Director of Engineering

Location: Bengaluru

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, Nestlé, 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 at  Locus  , 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 across  30+ countries  , used by enterprises like  Unilever, Nestlé, and IKEA Retail  .
The Director of Engineering at  Locus  is the  end-to-end engineering owner of the system  , accountable for  technology excellence, delivery reliability, and team effectiveness  across their portfolio. This role combines  hands-on technical leadership  ,  execution ownership  , and  people leadership  to ensure Locus platforms scale reliably, ship predictably, and meet demanding enterprise SLAs.
In this role, the Director of Engineering:
Sets and upholds the  technical bar  through architectural leadership, deep design reviews, and guidance on complex backend, platform, and optimization systems.

Owns  delivery outcomes  , ensuring high-quality, production-ready features are shipped on committed timelines with strong operational readiness.

Builds and develops  high-performing engineering teams  , mentoring engineering managers and senior ICs while driving capability uplift across architecture, coding, and execution.

Acts as a  cross-functional leader  , partnering with Product, SRE, QA, Data Science, and GTM teams to align priorities, manage trade-offs, and deliver business impact.

Drives  engineering culture and fundamentals  , including ownership, craftsmanship, CI/CD quality, observability, reliability, and long-term system health.

Leads  strategic engineering initiatives  such as platform modernization, AI/optimization scaling, performance improvements, and global infrastructure evolution.

Skills & Expertise      Strong  systems thinking  with the ability to design, evolve, and operate large-scale, distributed platforms.

Sound judgment in balancing  technical quality, delivery speed, reliability, and cost  .

Proven ability to  own end-to-end execution  of complex, multi-team engineering programs.

Effective  people leadership  skills-coaching, feedback, capability assessment, and succession planning.

Strong  cross-functional leadership  , partnering closely with Product, SRE, QA, Data Science, and GTM teams.

Ability to communicate  technical decisions, risks, and trade-offs  clearly to executives and business stakeholders.

Deep appreciation for  engineering excellence fundamentals  : quality, reliability, observability, and operational readiness.

Solid grounding in  modern engineering practices  , including agile execution, CI/CD, and continuous improvement.

Business-oriented mindset with an understanding of how engineering decisions drive  customer outcomes and company growth  .

Experience & Qualifications      Bachelor's/Master's degree in Computer Science or related field.

14+ years  of experience building and scaling enterprise-grade software platforms  at least 5-6 years  in senior engineering leadership roles.

Proven experience leading multiple engineering teams and managers comfortable with  20-40 engineering spans  .

Hands-on experience with large-scale backend systems, distributed…