Senior Director of Engineering - ACR

Seeking a Senior Director of Engineering to lead the end-to-end architecture, development, and scale of our Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) platform. This leader will own the full lifecycle of ACR systems from device-side SDKs and embedded integrations to backend recognition systems and downstream data pipelines powering audience, measurement, and analytics products.
This role requires deep expertise in audio/video processing, large-scale distributed systems, and handling large volumes of data. You will lead large engineering teams, drive platform innovation, and build highly scalable, low-latency systems that process massive volumes of streaming media data globally. You will play a critical role in shaping product strategy, data capabilities, and infrastructure for next-generation TV intelligence.
The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:
Strategic and Technical Leadership:
Define and drive the vision, architecture, and roadmap for end-to-end ACR systems, including SDKs, ingestion, recognition, and data platforms.
Own the evolution of ACR into a unified, scalable, and data-centric platform powering downstream analytics and products.
Stay ahead of advancements in ACR, signal processing, distributed systems, and data infrastructure.
Partner with executive leadership to align engineering strategy with business growth and monetisation goals.
End-to-End Ownership of Platforms:
Lead development of device-side SDKs for audio/video capture and fingerprinting.
Oversee backend systems for large-scale content identification, matching, and metadata enrichment.
Ensure seamless integration between a hybrid of on-prem, cloud services, and downstream data systems.
Drive architectural consistency across real-time and batch processing layers.
Build robust ETL/ELT systems and streaming pipelines (e. g., Kafka, Spark, Flink) for high-volume media signals.
Establish strong data governance, quality, lineage, and observability practices.
Partner with data science and analytics teams to operationalise models and datasets at scale.
Team Management and Development:
Lead, mentor, and manage a team of software engineers.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning within the team.
Implement processes for team growth, including training programs, career development paths, and performance evaluations.
Product Development and Delivery:
Oversee design and delivery of highly scalable, low-latency ACR and data systems deployed globally.
Partner with Product, Data, and Business teams to deliver high-impact features and capabilities.
Drive execution excellence with clear prioritisation, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
Collaborate with external Content Feeds and Ad Clips partners to strengthen ACR integrations and ecosystem reach.
Technical Innovation:
Lead R& D in audio/video fingerprinting, signal processing, and large-scale matching systems.
Drive new solutions to optimise ACR technology to handle multiple times throughput at a fraction of the cost
Innovate in areas such as real-time processing, noise robustness, and content coverage.
Contribute to patents and intellectual property where applicable.
System Scalability and Reliability:
Architect and operate systems capable of processing billions of events and petabytes of data.
Optimise infrastructure for cost, performance, and latency across global deployments.
Build resilient systems with strong monitoring, alerting, and recovery mechanisms.
Lead modernisation toward cloud-native, microservices-based, and streaming-first architectures.
Compliance and Security:
Ensure ACR systems and data pipelines comply with global privacy and data regulations.
Implement secure data collection, processing, and storage practices.
Partner with legal and compliance teams on evolving requirements.
Requirements:
Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
Advanced degrees are a plus.
12+ years of experience in building high-performance computing products in cloud and on-prem environments.
5+ years in engineering leadership roles managing large, cross-functional teams.
Proven experience in audio or video signal processing, ACR technologies, or related fields.
Experience building high-throughput, low-latency data pipelines and streaming architectures.
Soft Skills:
Exceptional leadership and team management abilities.
Strong communication skills to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Problem-solving mindset with a focus on delivering measurable results.
Be able to serve as co-site leader for the India office.
Preferred Skills:
Experience in AdTech, CTV, or measurement ecosystems.
Experience with identity graphs, attribution systems, or audience platforms.
Prior experience integrating ACR data into advertising or analytics products is an equal-opportunity employer.

Experience
12-16 yrs