Harness is the AI Software Delivery Platform company, led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal (founder of AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7B). Harness has raised approximately $570M in funding and is valued at $5.5B, backed by leading investors including Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Unusual Ventures, Citi Ventures, and more. As AI accelerates code creation, the real bottleneck has shifted to everything after the code – testing, deployments, application security, reliability, compliance, and cost optimization. Harness brings AI and automation to this “outer loop,” helping teams ship software faster while maintaining security and governance throughout the entire software delivery lifecycle. Powered by Harness AI and the Software Delivery Knowledge Graph, the Harness Platform applies deep context and intelligent automation across the software delivery lifecycle with governance and policy-driven controls embedded throughout the platform. Over the past year, Harness powered over 185M deployments, 82M builds, 18T flag evaluations, 8M security scans, 9.1B optimized tests, 3T protected API calls, and helped manage $2.8B in cloud spend — enabling customers like United Airlines, Morningstar, and Choice Hotels to accelerate releases by up to 75%, reduce cloud costs by up to 60%, and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency. With a global team across 26 offices and 27 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster. We’re looking for a Director Software Engineering to lead the Application Security Testing product as part of the Application Security business of Harness . It is a hands-on, high-impact leadership role combining product thinking, architectural oversight, high performance team building and close customer collaboration. You'll define the long-term vision, deliver against strategic outcomes, and orchestrate engineering excellence across a globally distributed team. The application security domain is rapidly changing with LLM’s growing influence on security scanning; you will be leading the product through this transformational journey. About the role In this role, you will be responsible for the strategic vision, technical roadmap, and operational success of the product. You will be establishing the AI first development culture in the team. Key Responsibilities - Execute the long-term vision and strategy for the product, grounded in market trends and customer value. - Develop a thorough grasp of the product landscape and partner with the product manager to articulate the overall vision. - Contribute to product architecture and design reviews - Make high-impact decisions in ambiguous, cross-functional environments that shape product direction. - Hire, grow, and lead globally distributed engineering teams; foster a high-performance, feedback-driven culture. - Establish a culture of AI first development practices across the team - Continuously improve internal processes, cross-team collaboration, and technical scalability across the org. - Partner directly with customers and related organizations to manage escalations, and ensure adoption success. About you We’re looking for a seasoned technology leader with a startup mindset and deep technical roots—someone who approaches challenges like a product engineer and thrives in complexity. Required Experience & Qualifications: - 14+ years of backend software development experience; 4+ years leading high-performing engineering team - Proven success in building and scaling orgs in fast-paced, high-growth environments. - Strong track record in the product building from inception with hands-on architectural and design leadership. - Expertise in building high-throughput platforms, scalable APIs, and distributed systems. - Familiarity with GCP, Go, and Kubernetes; strong grasp of the Google cloud-native ecosystem. - Clear communicator and collaborator across teams, executives, and customers. - Organized, action-oriented leader who can navigate complexity while driving results and team health. - BS in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience. Preferred Attributes: - Domain knowledge of application security product - Hands on experience with AI tools and experience in enabling the team in AI tools adoption - Experience in leading incident management, including drafting external-facing RCAs. Harness in the news: - Accelerating Our Mission to Bring AI to Everything After Code - Goldman Sachs leads investment in software delivery startup Harness at $5.5 billion valuation - How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal - Harness Research Shows AI Visibility Crisis Fueling Security Nightmare - Harness has been named to the Inc. Power Partner list for software delivery success All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin. At Harness, we care about your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. For additional information on this topic, you can visit our privacy Portal: https://harness-privacy.relyance.ai/ Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers. Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations. If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at security@harness.io. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.

Director Software Engineering - AST

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