Senior Director, Engineering

Harness is a high-growth company that is disrupting the software delivery market. Our mission is to enable the 30 million software developers in the world to deliver code to their users reliably, efficiently, securely and quickly, increasing customers’ pace of innovation while improving the developer experience. We offer solutions for every step of the software delivery lifecycle to build, test, secure, deploy and manage reliability, feature flags and cloud costs. The Harness Software Delivery Platform includes modules for CI, CD, Cloud Cost Management, Feature Flags, Service Reliability Management, Security Testing Orchestration, Chaos Engineering, Software Engineering Insights and continues to expand at an incredibly fast pace.   Harness is led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, who founded AppDynamics and sold it to Cisco for $3.7B. We’re backed with $425M in venture financing from top-tier VC and strategic firms, including J.P. Morgan, Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, ServiceNow, Splunk Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Adage Capital Partners, Balyasny Asset Management, Gaingels, Harmonic Growth Partners, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Unusual Ventures, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Alkeon Capital, Battery Ventures, Sorenson Capital, Thomvest Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

Position Summary

Join Harness, a high-growth startup transforming how software is delivered. Our mission is to help 30 million developers ship code faster, more securely, and with greater reliability—fueling innovation and improving the developer experience. Backed by $425M in funding and led by AppDynamics founder Jyoti Bansal, we’re recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for DevOps Platforms and consistently ranked on Glassdoor, Forbes, Inc., and LinkedIn’s top workplace lists.

Our CI platform is the fastest and most intelligent on the market—cutting test cycles by 80% and accelerating builds up to 8x with features like AI-powered Test Intelligence™. Customers like United Airlines and Kajabi have seen massive gains in speed and cost savings by adopting Harness CI. This is your chance to drive innovation in a product line that’s reshaping how modern engineering teams build software.

We’re looking for a Senior Director of Engineering to lead our CI business—a high revenue line poised for 4x growth. This is a hands-on, high-impact leadership role combining product ownership, architectural oversight, and close customer collaboration. You'll define the long-term vision, deliver against strategic outcomes, and orchestrate engineering excellence across a globally distributed team.

About The Role

As the Senior Director of Engineering for Continuous Integration, you'll own the vision, execution, and technical direction of a critical $25M+ product line. You’ll split your time between technology leadership (40%), product and roadmap ownership (30%), and communication and collaboration (30%)—interfacing across executive leadership, customers, and cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the long-term vision and strategy for Harness CI, grounded in market trends and customer value.
• Make high-impact decisions in ambiguous, cross-functional environments that shape company direction.
• Partner directly with customers to inform roadmap priorities, manage escalations, and ensure adoption success.
• Lead delivery of cutting-edge CI features including AI Test Intelligence, smart caching, and hyper-optimized infrastructure.Drive security and compliance enhancements such as SLSA L3, scanner integrations, and automated vulnerability triage.
• Ensure deep integration of Harness CI across the SDLC, supporting any SCM, language, or platform.
• Hire, grow, and lead globally distributed engineering teams; foster a high-performance, feedback-driven culture.
• Provide hands-on architectural leadership in areas like Kubernetes, Serverless, and policy-based pipeline governance.
• Modernize backend systems with a focus on distributed systems, Go, and GCP.
• Continuously improve internal processes, cross-team collaboration, and technical scalability across the org.

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:

• 10+ years of backend software development experience; 6+ years leading high-performing engineering or DevOps teams.
• Proven success building and scaling orgs in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Strong track record in the software delivery/lifecycle domain 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.

Work Location

SF Bay Area, Hybrid

What You Will Have At Harness

• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Flexible Time Off and Parental Leave
• Quarterly Harness TGIF-Off / 4 days
• Monthly, quarterly, and annual social and team-building events
• Recharge & Reset Program
• Monthly internet reimbursement
• Commuter benefits

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $225,000 - $250,000 annually. Salary is determined by a combination of factors including location, level, relevant experience, and skills. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position.  The compensation package for this position also includes a commission/variable component, which is based on performance, plus equity, and benefits. More details about our company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.harness.io/company/careers.

A valid authorization to work in the U.S. is required

Pay transparency$225,000—$250,000 USD

Harness In The News:

• Harness AI Tackles Software Development’s Real Bottleneck
• After 'Vibe Coding' Comes 'Vibe Testing' (Almost)
• Startup Within a Startup: Empowering Intrapreneurs for Scalable Innovation - Jyoti Bansal (Harness)
• Jyoti Bansal, Harness | theCUBEd Awards
• Eight years after selling AppDynamics to Cisco, Jyoti Bansal is pursuing an unusual merger
• Harness snags Split.io, as it goes all in on feature flags and experiments
• Exclusive: Jyoti Bansal-led Harness has raised $150 million in debt financing

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

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.