Job Description:

Senior Director – Software Development (Wireless O-RAN)

Experience: 15+ years

Location: Bangalore, India

Reports To: VP, Engineering

Key Responsibilities

Software Development & SDLC Ownership

Own the end-to-end software development lifecycle for the software development organization — from design and architecture through coding, unit testing (UT), and development integration — while closely partnering with and supporting QA and Deployment teams to ensure high-quality, on-time releases. Establish software development best practices, coding standards, and development processes that scale across distributed teams.

Technology Strategy & Architecture

Enabler for technology strategy and software development architecture for advanced wireless platforms across 5G, O-RAN, and emerging 6G,AI/RAN, spanning, PHY, baseband, and platform layers — ensuring a coherent, scalable architecture that aligns product roadmap with long-term technical direction.

Team Competency & Delivery Excellence

Build and manage team competency through structured skill development and mentorship. Own delivery outcomes end-to-end with a strong focus on quality. Champion the adoption of best software development practices, and drive the use of AI in the development process to improve software quality and increase feature development velocity.

Design Review & Technical Solutioning

Lead and participate in design reviews, providing strong technical direction and solutions for complex engineering problems. Act as a key technical authority the team can rely on for guidance on architecture and design decisions.

Customer Engagement & Escalation Management

Interact directly with customers, articulating problems clearly and driving technical solutions. Manage customer escalations and internal stakeholders, using strong communication skills to align priorities, resolve issues, and build trust on product roadmap, deployment issues, and resolution plans.

Product & Software Development Leadership

Take end-to-end ownership of technology strategy, product development lifecycle.Build, mentor, and manage a multi-disciplinary team of developers and software development managers.

Mandatory Requirements

• Strong, hands-on software development background in C and C++, with demonstrated ability to design, code, debug, and review at a deep technical level — not purely a management-track profile.

• Must have been part of a RAN product organization (vendor/OEM building commercial RAN software products), with direct exposure to product architecture, release cycles, and field deployments — general telecom/wireless experience outside a RAN product org does not meet this requirement.

• Experience owning the complete software development cycle — from feature inception through design, development, testing, deployment, and post-release support.

• Demonstrated ability to manage and grow team competency, and own delivery outcomes with a strong quality bar.

• Hands-on experience introducing or scaling best software development practices, and a demonstrated track record of using AI tools in the development process to improve software quality and increase feature development velocity.

• Strong development skills with proven ability to lead design reviews and provide sound technical solutions.

• Prior experience working directly on RAN (Radio Access Network) systems — virtualized, cloud-native, or O-RAN based.

• Demonstrated experience managing and growing teams of software developers, including performance management and technical mentorship.

• Good communication skills with the ability to interact directly with customers, articulate problems clearly, and drive technical solutions — including managing customer escalations and internal stakeholders.

• Experience working closely with QA and Deployment/Release teams to ensure smooth transition from development to production.

Preferred Qualifications

• Track record of leading global, distributed software development teams.

• Bachelor's/Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Telecommunications, or related field; advanced degree preferred.

• 15+ years of overall software development experience, with 5+ years in software development leadership/people management roles, including tenure within a RAN product company.

What We're Looking For

A hands-on technical leader who balances architectural vision with operational rigor. You must have a track record of managing teams of 15+ engineers, be a practitioner of modern software engineering who champions AI-driven development, and possess the communication skills to manage customer trust while maintaining an uncompromising bar for quality.

RAKUTEN SHUGI PRINCIPLES:

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviours that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

• Always improve, always advance. Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen.

• Be passionately professional. Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best.

• Hypothesize - Practice - Validate - Shikumika. Use the Rakuten Cycle to success in unknown territory.

• Maximize Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.

• Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.