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 one 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 one or more of :

1. Java

2. Node.js

3. Go (Golang)

4. C / C++

5. JavaScript / TypeScript

- Experience with containers and orchestration : Docker, Kubernetes.

- Exposure to identity, security, cryptography, or authentication technologies (strong plus).