Director, Engineering

Job description

About the team Zillow's Enterprise Platforms & Technology (EP&T) organization runs the third-party SaaS platforms that power our business: Workday, ServiceNow, Salesforce, and the AI infrastructure that increasingly mediates how Zillow employees experience these systems. Workday powers our HR and Finance operations. ServiceNow runs IT and HR service delivery. The agentic AI layer we're building on top of these platforms is reshaping how employees get help, complete tasks, and navigate their work day. We are building a new India-based engineering team to take end-to-end ownership of Workday HR and ServiceNow in 2026, with potential expansion to other enterprise SaaS platforms in the future. This team will own its platform stacks completely — production access, change ownership, on-call rotation, direct stakeholder relationships — not as remote staffing for US-led work, but as a peer engineering organization with its own architectural authority. EP&T operates with an AI-native engineering culture. Modern AI coding and agent tooling is baseline practice across our existing US teams. For your India team, that means AI-augmented configuration is the daily reality: designing Workday business processes, generating ServiceNow flows, and writing platform-bounded code with AI as a partner, at a pace that traditional methods can't match. Your team's success proves and scales this operating model. This is a team where your technical credibility matters. We are building it from scratch, and the leader who joins now will lay the engineering foundation for Zillow's enterprise-wide shift to invisible, agent-mediated platforms, and define what excellence looks like in this space for years to come. Zillow Group is a strategic, mission-driven organization focused on delivering exceptional experiences and measurable outcomes. Our work spans cross-functional partnership, scalable programs and operational excellence in support of Zillow’s mission. We bring deep experience working across diverse teams in a dynamic, high-growth environment, balancing strategic thinking with hands-on execution to drive meaningful business impact. We are seeking an experienced professional to support our workforce expansion in India. About the role As Director of Engineering for Enterprise SaaS Platforms (India), you’ll build Zillow's India platform engineering organization from the ground up. You will report directly to the global leader of Enterprise Platforms & Technology and be one of the first engineering directors based in India. As the sole engineering director in EP&T based in India, you'll partner with your US-based peer leaders in Engineering, Product, and Design, but will have broad latitude to shape culture, hiring practices, and operating norms for the team you build. You will personally recruit the senior bench, allowing you to pull talent from your network. You will hold the bar on AI-native engineering practices, partner closely with US-based domain experts and product managers to translate design intent into production reality, and work with Zillow's US-based platform and agentic engineering team to deliver the integration and AI infrastructure that connects your work into the broader enterprise. Responsibilities: Build the team Recruit, hire, and develop an India engineering team and management team Recruit your senior bench, leveraging your network and your reputation to bring in the talent you need to deliver our vision Coach the next layer of India leadership — managers and senior engineers who will be key to the success of your organization Represent Zillow's India engineering presence externally; recruit actively from the Workday and ServiceNow ecosystems Own the Workday platform Drive end-to-end Workday HR delivery: business process configuration, EIB integrations, scripted custom logic, security model, reporting, and production operations Own and execute SOX-compliant change management across Workday in partnership with Zillow's People, Finance, and Audit organizations Champion AI-augmented configuration patterns as the productivity multiplier on platform engineering and configuration work Directly manage the Workday team and partner with the US-based platform and agentic engineering team on MCP integration and agent capabilities Own the ServiceNow platform Drive end-to-end ServiceNow delivery: HR Service Delivery, IT Service Management, scoped applications, scripted REST endpoints, Integration Hub flows Directly manage the ServiceNow team and partner with the US-based platform and agentic engineering team on MCP integration and agent capabilities Establish operating norms Set the operating cadence with US-based domain experts, product managers, and platform engineering peers, maintaining end-to-end ownership and a tight feedback loop between US-based stakeholders, design partners, and engineering build teams. Build an engineering culture where AI is the engine of daily work: your team uses AI tooling to design and validate Workday business processes, generate ServiceNow flows, write and review platform-bounded code, and automate documentation and change evidence faster than traditional methods allow Set multi-year strategic direction for India's platform scope, tightly coupled to Zillow's broader business and AI roadmap Own budget, planning, vendor relationships, tooling, and talent decisions for the India organization Partner across Zillow Engage as a peer technical voice with Zillow's HR business partners, IT customers, and engineering leadership Represent the India team in EP&T leadership rituals — staff meetings, planning, monthly business reviews Bridge time zones, cultures, and operating styles so the US-India model works as a single distributed engineering org This role has been categorized as an Office position. “Office” employees regularly work at the Zillow India office for approximately 80 to 100 percent of their time each month. Employees must live within a reasonable commuting distance of the office. Zillow has not defined a reasonable distance, and expects employees will use judgment in determining this for themselves and understand the implications re: time commitment and cost of daily commute. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role are eligible for incentive compensation subject to applicable laws and relevant Zillow policies. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Who you are We are looking for a builder, a leader, and a talent magnet. You bring: Team builder and talent magnet: you've built engineering teams from scratch. You recruit senior engineers from your network and selectively from outside, develop them into top performers, and set culture and operating norms early to grow a high-performing team from a blank page. AI-native posture : you actively use modern AI coding and agent tooling in your own work, and you have championed AI-tooling adoption in teams you've led. You're not someone who's "open to AI", you're already practicing it. Deep platform expertise with multi-platform breadth : deep expertise in at least one major enterprise SaaS platform (Workday HR strongly preferred), with proven breadth across two or more others (ServiceNow, Workday Financials, Salesforce, or similar). You know what excellence looks like in SaaS platform engineering and have built it more than once. Distributed engineering leadership : you have led offshore or distributed engineering centers, you have worked closely with US-based companies and leadership teams across the US-India time gap, and you understand how to keep distributed teams in sync on culture, operations excellence, and engineering practices. Multi-domain leadership : you have run engineering for multiple business domains simultaneously (HR, Support, Finance, Sales) and can context-switch credibly across stakeholder groups. Engineering leadership across software development and systems administration : you have led both application engineering and platform configuration/administration functions; you understand the differences, the interfaces between them, and how to staff and manage each. Sufficient hands-on background (programming, configuration, or platform certification) to engage credibly with senior individual contributors on architectural decisions. 15+ years of experience in enterprise SaaS platform engineering , with at least 5 years in senior leadership roles managing managers and multi-functional engineering teams. Exceptional written and verbal English communication : you will be in rooms with senior US leadership regularly. Additional differentiating qualifications: Workday Studio, EIB, or scripted integration depth (5+ years) Experience partnering closely with a US-based VP or senior executive (5+ years) ServiceNow platform experience (2+ years) SOX or compliance-driven environment experience (2+ years) Workday Financials experience (1-year or more preferred) Active in the Workday or ServiceNow ecosystem (community, conferences, certifications) Location This role will be based in Bangalore, India. The role will require in-person presence at our Zillow Bangalore office and period travel to the US may be required for partnership, planning and leadership offsites. Get to know us At Zillow, we’re reimagining how people move—through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., Zillow helps millions of customers navigate buying, selling, financing, and renting with greater ease and confidence. Our teams in India play a critical role in building and scaling the technology, products, and operations that power this experience. Whether you’re working in tech, operations, or shared services, you’ll collaborate with global partners to solve meaningful problems and help more people make home a reality. Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the U.S.. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025, and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list, reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow. No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry—and your career—forward, together. Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, maternity status, HIV status, or veteran status. Reasonable accommodations will be provided to candidates with disabilities, in accordance with applicable policies.