Engineering Head - Telecom Domain

What You'll Own :

1. Teams, systems and process :

- Build real team structure inside the platform organization - clear ownership, defined squads, named accountability.

- Introduce a single delivery and release cadence the whole org runs on.

- Set OKRs at team level and the engineering metrics leadership tracks against.

- Turn a founder-led group into a structured, senior-led engineering organization.

2. The platforms already earning :

- Enhance and modernize what is live and generating revenue - Billing, Calling / Voice, SmartConnect AI, Magic Voice, CRBT.

- Protect revenue-critical paths across 80+ countries while you improve them.

- Own reliability, throughput, observability and incident response at the bar operators demand.

3. Quality - build the QA function :

- Stand up a proper QA organization from scratch - test strategy, automation, release gates.

- The standard is unambiguous: the product runs first time, at the operator, without issues.

- Own the definition of "production-ready" and enforce it.

4. Lateral hiring - build the senior bench :

- Hire the engineering leadership layer the platform needs, starting with an IVR Head and a Billing Head, plus the engineers beneath them.

- Bring the pedigree and the network to attract and retain senior telecom talent.

- Partner with Human Resources on levelling and the assessment-led selection standard.

5. Pre-sales - make engineering a weapon in the sale :

- Streamline technical documentation and solution presentations into a repeatable standard.

- Get technical go-ahead from telco engineering and architecture teams quickly - compress the time from first technical conversation to sign-off.

6. Delivery - get things launched :

- Own the delivery engine end to end; mobilize teams quickly alongside operator counterparts.

- Clear technical blockers and drive integrations through to commercial launch.

- Marshal cross-functional teams to hit launch dates - speed is the deliverable.

7. New product development :

- Name CLI / CNAP - calling name presentation.

- Child safety on data - a data-side safety product for operators.

- Own these from architecture through to operator trial.

8. Technical strategy and CTO trajectory :

- Set a multi-year platform roadmap that holds revenue steady while the stack modernizes.

- Make the build-versus-buy and consolidation calls that decide cost and speed.

- Represent platform engineering to the co-founders, the executive team and - over time - to operators, as the company's senior technology voice.

LISTEN & MAP :

- Meet the platform team and its leadership.

- Map the stack and the real state of delivery.

- Name the top three technical and organizational risks.

Operating Model :

- Team structure and ownership defined.

- One delivery and release cadence live; OKRs set for every team.

- QA function stood up.

- Billing and Calling enhancement plans agreed.

- IVR Head and Billing Head searches underway.

Architecture :

- Platform architecture and modernization roadmap published.

- First measurable gains in stability and throughput.

- Priority lateral hires closed.

- Pre-sales and delivery running to standard.

- Name CLI and child-safety builds kicked off.

Own The Roadmap :

- A funded multi-year platform roadmap.

- A structured, senior-led engineering organization.

- New products in operator trials.

- Formal CTO transition plan in motion.

Who We're Looking For :

- The binding constraint. The scarce candidate pairs deep telecom / VAS platform domain with modern engineering-leadership discipline. Telecom depth is the priority here - it is the harder gap to teach.

- Seniority : 15 to 20 years in software engineering, with substantial time leading engineering organizations and managing managers.

- Team scale : Has led teams of 30 - 50 spanning development, QA, DevOps and R&D / innovation across multiple product lines.

- Telecom domain : Deep expertise in Telephony, IVR, SIP, Networks, IN, SDP and Billing systems. Working knowledge of the data side - PCRF, GGSN and adjacent elements.

- Built for telco : Has developed products for the telecom domain - owned high-throughput, high-availability systems live in operator networks, not prototypes.

- Hands-on to strategic : Can still reason about architecture and code, and can set multi-year technical strategy. Neither a pure people-manager nor a pure individual contributor.

- Full lifecycle : Owned the whole engineering framework - design - development - testing - production-ready product ecosystem.

- Scaling curve : Has taken products through the 10 - 100 and 100 - 1000 growth journey.

- Delivery & solutioning : Very strong on technical delivery with solutioning expertise - can shape a solution in front of an operator's technical team and then deliver it.

Skills

Engineering Management, IT Head, Telecom, IP Telephony, SIP, IVR, Telecom Billing System, VAS