Senior Manager - Data / AI Platform

Guidewire's Product Development and Operations (PDO) team is hiring a dynamic leader to run cloud-native, big-data services that power the Guidewire Data Platform (GDP). The team works on scalable data ingestion, multi-tenant data platforms, data curation and transformation, federated data access, and platform reliability-helping customers turn InsuranceSuite data into trusted, actionable insights. Based in Bengaluru, the team collaborates with engineering, product, and global platform teams to deliver secure, reliable, and self-service data experiences.

As a Senior Manager - Data / AI Platform, deliver scalable, secure, and reliable Data and AI/ML services that enable mission-critical P&C insurance workloads. Translate real customer use cases into clear product requirements and measurable outcomes. Raise the bar on engineering excellence, team performance, and cross-functional execution. Strengthen Guidewire's voice in the market through thought leadership and community engagement. You'll build high-performing teams, drive product outcomes, and champion a customer-first mindset across engineering and cross-functional partners.

Job Description:

What you'll do:

• Lead and grow multiple pods that architect and deliver cloud-native Data Platform services on AWS and Kubernetes, using modern data streaming stacks and a Data Mesh architecture.
• Drive the design and delivery of Gen AI solutions-including MCP servers and agentic services-and build AI-native proficiency across your teams.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership- Work closely with engineers on complex technical problems, architectural decisions, design reviews, and implementation trade-offs. Help resolve technical roadblocks, challenge proposed solutions, and guide teams toward scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable designs. Remain technically engaged without becoming a bottleneck for implementation.
• Identify and enable data monetization opportunities, turning platform capabilities into customer-facing, revenue-generating products.
• Partner with product management and engineering leadership to set and deliver quarterly and annual goals, framing problems and defining success metrics.
• Orchestrate cross-functional collaboration across PM, Architecture, SRE/SecOps, Support, and Field Engineering to land features on time and with quality.
• Lead through ambiguity with iterative development: lean discovery, rapid prototyping, A/B and canary rollouts, and telemetry-driven iteration, pivoting quickly on customer feedback.
• Run a rigorous performance management cadence: goals, 1:1s, growth plans, competency rubrics, feedback loops, and fair evaluations.
• Champion engineering best practices: API-first design, SDD, IaC/MLOps, observability, chaos/resilience testing, and data governance.
• Stay close to engineering- Maintain the technical depth to engage in code and design reviews, understand implementation details, evaluate technical trade-offs, and provide actionable guidance when teams encounter complex engineering challenges.
• Manage execution risk: roadmap and quarterly planning, dependency management, incident postmortems, and proactive risk mitigation.
• Serve as an external evangelist: speak at conferences, panels, and meetups; publish blogs and whitepapers; and partner with Marketing/Comms to strengthen the Guidewire brand.

What you'll bring:

• 16+ years in software engineering with 4+ years managing managers or multi-pod teams building cloud/data platforms.
• Proven delivery of enterprise-scale, cloud-native data platform services at scale (throughput, latency, cost), with a track record of production ownership.
• Hands-on experience building and operating SaaS products, and delivering Gen AI solutions in production (e.g., LLM-based features, MCP servers, RAG, or agentic workflows).
• Significant experience leading software engineering teams, including hiring, performance management, coaching, and career development. Demonstrated prior experience managing a team of approximately 15 or more engineers, with the ability to balance people leadership with active technical engagement and accountability for engineering outcomes.
• Proven experience leading a Data / AI Platform Engineering team, with accountability for technical direction, architecture, engineering execution, reliability, scalability, and developer experience.
• Experience with data monetization-packaging data and platform capabilities into products that drive measurable business value.
• Strength in product thinking: framing problems, defining success metrics, and shipping iteratively toward outcomes.
• Excellent cross-functional leadership and stakeholder management, with clear written and verbal communication.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence through technical judgment, engineering credibility, and effective collaboration with engineers, technical leaders, cross-functional peers, and senior stakeholders.
• A calm, pragmatic, outcome-oriented leadership style under pressure, with sound technical judgment, a strong bias for action, and the ability to resolve complex problems while balancing immediate needs with long-term engineering improvements.
• A people leader who coaches for impact, sets high standards, and gives actionable feedback.

Nice to have:

• Insurance domain, Analytics/ML pipelines, and data privacy/compliance experience.