R&D Lead
The Lead of R&D will spearhead technology discovery, applied research, and technical innovation across backend, APIs,
web, mobile, cloud, and emerging platforms. This role focuses on identifying, validating, and de-risking new technologies
and enabling their transition into product engineering teams.
This position does not own day-to-day product engineering or feature delivery but works closely with Product Engineering
to influence future platforms and architectures
- Experience Level: 12+ yrs
Skillset Required: Docker, Kubernetes, DevSecOps, CI/CD pipeline, Expertise in or more of: Java, Node.js, Go
(Golang), C / C++, JavaScript / TypeScript
Key Responsibilities
- Lead technology research and discovery initiatives across backend systems, APIs, web, mobile, cloud, and emerging
domains.
- Identify, evaluate, and prototype emerging technologies, tools, frameworks, and architectural patterns relevant to
the company’s strategic roadmap.
- Drive proof-of-concept (PoC), spike solutions, and experimental platforms to validate feasibility, scalability, security,
and performance.
- Establish structured research → validation → handoff model to transition successful innovations to Product
Engineering teams.
- Act as a technical thought leader, influencing long-term architecture, platform evolution, and build-vs-buy decisions.
- Partner with Product Management, Product Engineering, Security, and QA teams to ensure research outcomes align
with business and compliance needs.
- Ensure research outcomes adhere to security, quality, regulatory, and compliance standards from inception.
- Track industry trends, academic research, open-source ecosystems, and startup innovations to maintain a
competitive technology edge.
- Define success metrics for R&D initiatives and regularly communicate outcomes to executive stakeholders.
Requirements
Required Skills and Experience
- 12+ years of experience in R&D, applied research, platform engineering, or innovation leadership.
- Proven experience leading cross-functional technical research teams and exploratory initiatives.
- Strong background in distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and modern application stacks.
- Demonstrated ability to translate research and experimentation into production-adoptable solutions.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent research tracks with varying levels of maturity.
- Deep understanding of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Ability to review, guide, and influence production-level code without being the primary implementer.
- Strong architectural judgment with a security-first mindset.
Good-to-Have Qualifications
- Experience establishing R&D best practices, including experimentation frameworks and technical evaluation
criteria.
- Familiarity with DevSecOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, and secure software supply chains.
- Hands-on expertise in or more of:
- Java
- Node.js
- Go (Golang)
- C / C++
- JavaScript / TypeScript
- Experience with containers and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes.
- Exposure to identity, security, cryptography, or authentication technologies (strong plus).
