Engineering Leader - Thoughtspot

ThoughtSpot is looking for a bold, technically fearless Director of Engineering to lead the Connected Insights track - the heart of ThoughtSpots visualization, navigation, and frontend experience. This track spans three high-impact teams: FE Infra (module federation, client caching, build systems, performance, and developer platform tooling), Charts (the rendering engine for ThoughtSpots visualization library, from core charting primitives to agent-driven chart configuration via the Answer API), and Liveboard (the primary interactive canvas in ThoughtSpot - architecture, presentation interactivity, agent integration, and the AI-driven Liveboard experience).

This is a pivotal moment for the Connected Insights track. The frontend tech stack is deep and modern - React, GraphQL, module federation, complex state management - and the architecture is ready for a thoughtful rethink. We need someone who will question assumptions, challenge the status quo, and bring the curiosity and technical horsepower to redesign for the next era of ThoughtSpots scale and AI-first product vision.

Equally important: the bug backlog is real. This leader must approach quality differently - not just as a process checkbox, but as an engineering culture and operational discipline that the team owns and takes pride in.

Lead Scale Three FE-Heavy Teams

• Own the engineering roadmap, headcount, and technical vision for FE Infra, Charts, and Liveboard - three teams with deep React and TypeScript DNA.
• Be an active presence in architecture forums and design reviews - not just signing off, but shaping technical direction hands-on.
• Build and develop engineering managers and senior ICs into the next generation of ThoughtSpot leaders.
• Hire relentlessly for intellectual curiosity, ownership mindset, and frontend depth.

Rethink the Architecture

• Audit the current architecture across module federation, client cache design, state management, rendering performance, and component system - and build a compelling vision for what comes next.
• Lead the move to a scalable, maintainable, and AI-ready frontend foundation that can power ThoughtSpots Spotter, SpotterViz, and next-generation Liveboard experiences.
• Drive architectural decisions with first-principles thinking, not convention - question every assumption about how the frontend is structured today.
• Define and own the technical north star for frontend infrastructure, charting capabilities, and interactive Liveboard experiences.

Attack the Bug Backlog Raise the Quality Bar

• Treat the bug backlog as a cultural and operational challenge, not just a ticket queue - instill a quality-first mindset across all three teams.
• Build operational systems (on-call hygiene, bug SLAs, regression prevention, automated testing frameworks) that structurally reduce bug accumulation.
• Define quality metrics that the teams live by - not just defect counts, but incident response time, customer-impacting regressions, and release reliability.
• Partner with customer success and support to close the loop between customer-facing bugs and engineering accountability.

Drive Cross-Functional Impact

• Work tightly with Product, Design, and the AI/Spotter teams to ensure the frontend platform keeps pace with an increasingly AI-native product surface.
• Represent the Connected Insights track in RD staff reviews, quarterly planning, and executive discussions with clarity, data, and conviction.
• Be the connective tissue between what customers experience in the UI and what engineering builds - customer obsession must be visible in every architectural and process decision.

Non-Negotiables

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 5+ years in senior engineering leadership (Director level or above) managing multiple teams.
• Deep hands-on frontend engineering background - production React, GraphQL caching patterns, module federation, and the modern JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem at scale.
• Proven track record of architectural reinvention - youve led a team through a meaningful frontend re-architecture, not just incremental improvement.
• Track record of raising quality standards in a team with a meaningful bug backlog - you know how to make this cultural, not just procedural.
• Excellent judgment in hiring, developing, and retaining senior IC and EM talent.
• Strong communication and cross-functional influence - comfortable presenting to executive leadership and working shoulder-to-shoulder with product and design.

Strongly Valued

• Experience building or scaling visualization/charting systems - chart rendering performance, SVG/Canvas tradeoffs, animation, responsive design at scale.
• Familiarity with AI-integrated product surfaces - building frontend systems that adapt to and expose LLM/NLP capabilities to end users.
• Experience in enterprise SaaS environments with multi-tenancy, embedded analytics (SDK, iframe, component embedding), and stringent performance/security requirements.
• Prior experience working in geographically distributed teams, particularly with India-based engineering centers.
• Exposure to backend services and data pipelines - enough to have informed conversations with backend counterparts and own end-to-end product quality.