Senior Director - Engineering

Mimecast is a leading cybersecurity company that helps organizations protect their people, data, and communications. With over 42,000 customers worldwide, Mimecast has a long history of excellence in Data Archiving and eDiscovery, and is recognised as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving Solutions.

We are pioneers in Human Risk Management, recognizing that people are both an organization's greatest asset and its most significant security vulnerability. Our platform addresses the human element of cybersecurity through advanced threat detection, awareness training, Incydr risk management, and data governance. Our Governance, Compliance & Insight products play a critical role in this mission, ensuring that communications data is archived, discoverable, and compliant, enabling organizations to manage the risk that stems from human actions.

Mimecast is an AI-First engineering organization. Our teams actively leverage AI-powered development tools across all facets of engineering, from code development to testing, documentation, and operations. We're looking for leaders who don't just use AI tools but champion their adoption and establish new ways of working.

Our AI leadership extends beyond how we build to what we build. Our Mihra AI agent delivers 7x faster threat response for customers, and we're recognized as "Agents of Change" in Human Risk Management. Engineers here work at the intersection of cutting-edge AI tooling and AI-powered security products that protect organizations worldwide.

This is a senior leadership role owning Mimecast's Governance, Compliance & Insight suite. GCI helps organizations manage data governance, retention, and compliance at scale. Our products include email & collaboration archiving, eDiscovery, compliance management, data retention, audit capabilities, and analytics, alongside our new AI-powered governance and compliance tools.

You will lead approximately 60 engineers across these product lines, collaborating closely with teams in London and the US. Reporting to the VP of Engineering in London, you will be a key senior engineering leader in our Bangalore office.

You will drive a significant transformation agenda including migrating our platform to AWS with a strong focus on FinOps, cost of goods sold (COGS), and overall cost optimisation. As we move to the public cloud, cost to serve and capacity planning are essential. You will also evolve our large-scale data storage and search infrastructure, maintain compliance certifications, and accelerate AI adoption across engineering practices. You will build the next generation of engineering leadership within your pillar.

We operate with a sense of urgency. Cyber threats don't wait, and neither do we. You'll lead teams that move fast, make decisions with conviction, and deliver results. We expect leaders who thrive in this environment and instil the same urgency across their organizations.

• Own the product suite: Take full accountability for Governance, Compliance & Insight delivery outcomes, engineering quality, and team health across approximately 60 engineers.
• Lead the Cloud Migration: Drive the transition to AWS over the next 12 to 18 months. Make pragmatic decisions about migration strategy and re-architecture, managing risk while maintaining service reliability.
• Drive FinOps Excellence: Own cloud cost management with a FinOps mindset. Understand and optimise cost of goods sold (COGS), implement cost to serve metrics, drive capacity planning, and ensure engineering decisions consider their financial impact. Build a culture where cost awareness is embedded in engineering practices.
• Scale Data Infrastructure: Own the technical challenges of large-scale data storage, search and indexing at scale. Ensure the platform can handle growing data volumes while meeting regulatory requirements and cost targets.
• Champion AI-First Engineering: Establish AI-augmented practices across all engineering functions. Drive adoption of AI development tools and contribute to our AI-powered governance and compliance product capabilities.
• Build and Develop Leaders: Assess and strengthen the engineering leadership team. Make difficult decisions where needed, develop high-potential leaders, and hire externally to fill gaps. Create a leadership culture of accountability, technical excellence, and psychological safety.
• Own Technical Strategy: Shape the architectural direction for GCI. Make sound decisions about platform evolution, technical debt reduction, and technology investment. Drive modernisation initiatives including decomposition of monolithic systems.
• Drive Engineering Excellence: Establish and maintain high standards for code quality, architecture, testing, and operational reliability. Use data to measure and improve engineering velocity and quality.
• Stakeholder Partnership: Collaborate effectively with Product Management, Architecture, Security, Finance, and other engineering leaders across London and the US to align priorities and deliver business value.
• Operational Accountability: Own the reliability and performance of GCI services. Ensure robust monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement of operational practices.

Experience and Technical Depth

• 12+ years of software development experience with progressive leadership responsibilities.
• 7+ years in engineering management, with at least 3 years leading managers (second line leadership or above).
• Proven track record of building and scaling high-performing engineering organizations of 50+ people including an outstanding focus on getting teams aligned and focus on delivery.
• Experience collaborating with globally distributed teams across multiple time zones.
• Strong technical background with deep engagement in architecture and engineering decisions. You stay close to the technology and maintain credibility with engineers.
• Experience with high-scale, high-availability systems processing large volumes of data.

Cloud, FinOps and Platform Transformation

• Proven experience leading large-scale cloud migrations to AWS.
• Strong experience with FinOps practices, cloud cost management, and understanding of COGS in a cloud environment. You know how to optimise cost to serve while maintaining performance and reliability.
• Experience with capacity planning and forecasting in cloud environments.
• Strong experience with cloud-native development, microservices architecture, and modern engineering practices.
• Experience driving architectural evolution and platform modernisation in production systems while maintaining reliability.
• Strong experience with DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code (Terraform), containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes), and monitoring/observability platforms.

AI Fluency (Required)

• Experience or strong vision for applying AI across the full engineering lifecycle, including testing, documentation, operations, and incident response.
• Ability to drive cultural change and establish new ways of working that leverage AI capabilities.

Leadership and Mindset

• Bias for action. You make decisions with conviction and move fast rather than waiting for perfect information.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You thrive when charting a course through uncertainty rather than following established playbooks.
• Transparent communicator. You share information openly, deliver difficult messages directly, and build trust through honesty.
• Directive leadership style balanced with coaching. You provide clear direction while developing your leaders.
• Data-driven approach to engineering excellence. You measure what matters and use data to drive improvement.
• Cost-conscious mindset. You understand the financial impact of engineering decisions and build teams that optimise for value.

• Experience in data governance, archiving, eDiscovery, compliance, or adjacent domains with large-scale data storage and retrieval systems.
• Experience with search and indexing at scale, regulatory compliance requirements, or data retention systems.
• Experience leading engineering transformation or platform decomposition initiatives.
• Background in SaaS product development with multi-tenant architecture.

This role is based in Bangalore, India with a minimum of two days per week in the office. You will collaborate closely with teams in London and the US, requiring flexibility to work across time zones. Travel to other Mimecast locations is expected several times per year.

We offer an attractive compensation package for the right candidate, including base salary, performance bonus, and equity participation.

This is an opportunity to own a critical pillar focused on data governance and compliance, helping tens of thousands of organizations manage their data at scale. You'll work with large-scale data systems, tackling challenges in storage, search, and retrieval that few companies face.

You'll drive genuine transformation. The cloud migration, AI adoption, and platform modernization represent meaty technical and organizational challenges for a leader who wants to build.

As a senior engineering leader in our Bangalore office, you'll have significant visibility and influence across the global engineering organization.

We're fast-paced and results-driven. If you thrive on impact, accountability, and making things happen, you'll find Mimecast energising.

Mimecast offers formal and on-the-job learning opportunities, maintains a comprehensive benefits package, and fosters a culture that celebrates achievement. We believe in growth that's good, a culture that cares, and a mission that matters.

Belonging at Mimecast

Cybersecurity is a community effort. That’s why we’re committed to building an inclusive, diverse community that celebrates and welcomes everyone – unless they’re a cybercriminal, of course.

We’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and we’d encourage you to join us whatever your background. We particularly welcome applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups.

We consider everyone equally: your race, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, marital status, nationality, or any other protected characteristic won’t affect your application.

Due to certain obligations to our customers, an offer of employment will be subject to your successful completion of applicable background checks, conducted in accordance with local law.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment.