Harness is the AI Software Delivery Platform company, led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal (founder of AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco for $3.7B). Harness has raised approximately $570M in funding and is valued at $5.5B, backed by leading investors including Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Unusual Ventures, Citi Ventures, and more. As AI accelerates code creation, the real bottleneck has shifted to everything after the code – testing, deployments, application security, reliability, compliance, and cost optimization. Harness brings AI and automation to this “outer loop,” helping teams ship software faster while maintaining security and governance throughout the entire software delivery lifecycle.
Powered by Harness AI and the Software Delivery Knowledge Graph, the Harness Platform applies deep context and intelligent automation across the software delivery lifecycle with governance and policy-driven controls embedded throughout the platform.
Over the past year, Harness powered over 185M deployments, 82M builds, 18T flag evaluations, 8M security scans, 9.1B optimized tests, 3T protected API calls, and helped manage $2.8B in cloud spend — enabling customers like United Airlines, Morningstar, and Choice Hotels to accelerate releases by up to 75%, reduce cloud costs by up to 60%, and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency.
With a global team across 26 offices and 27 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster.
At Harness, we are on a mission to enable every software developer to deliver code to their users reliably, efficiently, and securely. As Director of Engineering Quality & Automation, you will own the technical strategy, systems, and culture that ensure Harness ships high-quality software at scale — through rigorous testing infrastructure, release reliability, and AI-native automation.
You will lead a large team,within a distributed engineering organization of 40–60+ engineers and engineering managers responsible for test automation, quality gates, CI/CD reliability, and intelligent automation across the software delivery lifecycle. You will build a quality-first, automation-driven engineering culture that sets the global benchmark for reliable, AI-assisted software delivery.
This is a high-impact leadership role requiring deep SaaS expertise, strong operational execution, and a passion for quality engineering, test automation, and AI-driven workflows. You will partner closely with product engineering, infrastructure, SRE, and security teams to raise the bar on engineering quality and automate away manual toil.
Key Responsibilities1. Quality & Automation Strategy- Define and execute the vision and roadmap for engineering quality, test automation, and release reliability.
- Establish scalable foundations for CI/CD reliability, testing infrastructure, and automated quality gates.
- Champion AI-native quality practices, integrating generative AI, intelligent automation, and agentic workflows into testing and release processes.
- Partner with product and platform engineering teams to embed quality and automation standards into every stage of the SDLC.
- Own and optimize testing infrastructure and release engineering, ensuring teams can reliably ship multiple production releases per day without compromising quality.
- Build and evolve scalable, cost-effective, multi-cloud, Kubernetes-based testing infrastructure that eliminates flakiness.
- Standardize automated testing frameworks, quality gates, and deployment validation across microservices and multi-tenant SaaS environments.
- Ensure testing and release systems meet high standards for scalability, resilience, and availability.
- Establish data-driven quality and reliability metrics using DORA, SPACE, and Software Engineering Insights like frameworks.
- Analyze and eliminate quality bottlenecks across CI/CD pipelines, test systems, and release workflows.
- Drive measurable improvements in change failure rate, MTTR, build reliability, test coverage, and defect escape rate.
- Build executive-level visibility into engineering quality, release health, and automation ROI.
- Drive automation initiatives that eliminate repetitive manual work across testing, release validation, and quality operations.
- Pioneer AI-assisted and agentic testing practices where intelligent systems generate test cases, optimize pipelines, detect issues, and assist in remediation.
- Integrate AI-powered tooling into testing systems, quality gates, and release orchestration to improve release confidence.
- Improve reliability engineering through advanced automated testing and intelligent quality gates.
- Lead, mentor, and grow a globally distributed quality and automation engineering organization.
- Build a high-performance, execution-oriented culture focused on ownership, rigor, and continuous improvement.
- Recruit and retain top quality engineering and automation talent, with strong collaboration across US and India teams.
- Develop leadership pipelines and clear career growth frameworks for quality and automation engineers.
- Engineering Quality
- High availability and reliability engineering
- Scalable testing infrastructure and automation
- CI/CD excellence and release reliability
- Operational maturity and engineering governance
- Developer Experience
- Reducing developer friction and toil
- Improving onboarding and engineering workflows
- Accelerating feedback loops and development cycles
- Building intuitive, self-service developer platforms
- Infrastructure Excellence
- Cost effective Cloud-native and Kubernetes-based engineering systems for reliable testing
- Scalable multi-cloud SaaS testing infrastructure to remove flakiness
- Internal developer platform engineering and developer enablement
- AI-native productivity and automation systems
Experience
- 12+ years of software engineering experience with substantial leadership experience managing large-scale engineering organizations.
- 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles (Director or above) focused on Quality Engineering, Test Automation, CI/CD, or Release Engineering.
- Proven experience leading distributed teams of 10–20+ engineers and managers.
Technical Expertise
- Strong background in software engineering, cloud-native architecture, CI/CD systems, distributed systems, and large-scale test infrastructure.
- Deep real-world experience operating Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery at scale.
- Strong understanding of Kubernetes, microservices architecture, and test automation frameworks.
- Practical experience with AI-powered quality systems, intelligent test automation, or agentic workflows is highly preferred.
- Demonstrated success leading engineering managers and technical leads in fast-paced, high-growth SaaS environments.
- Strong operational leadership, execution discipline, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Experience building high-performance remote and hybrid engineering organizations across global geographies.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.
- Experience building enterprise-scale test automation or quality engineering organizations.
- Growth mindset with drive to take initiatives
- Familiarity with DORA metrics, SPACE framework, and Software Engineering Intelligence systems.
- Experience with enterprise-grade SaaS reliability and release management practices.
- Prior experience scaling quality and automation systems in hyper-growth environments.
- Accelerating Our Mission to Bring AI to Everything After Code
- Goldman Sachs leads investment in software delivery startup Harness at $5.5 billion valuation
- How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal
- Harness Research Shows AI Visibility Crisis Fueling Security Nightmare
- Harness has been named to the Inc. Power Partner list for software delivery success
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
At Harness, we care about your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. For additional information on this topic, you can visit our privacy Portal: https://harness-privacy.relyance.ai/
Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers
We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers.
Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.
If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at [email protected]. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.
Skills Required
- 12+ years of software engineering experience
- 5+ years in senior engineering leadership roles (Director or above) focused on Quality Engineering, Test Automation, CI/CD, or Release Engineering
- Proven experience leading distributed teams of 10-20+ engineers and managers
- Strong background in cloud-native architecture, CI/CD systems, distributed systems, and large-scale test infrastructure
- Real-world experience operating Continuous Deployment and Continuous Delivery at scale
- Strong understanding of Kubernetes and microservices architecture
- Experience with test automation frameworks and building scalable testing infrastructure
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent
- Practical experience with AI-powered quality systems, intelligent test automation, or agentic workflows
- Familiarity with DORA, SPACE, and Software Engineering Insights frameworks
- Experience building enterprise-scale test automation or quality engineering organizations
- Experience scaling quality and automation systems in hyper-growth environments
Harness Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Harness and has not been reviewed or approved by Harness.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered competitive across many roles, with engineering noted as particularly strong. Feedback suggests role-level compensation details for sales are relatively visible, aiding clarity around base and OTE.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Programs like flexible PTO, parental leave, periodic company-wide Fridays off, and a dedicated Recharge & Reset benefit expand time-away options. Feedback suggests these cadence-based days help employees meaningfully disconnect.
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Healthcare Strength — Core medical, dental, and vision coverage is highlighted alongside an Employee Assistance Program and wellness initiatives. Mental health and wellbeing support complement the primary plans.
Harness Insights
What We Do
Harness is a leader in AI-native software delivery, dedicated to empowering developers and engineering teams worldwide. We revolutionize how software is built, tested, deployed, and optimized by driving efficiency, reliability, and speed throughout the software development lifecycle. At Harness, we envision a world where developers focus on innovation, free from repetitive tasks, supported by tools that streamline every step. Our platform leverages AI and automation across all key pillars of software delivery: Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Feature Flags and Experimentation, Cloud Cost Management, Security Testing, and more. By automating traditionally manual processes that slow down engineering teams, Harness enables organizations to release software faster, reduce errors, and optimize costs—all while enhancing the developer experience and flexibility. Harness is transforming software delivery on a global scale. As a pioneer in AI-driven automation, we streamline complex development processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and empower developers to innovate freely. Our mission is ambitious: enabling millions of developers to deliver code faster, more reliably, and with greater ease than ever before.
Why Work With Us
Harness is built on a culture of growth, collaboration, and transparency, where team members are encouraged to push boundaries and solve meaningful challenges. We invest in personal and professional development, value work-life balance, and foster a supportive environment—making Harness an ideal place to make a real impact in tech.
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