Director of Systems Engineering, Harness Platform

Harness is a leading provider of Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment (CI/CD), and DevOps automation solutions, enabling teams to deliver software quickly, efficiently, and reliably. Our platform powers the future of software delivery, and we’re looking for passionate and talented individuals to join our team as we continue to drive innovation in this space.

Position Overview: 

Harness is seeking a Director of Systems Engineering for our platform, with a focus on overseeing end-to-end system-level tuning and testing for all ci/cd/sto/pipeline modules that mirror how customers use pipelines and platform constructs. This leader will be responsible for ensuring that the platform operates as expected in real-world environments, through comprehensive testing, validation, and continuous monitoring of new code changes.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience managing distributed teams across regions, driving high-quality production validation processes, technically hands-on debugging core production issues and collaborating with engineering teams on PRs that have cross-module impacts. This role will also own the production deployment validation, incident response engineering, debugging production alerts and rollback testing to ensure platform reliability and resilience.

Key Responsibilities:

1. End-to-End System Testing Ownership:

• Own the end-to-end system-level test stack for all modules and components of the Harness platform, ensuring that all features and integrations are thoroughly tested in environments that closely mirror real-world customer usage.
• Design and implement robust testing strategies that cover performance, and integration testing across all components of the platform.

2. Production Deployment Validation & Rollback Testing:

• Lead and oversee all validation activities related to production deployment sign off, ensuring the platform is validated in production environments before release.
• Own the testing for rollback scenarios to guarantee that the platform can recover gracefully from any deployment issues.
• Own the first level debugging of the production applications including deep dive into alerts 24x7

3. Production Deployment Validation & Rollback Testing:

• Lead and oversee all testing activities related to production deployments, ensuring the platform is validated in production environments before release.
• Own the testing for rollback scenarios to guarantee that the platform can recover gracefully from any deployment issues.

4. Team Leadership & Management:

• Lead and manage a geographically distributed team of engineers in Bangalore and the US, providing technical direction, mentorship, and ensuring effective collaboration across regions.
• Foster a culture of innovation, ownership, and quality within the team, ensuring high performance and alignment with business goals.
• Develop and implement efficient processes and workflows to manage cross-functional dependencies, and ensure high-quality testing across modules.

5. Collaboration with Engineering Teams:

• Work closely with engineering teams to understand new feature development and identify testing requirements.
• Review PRs that have cross-module impacts and collaborate with engineering teams to ensure new code is properly tested in the relevant context.

6. Metrics and Reporting:

•  Define key testing metrics, track test results, and generate reports to measure the effectiveness and coverage of testing.
• Analyze test results to identify trends, risks, and areas for improvement, driving continuous improvements in testing and overall platform reliability.

7. Cross-product Testing:

• Ensure that test designs reflect the impact of code changes across various modules. Collaborate with engineering teams to understand code changes and design tests that validate cross-module functionality.
• Develop strategies for testing complex, multi-module interactions, considering different configurations and deployment scenarios.

Qualifications:

Experience:

• Over ten years of experience as a Java Developer working on SaaS platforms, with a solid ability to debug JVM issues in production environments.
• In-depth expertise in optimizing applications on large-scale platforms, with a comprehensive understanding of CI/CD pipelines, cloud environments, and microservices architecture.
• Demonstrated success in designing and implementing cross-product system-level testing for complex platforms.
• Strong proficiency with CI/CD tools, and experience with cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, containerized applications, and related technologies.
• Advanced skills in system-level validation and troubleshooting issues in distributed production environments.

Leadership & Communication:

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to mentor and motivate a distributed team.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to collaborate effectively across teams and regions.

Problem Solving: 

• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a strong focus on identifying risks and finding solutions to complex issues.

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience.

Why Harness? 

Harness is not just a place to work – it’s a place to grow, innovate, and make a meaningful impact. If you're driven by challenges, passionate about software delivery, and want to be part of a dynamic and supportive team, Harness offers the perfect environment to take your career to the next level.

Founded by Jyoti Bansal, a veteran entrepreneur with a proven track record of billion-dollar exits, Harness is a well-funded startup that is poised for significant growth in the fast-evolving DevOps space. With Jyoti’s leadership and vision, you’ll be joining a company with a history of success and a strong foundation for the future. 

Harness is building innovative solutions to change the way organizations deliver software, and by joining the team, you’ll be at the forefront of this exciting journey. Whether you’re looking to drive technological advancements, shape the product, or contribute to the company’s overarching mission, this is the place where you can make a real impact.

Work Location

• hybrid in-office: Mountain View, CA

What You Will Have at Harness

• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Flexible work schedule
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Flexible Time Off and Parental Leave
• Monthly, quarterly, and annual social and team building events
• Monthly internet reimbursement