12+ years in networking, security, or distributed systems software; 5+ years in leadership roles.
Proven track record of shipping products from early stage to enterprise scale.
Strong understanding of networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, routing, DNS, NAT, VPN, and tunneling.
Solid security foundation in applied cryptography, TLS, PKI, and identity/access protocols.
Hands-on experience with C/C++, Go, or similar languages in distributed systems.
Business acumen in balancing engineering decisions with revenue and cost management.
Ability to communicate effectively with executives and cross-functional teams.
Responsibilities
Own the vision, architecture, and roadmap for ZTNA, adapting to evolving core technologies.
Design systems for scalability, accommodating customer growth and high availability.
Hire, develop, and lead engineering teams across multiple locations.
Implement zero-trust and secure-by-design principles, leading security reviews and threat modeling.
Oversee development of cross-platform desktop clients and mobile extensions.
Manage production health, including SLOs, observability, and incident management.
Collaborate with Product Management and Sales to drive business outcomes and revenue growth.
Benefits
Opportunity to lead a cutting-edge Zero Trust Network Access product.
Hands-on technical leadership role with significant impact on product direction.
Work with a diverse team across the US and India.
Engage in strategic decision-making that balances engineering and business needs.
Potential for career advancement in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
Full Job Description
We are seeking a Director or Senior Director of Engineering to own Alkira's Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) product end to end: the client, the control and management planes, and the team that builds them. You will set the long-term direction, build for scale and security, and deliver results that grow revenue and protect margins. The level will be based on experience and depth of expertise.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role. The technology underneath ZTNA has changed before and will change again, and we want a leader who takes on hard problems and is willing to rethink foundational choices.
Responsibilities
Own the long-term vision, architecture, and roadmap for ZTNA, and lead transitions in core technologies such as tunneling, transport, and identity as the product evolves.
Design for scale from the start: customer growth, concurrent users, global distribution, and high availability.
Hire, develop, and lead engineers and managers.
Hire, develop, and lead engineers and managers.
Build for scale: tenant growth, concurrent users, global distribution, and high availability.
Apply zero-trust and secure-by-design principles throughout, and lead threat modeling, security reviews, and vulnerability response for the product.
Lead development of the cross-platform desktop client, and extend it to iOS and Android.
Lead the control and management planes: authentication with enterprise identity providers, device posture, session lifecycle, and provisioning across the platform.
Build in debuggability and self-service so customer admins and support teams can diagnose and resolve issues without escalating to engineering.
Own production health for ZTNA: SLOs, observability, incident management, and capacity planning.
Own the business outcomes of ZTNA engineering: partner with Product Management and Sales on capabilities that win customers and grow revenue, and manage engineering budget, infrastructure cost, and build-versus-buy decisions to protect margins.
Partner with the networking and datapath teams on how access policy is enforced in the network.
Hire, develop, and lead engineers and managers across the US and India, including bringing work delivered by external partners in-house.
Set clear goals and hold the team accountable for predictable delivery and results.
Minimum Qualifications
12+ years building networking, security, or distributed systems software, including 5+ years leading engineering teams and managers. Senior Director candidates bring 15+ years and experience leading multiple teams or a full product line.
A record of shipping products and meeting commitments, including taking a product from early stage to enterprise scale.
Strong networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, routing, DNS, NAT, and VPN and tunneling technologies.
Strong security foundation: applied cryptography, TLS and PKI, identity and access (SAML, OAuth/OIDC, MFA), threat modeling, and secure software development.
Hands-on systems engineering background in C/C++, Go, or similar languages, and experience with distributed systems at scale.
Business acumen: experience weighing engineering decisions against revenue, cost, and margin, and managing an engineering budget.
Comfort with hard technical problems, and the judgment to change course on foundational technology when it is the right call.
Clear communication with executives, customers, and cross-functional partners.
COMPENSATION
This information reflects the anticipated base salary range for this position based on current national data. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. Individual pay is based on skills, experience and other relevant factors. Location Based Pay Ranges: $167,273 - $278,789
About Alkira
Alkira is a technology company that provides cloud networking solutions for enterprises. The company's platform enables enterprises to build and deploy cloud networks that are secure, scalable, and easy to manage. Alkira's technology is designed to help enterprises reduce their network complexity and improve their agility. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
