapwithUSEasternandPacifictimezones.

AboutCornerstoneOnDemand:

CornerstoneOnDemandhelpsorganizationsofeverysizedevelop,engage,andretaintheirpeoplethroughaunifiedtalentexperienceplatform.Oursoftwaresupportsmorethan7,000customersandtensofmillionsoflearnersworldwide.TheIndiaengineeringorganizationisacorepartofCornerstone'sglobalproductengineering,andourAIEngineeringorganizationbuildstheWorkforceAIcapabilitiesandsharedplatformthatpowerskillsintelligence,contentintelligence,personalization,andagenticexperiencesacrossCornerstone'sproducts.

Abouttherole:

WearehiringaSeniorDirector,AIEngineeringtoleadCornerstone'sAIEngineeringorganizationinHyderabad.Youwillownthepeople,thetechnicaldirection,andthedeliveryoutcomesformultipleAIengineeringteamsbuildingtheWorkforceAImodels,services,andplatformthatmakeCornerstone'sproductsintelligent-skillsinference,recommendations,contentunderstanding,retrieval-augmentedgeneration,evaluation,andtheagenticworkflowslayeredontop.

Thisisadeeplytechnicalleadershiprole.Youwillleadthroughmanagersandtechleads,butyouareexpectedtobecredibleintheroom:shapingAIarchitecture,pressure-testingretrievalandevaluationstrategy,questioninginferencecostandlatencytrade-offs,andreadingadesigndocumentorapullrequestwithrealjudgment.Youwillnotbewritingproductionfeaturesdaytoday,butthequalityofyourtechnicalinstinctswillsettheceilingfortheorganization.

YouwillalsobeoneofCornerstone'smostseniorAIvoicesinIndia-agenuinepeertoAIEngineeringleadershipintheUS,accountableforgloballydistributedownershipofrealproductsurfacesratherthandelegatedexecution.BuildingtheAItalentbenchinHyderabad,anddoingitresponsiblywithsensitiveworkforcedata,iscentraltothejob.

Inthisroleyouwill...

LeadandgrowtheIndiaAIEngineeringorganization

- Lead2-3AIengineeringteams(~15-30engineers)throughEngineeringManagersandTechLeads-settingdirection,clarifyingownership,andholdingahighbarforbothdeliveryandcraft.
- Developtheleaderswhoreporttoyou:coachmanagersonhiring,performance,feedback,andtechnicaljudgment,andbuildasuccessionbenchsotheorganizationisnotdependentonanysingleperson.
- Designtheteamtopology-howAIproduct,platform,andappliedresearchresponsibilitiesaresplitsoteamshaveclear,durableownershipandminimalhand-offfriction.
- Createanenvironmentwherestrongengineersdotheirbestwork:focusedroadmaps,lowprocessoverhead,honestretrospectives,andvisiblecareergrowth.

OwnthetechnicaldirectionforWorkforceAIinIndia

- SetanddefendtheAIarchitectureandtechnicalstrategyforthesystemsyourteamsown-modelselectionandhosting,retrievalandRAGdesign,vectorandfeaturestores,agentorchestration,andinferencepatterns.
- EstablishrigorousevaluationandqualitypracticesforAIsystems:offlineandonlineevalharnesses,goldendatasets,regressiongates,human-in-the-loopreview,andqualitymetricstiedtocustomeroutcomes.
- Drivebuild-vs-buydecisionsacrossfoundationmodels,AWS-nativeAIservices(Bedrock,SageMaker),andthird-partytooling-withaclear-eyedviewofcost,lock-in,latency,anddifferentiation.
- OwncloudandcostaccountabilityforAIworkloadsonAWS:inferencecostperrequest,GPUandtokenspend,cachingandmodel-routingstrategy,rightsizing,andFinOpsdiscipline.




- Leadarchitectureanddesignreviewspersonally,andraisethestandardforhowtheorganizationwritesdesigndocuments,reasonsabouttrade-offs,andvalidatesassumptionsbeforebuilding.
- Keeptheplatformandproductlayershealthytogether-sharedservices,SDKs,observability,andCI/CDthatletAIproductteamsshipquicklyandsafely.

DeliverAIproductsatscale

- Ownend-to-enddeliveryforyourteams'commitments:multi-quarterroadmap,dependencymanagement,realisticsequencing,andpredictableshippingwithoutheroics.
- PartnerwithProductManagement,Design,Data,Security,andSREtoturnambiguousproblemstatementsintoshipped,measurableAIcapabilities.
- MoveAIworkfrompromisingprototypetodurableproductionsystem-reliabilitytargets,monitoring,gracefuldegradation,rollback,andon-callownership.
- Makedisciplinedtrade-offsbetweencustomer-visiblequality,deliveryspeed,andlong-termplatforminvestment,andexplainthosetrade-offscrediblytoexecutives.

PartnergloballywithUSteams

- OperateasapeertoAIEngineering,product,andarchitectureleadersintheUS-jointlyowningstrategyratherthanreceivingit.
- NegotiateclearcharterandownershipboundariesacrosssitessoIndia-basedteamsownmeaningful,end-to-endproductsurfacesandareaccountableforoutcomes.
- MaintainaworkableoverlaprhythmwithcounterpartsinUSEasternandPacifictimezones,anddesignasync-firstpractices-writtenproposals,decisionrecords,recordeddemos-soprogressdoesnotdependonmeetingtime.
- RepresentIndiaAIEngineeringinglobalplanning,architecturecouncils,andexecutivereviews,andbringbackcontextthathelpsyourteamsmakebetterlocaldecisions.

BuildthetalentbrandandAIbenchinHyderabad

- OwntheAIhiringmandateforHyderabad:workforceplanning,sourcingstrategy,interviewloopdesign,calibration,andclosingseniorcandidates.
- RaisethetechnicalinterviewbarforAIroles-practicalsystemdesign,appliedMLandLLMdepth,evaluationthinking-andtraininterviewerstoassessitconsistently.
- StrengthenCornerstone'semployerbrandasanAIdestinationinHyderabadthroughmeetups,conferencetalks,technicalblogs,open-sourcecontributions,anduniversityandinternprograms.
- Buildinternalcapabilityalongsideexternalhiring:upskillingpathsforengineersmovingintoAIwork,mentorshipstructures,andacredibleseniortechnicalladderinIndia.

ResponsibleAI,trust,andcompliance

- OwnresponsibleAIpracticeforyourorganization-biasandfairnesstesting,explainability,humanoversight,modelanddatadocumentation,andclearescalationpaths.
- EnsureAIsystemshandlingsensitiveworkforceandHRdatameetprivacy,residency,andsecurityobligations(GDPR,India'sDPDPAct,customercontractualcommitments,SOC2/ISOcontrols).
- PartnerwithLegal,Security,andPrivacyonAIgovernance,vendorandmodelriskreview,andcustomer-facingAItransparencycommitments.
- Buildguardrailsintotheengineeringprocessratherthanboltingthemon:data-handlingstandards,promptandoutputsafetyreview,tenantisolation,andauditabilitybydefault.

YouHaveWhatItTakesIfYouHave...

- 15+yearsofsoftwareengineeringexperience,with7+yearsleadingengineeringteams,includingexperiencemanagingmanagers.
- ProventrackrecordofshippingAI/MLorGenerativeAIsystemstoproductionatscaleinaproductcompany-notonlypilots,POCs,orinternaltooling.




- Deep,currenttechnicalcredibilityinAIengineering:LLMapplicationarchitecture,RAGandretrievaldesign,embeddingsandvectorsearch,fine-tuningversuspromptingtrade-offs,agentorchestration,andmodelevaluation.
- Solid,hands-on-derivedexpertiseinAWS-designingandoperatingcloud-nativeandAIworkloads(EKS/ECS,Lambda,S3,RDS/Aurora,DynamoDB,Bedrockand/orSageMaker).
- SolidengineeringfoundationsinJavaand/orPython,distributedsystems,API-firstdesign(REST/GraphQL),event-drivenarchitectures,andSQL/NoSQLdatamodeling.
- ExperiencewithMLOpsandproductionMLoperations:CI/CDformodels,featureandvectorstores,modelmonitoringanddriftdetection,observability,andincidentresponse.
- DemonstratedsuccessbuildingandscalingengineeringorganizationsinIndia,includingseniorhiring,leveling,performancemanagement,andretention.
- Experienceoperatingeffectivelyinagloballydistributedengineeringmodel,partneringwithcounterpartsacrossUSEasternandPacifictimezones.
- Excellentwrittenandverbalcommunication-abletowriteacrispstrategydocument,defendatechnicalpositiontoexecutives,andexplainAItrade-offstonon-technicalstakeholders.
- Soundjudgmentoncost,risk,andresponsibleAI,withabiastowardmeasurablecustomerimpactovertechnicalnovelty.

Nicetohave:

- ExperienceinHRtechnology,talentmanagement,learning,orskillsintelligencedomains,orwithtaxonomyandontology-drivenproducts.
- Backgroundinmulti-tenantenterpriseSaaSwithstrictdataisolation,residency,andcompliancerequirements.
- Exposuretoappliedresearchcollaboration-workingwithresearchscientists,publishing,orproductizingnovelmodelwork.
- ExperiencestandingupanAIplatformorinternaldeveloperplatformusedbymultipleproductteams.
- FamiliaritywithAIgovernanceframeworkssuchastheEUAIAct,NISTAIRMF,orISO/IEC42001.
- Priorexperienceasasiteorsub-siteengineeringleaderwithbudget,vendor,andheadcountaccountability.
- AdvanceddegreeinComputerScience,MachineLearning,orarelatedquantitativefield.

Whatsuccesslookslike..

First90days

- Youknowthesystems,thepeople,andthecustomerproblemswellenoughtohaveopinions-andyouhaveearnedthetrustofyourmanagers,yourpeersintheUS,andyourproductpartners.
- Youhaveanhonestwrittenassessmentoftheorganization:teamtopology,technicaldebt,AIqualitygaps,deliveryrisks,andhiringneeds.

First6months

- Deliveryispredictableandteamshaveclear,durableownership.Roadmapcommitmentsaremetwithoutescalationasthedefaultmechanism.
- AnAIevaluationandqualityframeworkisinplace,andsystemqualityistrackedagainstcustomer-facingmetrics.
- Keyopenrolesarefilledwithstronghires,andtheinterviewloopiscalibratedandconsistent.

First12months

- India-basedteamsownsignificantAIproductsurfacesend-to-end,andglobalpartnersroutestrategicworkherebypreference.
- Inferencecost,latency,andreliabilityaremeasured,understood,andtrendingintherightdirection.
- ResponsibleAIpracticesareembeddedintheengineeringprocess,notmaintainedasaseparatechecklist.
- CornerstoneisarecognizedAIengineeringdestinationinHyderabad,withastrongseniorbenchandinternalleadersreadyformorescope.

Whyjoinus

- RealAIimpact.WorkforceAIshipstomorethan7,000customersandtensofmillionsoflearners-yourteams'workshapeshowpeoplefindskills,learning,andopportunityatwork.
- Genuineownership.Indiaisafirst-classengineeringsite,notadeliverycenter.Youwillownstrategyalongsideglobalpeers.
- Technicalleadership,notjustmanagement.Thisrolerewardsdeeptechnicaljudgmentandgivesyouthescopetoapplyit.
- ModernAIstack.LLMsandGenerativeAIonAWS(Bedrock,SageMaker),JavaandPythonservices,EKS,vectorand
- streamingdatainfrastructure,andaseriousevaluationculture.
- Buildsomethinglasting.AclearmandatetogrowtheAIorganizationandthetalentbrandinHyderabad.
- Corevalues.BepartofacompanythatlivesbyShatteringBoundaries,SparkingGreatness,andSharingSuccess.

#LI-Onsite

📌 Senior Director, AI Engineering (Hyderabad)
🏢 Cornerstone
📍 Hyderabad