Head of Engineering / R&D Site Lead

Location

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Workplace Type

Hybrid

About the Role

Our client is a US-based SaaS cybersecurity company developing a platform to help enterprises reduce risk, detect threats, and prevent breaches across their applications. As the company expands globally, it is establishing a long-term R&D hub in Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnam-based team will focus on core product and platform development from the outset, with increasing responsibility for critical platform areas.

We are seeking a Sr. Manager, R&D Site Leader to build and grow a high-performing engineering team in Ho Chi Minh City. This leader will oversee a team working on large-scale distributed systems at the heart of a SaaS security platform, responsible for ingesting, processing, and analyzing data from hundreds of enterprise applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead an engineering team focused on large-scale distributed systems central to the platform.
• Recruit, hire, and develop strong engineers, including senior individual contributors and future leaders.
• Define technical direction, collaborate on architecture, and maintain sufficient technical understanding for informed decision-making.
• Cultivate a culture of high ownership, accountability, and velocity while upholding quality and team sustainability.
• Establish clear expectations, provide constructive feedback, and support engineers in achieving peak performance.
• Collaborate effectively with global engineering, product, security research, and leadership teams.
• Contribute to the strategic vision and operational excellence of the Ho Chi Minh City R&D hub.
• Manage and mentor a team of software engineers, fostering their professional growth and career development.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement within the engineering team and the R&D site.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• 4+ years of experience in engineering leadership roles.
• Proven track record of building engineering teams from scratch or significantly scaling teams during growth phases.
• Demonstrated success in recruiting, developing, and retaining top engineering talent and future leaders.
• Deep technical expertise in designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems in production environments.
• Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts like consistency, availability, fault tolerance, and operational complexity.
• Strong proficiency in Python and Go; ability to review code and participate in technical design discussions is essential.
• Experience navigating and resolving complex leadership challenges, including performance management, organizational changes, conflict resolution, and decision-making in ambiguous situations.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, enabling effective engagement with engineers, product managers, and executive stakeholders.
• Strong proficiency in English communication, both written and verbal.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) is a plus.

AI-Native Engineering Expectations

As part of an AI-forward engineering environment, leaders are expected to effectively utilize AI tools and contribute to building AI-ready architecture across the platform.

Why You’ll Enjoy Working With This Team

• Attractive salary range, negotiable for strong candidates.
• Flexible hours, asynchronous teamwork, 15 days of paid annual leave plus all official public holidays.
• Work equipment support.
• Statutory insurance (BHXH, BHYT, BHTN) from day one.
• Allowance for Certification & Skill Development.
• Year-end bonus & performance-based rewards.
• Career growth opportunities with personal coaching sessions.
• Open, collaborative team culture focused on trust and autonomy (no micromanagement).
• Tools & AI-powered workflows to enhance remote work.
• Opportunity to join the founding engineering team of a growing Vietnam R&D hub with significant long-term investment.
• Ownership of meaningful product features from design to production and contribution to engineering standards from an early stage.
• Close collaboration with experienced global engineering and security research teams.