Head of Engineering

About the Role

We are seeking a highly technical, hands-on, and battle-tested Head of Engineering to lead our core engineering teams as we scale our real-time verification and decision engines across Southeast Asia. In this role, you will bridge high-level system architecture with deep operational rigor. You are not an abstract manager—you are an active technical leader who regularly participates in system design reviews, inspects critical PRs, fine-tunes performance bottlenecks, and drives incident management alongside your team. You will set the high mark for execution speed, engineering craftsmanship, system resilience, and clear communication across cross-functional product and business units.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead system design, high-availability architecture, and API scalability across microservices, eKYC/eKYB pipelines, and database infrastructure.
• Debug high-severity production incidents, conduct root-cause analysis, and improve database efficiency, lock contention, and system latency.
• Lead live system migrations and zero-downtime maintenance strategies, including dual-write backfills and atomic cutovers.
• Establish engineering guardrails around secure coding, security, and AI-assisted code generation.
• Lead, mentor, and build a high-performing engineering culture focused on ownership, speed, and precision.
• Establish standard operating procedures for incident response, security compliance, continuous deployment, and logging.
• Communicate complex technical concepts, risks, and trade-offs clearly to business stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with regional privacy and security requirements, including PDPA and GDPR.
• Oversee identity management, automated testing, edge-case analysis, and third-party data integrations.

Qualifications

• Proven Technical Track Record: 8+ years of total software engineering experience with 3+ years in a senior technical leadership role (e.g., Engineering Manager, Tech Lead, Director of Engineering, or VP of Engineering) at a high-growth scale-up or technology enterprise.
• Hands-On Mastery: Deep expertise in backend system architecture, relational databases (specifically PostgreSQL at scale, indexing, table partitioning, lock contention analysis), and microservices.
• Incident Management & Resilience: Demonstrated experience handling high-throughput, real-time transaction processing, system outages, and live migrations with zero-to-minimal downtime requirements.
• Security & Compliance Standards: Knowledgeable in regional data privacy regulations (e.g., PDPA), PII data protection practices, cloud log management, and secure API integration practices.
• Exceptional Communication Skills: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills in English. Ability to translate technical risk, operational debt, and system trade-offs clearly to executives, customers, and developers.
• Hands-On Testing & AI Literacy: Strong understanding of static analysis, unit testing edge-cases, performance benchmarks, and verifying machine-generated or AI-assisted code.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in Fintech, Loan Origination Platforms, Regulatory Technology (RegTech), or Identity Verification platforms.
• Hands-on familiarity with cloud-native logging architecture, automated compliance workflows, and API-first platform infrastructure.