Senior Manager, R&D Site Leader

Senior Manager, R&D Site Leader

Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Workplace Type: Hybrid

About the Role

About the Role

Our client is a US-based SaaS cybersecurity company building a platform that helps enterprise customers reduce risk, detect threats, and prevent breaches across the applications where modern businesses operate. As the company continues to scale globally, they are establishing a long-term R&D hub in Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnam team will work on core product and platform initiatives from day one, with increasing ownership over critical areas of the platform.

We are looking for a Sr. Manager, R&D Site Leader to build and grow a high-performing engineering team in Ho Chi Minh City. You will lead a team working on large-scale distributed systems at the core of a SaaS security platform, ingesting, processing, and reasoning over data from hundreds of SaaS applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead an engineering team responsible for large-scale distributed systems at the core of the platform.
• Recruit, hire, and develop strong engineers, including senior individual contributors and future leaders.
• Set technical direction, partner on architecture, and maintain sufficient technical understanding to make informed decisions.
• Foster a culture of high ownership, accountability, and velocity while upholding quality and team sustainability.
• Establish clear expectations, provide constructive feedback, and support engineers in achieving their best performance.
• Collaborate effectively with global engineering, product, security research, and leadership teams.
• Contribute to the strategic vision and operational excellence of the Ho Chi Minh City R&D hub.
• Manage and mentor a team of software engineers, fostering their professional growth and career development.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement within the engineering team and the R&D site.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 4+ years of experience in engineering leadership roles.
• Proven track record of building engineering teams from inception or significantly scaling teams during growth phases.
• Demonstrated success in recruiting, developing, and retaining top engineering talent and future leaders.
• Deep technical expertise in designing, building, and operating distributed systems in production environments at scale.
• Solid understanding of concepts such as consistency, availability, fault tolerance, and operational complexity in distributed systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python and Go; ability to review code and contribute to technical design discussions is essential.
• Experience navigating and resolving complex leadership challenges, including performance management, organizational changes, conflict resolution, and decision-making in ambiguous situations.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage effectively with engineers, product managers, and executive stakeholders.
• Strong proficiency in English communication, both written and verbal.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) is a plus.

AI-Native Engineering Expectations

As part of an AI-forward engineering environment, engineering leaders are expected to use AI tools effectively and contribute to AI-ready architecture across the platform.

Why You’ll Enjoy Working With This Team

• Attractive salary range and we are open to negotiate if you're a strong fit
• Flexible hours, async teamwork, 15 days of paid annual leave alongside all official public holidays
• Work equipment support
• Receive statutory insurance (BHXH, BHYT, BHTN) starting from your first day of work.