Director - Software Engineering

Why choose AstraZeneca India?

Help push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients. After 45 years in India, we’re continuing to secure a future where everyone can access affordable, sustainable, innovative healthcare.

The part you play in our business will be challenging, yet rewarding, requiring you to use your resilient, collaborative and diplomatic skillsets to make connections. The majority of your work will be field based, and will require you to be highly-organised, planning your monthly schedule, attending meetings and calls, as well as writing up reports.

Who do we look for?

Calling all tech innovators, ownership takers, challenge seekers and proactive collaborators. At AstraZeneca, breakthroughs born in the lab become transformative medicine for the world's most complex diseases. We empower people like you to push the boundaries of science, challenge convention, and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. You'll embrace differences and take bold actions to drive the change needed to meet global healthcare and sustainability challenges.

Here, diverse minds and bold disruptors can meaningfully impact the future of healthcare using cutting-edge technology. Whether you join us in Bengaluru or Chennai, you can make a tangible impact within a global biopharmaceutical company that invests in your future. Join a talented global team that's powering AstraZeneca to better serve patients every day.

Success Profile

Ready to make an impact in your career? If you're passionate, growth-orientated and a true team player, we'll help you succeed. Here are some of the skills and capabilities we look for.

Tech innovators

Make a greater impact through our digitally enabled enterprise. Use your skills in data and technology to transform and optimise our operations, helping us deliver meaningful work that changes lives.

Ownership takers

If you're a self-aware self-starter who craves autonomy, AstraZeneca provides the perfect environment to take ownership and grow. Here, you'll feel empowered to lead and reach excellence at every level — with unrivalled support when you need it.

Challenge seekers

Adapting and advancing our progress means constantly challenging the status quo. In this dynamic environment where everything we do has urgency and focus, you'll have the ability to show up, speak up and confidently take smart risks.

Proactive collaborators

Your unique perspectives make our ambitions and capabilities possible. Our culture of sharing ideas, learning and improving together helps us consistently set the bar higher. As a proactive collaborator, you'll seek out ways to bring people together to achieve their best.

Responsibilities

11-Nov-2026 03-Dec-2026

Job Title: Director - Software Engineering

GCL: F

Introduction to role:

Are you ready to lead a full-stack DevOps organization that turns modern science into secure, scalable software used across global R&D? In this role, you will shape and deliver in-house products that help our scientists move faster from discovery to delivery, ultimately improving outcomes for patients. What could you accomplish by combining your cloud-native depth, AI-augmented engineering practices, and leadership to scale critical platforms across the enterprise?

Based in Chennai, you will guide a high-performing, multi-functional team and partner closely with Business Product Owners and collaborators. You will set the engineering bar for quality, security and compliance, drive measurable product outcomes, and cultivate a culture of modern, agile development where automation, observability and continuous improvement are standard.

Accountabilities:

• Product Strategy and Road mapping: Collaborate with collaborators to validate requirements, prioritize features, and define timelines and achievements that deliver clear business outcomes.
• End-to-End DevOps Ownership: Lead the full product lifecycle from planning and build through development, testing, launch and operations, ensuring reliability, security, and cost efficiency.
• Hands-on Technical Leadership: Give to build and code reviews; act as a senior developer on sophisticated features to unlock velocity and uphold engineering excellence.
• Agile Pod Leadership: Drive an agile POD to deliver sophisticated enterprise systems; embed enterprise standards focused on maintaining quality, security, and conformity; foster continuous integration and del ivery.
• Performance, Observability and Optimization: Supervise product performance, analyze metrics, and implement improvements using robust logging, monitoring and alerting to raise availability and user experience.
• Engineering Culture and Coaching: Mentor engineers, promote cross-team teamwork, and evangelize modern, AI-augmented software practices and rigors.
• People Leadership: Develop talent; handle performance, hiring, pay and training decisions; shape a diverse, high-trust team environment that scales.
• Collaborator Partnership and Communication: Align engineering roadmaps with business priorities; communicate progress and risks clearly; remove obstacles to delivery.
• Risk, Security and Compliance: Uphold security-by-design, identity and access guidelines, and supervised ways of working appropriate to R&D contexts.

Essential Skills/Experience:

• 10+ years of IT experience
• Experience in crafting and implementing Cloud Native applications
• 5+ years working with administrating cloud infrastructure, e.g., Azure, AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, 5+ years within Linux and Network administration
• Experience in Identification/Access Management such as SAML and OAuth
• Experience working with Database administration, i.e. MongoDB
• Software development skills in Python, SQL,
• Regulatory knowledge, i.e GxP is a merit
• Should have worked in distributed agile model and continuous integration
• Analytical skills with attention to detail in quality
• Experiences in CI/CD pipeline implementation
• Demonstrate ability to apply technical knowledge to multiple systems and support multiple business groups and applications
• Superb communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to work with global teams to achieve objectives, phenomenal teammate
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Science, or equivalent degree is helpful.

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Proven leadership of full-stack product teams delivering enterprise systems at scale
• Experience in life sciences domain or R&D workflows
• Expertise with microservices, event-driven architectures, and API design
• Strong observability practice (logging, metrics, tracing) with tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or OpenTelemetry
• SRE and operational perfection experience, including reliability patterns and on-call leadership
• Cost optimization and managing prioritisation in public cloud environments
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks (React, Angular) and Python frameworks (FastAPI, Django)
• Familiarity with data privacy, security by build, and regulated environments (GxP)

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash ambitious thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Why AstraZeneca:

Here, engineering directly accelerates science to patients. You will work alongside diverse experts who unite sophisticated data, machine learning and modern software to translate complex information into practical decisions that move medicines safely and quickly. We bring surprising combinations of talent together to solve hard problems, value courtesy alongside ambition, and give you the scope to learn fast, raise your profile and see your ideas move from prototype to production at scale.

Lead the team that turns ambitious ideas into reliable products that reach patients faster—take the next step and tell us you’re ready to make this impact today!

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

Reasons to Join

Thomas Mathisen

There are many things I enjoy when working at AstraZeneca, mainly the Speak up culture, the great colleagues that are in my teams, the great products that AstraZeneca provides to our patients and the challenging conversations I have around our medicines.

Sales Representative Oslo, Norway

There are many things I enjoy when working at AstraZeneca, mainly the Speak up culture, the great colleagues that are in my teams, the great products that AstraZeneca provides to our patients and the challenging conversations I have around our medicines.

See Thomas's Story

Christine Recchio

Working at AstraZeneca has impacted my life in such a positive way. I now have an improved work-life balance through creating my own schedule and time management, I feel a balance that I didn’t have before.

Sales Representative California, United States

Working at AstraZeneca has impacted my life in such a positive way. I now have an improved work-life balance through creating my own schedule and time management, I feel a balance that I didn’t have before.

See Larry's Story

Stephanie Ling

There are a lot of reasons why I enjoy working in AstraZeneca, my colleagues being one of them. My team members and the managers have provided a great deal of guidance in helping me to be more confident in my daily work.

Sales Representative Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

There are a lot of reasons why I enjoy working in AstraZeneca, my colleagues being one of them. My team members and the managers have provided a great deal of guidance in helping me to be more confident in my daily work.

See Stephanie's Story

What we offer

We're driven by our shared values of serving people, society and the planet. Our people make this possible, which is why we prioritise diversity, safety, empowerment and collaboration. Discover what a career at AstraZeneca could mean for you.

Lifelong learning

Our development opportunities are second to none. You'll have the chance to grow your abilities, skills and knowledge constantly as you accelerate your career. From leadership projects and constructive coaching to overseas talent exchanges and global collaboration programmes, you'll never stand still.

Autonomy and reward

Experience the power of shaping your career how you want to. We are a high-performing learning organisation with autonomy over how we learn. Make big decisions, learn from your mistakes and continue growing — with performance-based rewards as part of the package.

Health and wellbeing

An energised work environment is only possible when our people have a healthy work-life balance and are supported for their individual needs. That's why we have a dedicated team to ensure your physical, financial and psychological wellbeing is a top priority.

Inclusion and diversity

Diversity and inclusion are embedded in everything we do. We're at our best and most creative when drawing on our different views, experiences and strengths. That's why we're committed to creating a workplace where everyone can thrive in a culture of respect, collaboration and innovation.