Engineering Director (Pune)

About Agivant

Agivant Technologies is a fast-paced, AI-first IT services company. We help clients design, build, and scale autonomous solutions by combining deep engineering expertise with modern AI, cloud, and data capabilities. We move quickly, wear multiple hats, and expect our leaders to be builders first.

The Role

We are looking for a hands-on, technically strong Engineering Director to lead our engineering organization from Pune. This is not a pure people-management or project-management role. We want a builder and solutioner who stays close to the technology, architects and troubleshoots alongside the team, and has real, practical experience with AI systems.

You will lead a high-performing team, drive delivery excellence across client engagements, and act as a trusted technical voice for clients, all in a startup environment where priorities shift quickly and hands-on ownership matters more than process for its own sake.

What You Will Do

Technical Leadership and Solutioning

• Personally architect, review, and troubleshoot complex solutions alongside the team instead of delegating every technical decision.
• Apply AI systems (LLM, agentic, and ML-based approaches) to client solutions and to internal productivity.
• Set technical direction and standards across development, testing, and cloud administration.
• Get into the details when needed: code reviews, design reviews, and production issues.
• BFSI domain: strong background in banking, financial services, or insurance, including an understanding of regulatory, security, and compliance needs.

Team Leadership and Development

• Recruit, onboard, and retain top talent across development, testing, support, and cloud administration.
• Build a culture of continuous learning and professional growth.
• Manage performance, give regular feedback, and resolve conflicts constructively.
• Mentor future leaders and build a strong leadership pipeline.

Delivery Excellence

• Own the full product development and maintenance lifecycle for client projects.
• Establish and enforce a robust quality assurance process.
• Drive adoption of efficient engineering practices such as Agile and DevOps.
• Deliver measurable productivity gains through AI-led tooling and ways of working.
• Improve gross margin through efficient delivery, smart resourcing, and process discipline.

Client and Stakeholder Engagement

• Be a trusted technical voice for clients: provide regular updates and manage expectations.
• Translate client business objectives into a technical roadmap and hands-on solution design.
• Proactively identify opportunities to add value through AI-driven and autonomous solutions, new technologies, or process improvements.
• Treat revenue and account growth as a core part of client engagement, alongside technical delivery.

Requirements

What You Bring

Must-Have Requirements

• Experience: 10 to 18 years overall, including proven experience as an Engineering Manager or Director in a hands-on technical capacity.
• Technical depth: a track record of architecting, building, and troubleshooting complex systems.
• AI experience: hands-on work with AI in production (for example LLM or agentic solutions, ML pipelines, or applied AI), beyond awareness or buzzwords.
• Team leadership: demonstrated experience managing teams of 30 or more as both people manager and technical leader.
• Location: based in Pune, or willing to relocate and join within a defined notice period.
• Education: B.Tech or B.E. in any engineering stream.

Core Competencies

• Ability to architect, code, and troubleshoot.
• Solid grounding in distributed systems, product engineering, or advanced data analytics.
• Strong grasp of Agile and DevOps practices, QA discipline, and cloud infrastructure.
• Delivery excellence: a disciplined eye for quality, timelines, gross margin, and operational rigor.
• Commercial acumen: understanding of the revenue, margin, and growth levers within an engagement.
• People leadership: building, motivating, and retaining large engineering teams.
• Clear client-facing communication and stakeholder management.
• Comfort with ambiguity and fast-changing priorities.