Director, Platform Engineering

Job Title

Head of Application Platform

Location: Bangalore, India
Reports to: Head of Studio
 

About Saudia XP Studio

Saudia Airlines is establishing a dedicated digital engineering studio, the Saudia XP Studio, in partnership with Amadeus. The studio provides full-stack digital capabilities for Saudia’s key channels including Saudia.com, mobile applications, Nevio retailing, customer loyalty solutions, and airline operations middleware. 

About the Role

As the Head of Application Platform, you will lead the operational health of the Saudia XP Studio’s live production environment. This includes platform reliability, security, compliance, and performance for critical digital products—such as Saudia.com, mobile apps, middleware, and all services hosted on Microsoft Azure. You will oversee DevSecFinOps (Development, Security, and Financial Operations), site reliability practices, implementation activities (including Agile and complex release planning), and 24/7 operational support.

Your role focuses on ensuring performance and security at all times while building a culture of collaboration, resilience, and continuous improvement across teams.

In this Role, You Will

• Lead DevSecFinOps activities, including continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline operations, Azure governance, cybersecurity management, and cost optimisation.
• Ensure platform reliability and observability by leveraging tools such as Datadog, Azure Monitor, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices.
• Drive security governance and compliance with OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) standards, data privacy regulations, and airline-specific requirements.
• Manage incident, problem, and change processes (aligned to ITIL best practices) to maintain seamless production operations.
• Oversee end-to-end release delivery including deployment planning, go/no-go approvals, and root-cause analysis of production issues.
• Guide and mentor approx. 50 specialists across SRE, SecOps (Security Operations), FinOps (Financial Operations), Help Desk, Release Management, and Performance Engineering.
• Report operational KPIs, risk assessments, and service-level attainment to leadership and key stakeholders through transparent communication.
• Foster an inclusive culture focused on sustainability and knowledge sharing—developing effective on-call models that balance reliability with team well-being.

Your Profile

• Significant experience in technical operations, platform engineering, DevOps, or site reliability roles in high-availability environments.
• Leadership experience managing diverse operations teams in a 24/7 production context.
• Expertise in Microsoft Azure cloud services, container orchestration (e.g., Azure Kubernetes Service), monitoring tools, and CI/CD workflows.
• Strong understanding of information security governance and compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS).
• Knowledge of SRE principles and IT service management practices.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to translate technical insights into business impact.

Technical Environment

• Cloud/Platform: Azure AKS, Azure App Services, Istio, Okta IAM
• Observability: Datadog, Azure Monitor, Grafana, Prometheus
• Security: Azure Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Imperva WAF/DDoS
• DevOps/Automation: GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Terraform, Azure DevOps
• ITSM: ServiceNow or equivalent
• Middleware: Node.js/Azure, Apache Kafka, MongoDB

Key Stakeholders

• Head of Studio — direct manager
• Head of Engineering — joint accountability on release gates and production quality
• Saudia IT Security and Operations teams — client-side SLA governance
• Release Train Engineer — deployment coordination with the Agile Release Train (ART)
• Amadeus TSI-CPS/PFS — platform and security expert support
• Saudia Technology Leadership — for incident escalation and SLA reviews

What We Can Offer You

🌎 A truly global DNA – Everything at Amadeus is global, from our people to our business, shaping culture, operations, and opportunities.
🎓 Great learning opportunities – Gain skills through on-the-job training, structured learning paths, and collaborative projects.
🤗 A caring environment – We support work-life harmony and aim to provide a positive, flexible workplace.
🌟 A hybrid working model – Choose the working option that helps you do your best work.
🌈 A diverse and inclusive community – We leverage diversity to drive creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
📈 A reliable company – Built on values of trust, transparency, and long-term commitment.
🎯 A meaningful mission – At Amadeus, you help power the future of travel.

Diversity & Inclusion

Amadeus aspires to be a leader in Diversity and Inclusion in the tech industry, enabling every employee to reach their full potential by fostering a culture of belonging and fair treatment, attracting the best talent from all backgrounds, and as a role model for an inclusive employee experience.  

Amadeus is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, beliefs, disability or any other characteristics protected by law.  

Be aware of recruitment scams

Amadeus Group never charges fees, requests payment, or asks for financial information during recruitment. All legitimate opportunities are communicated solely through official Amadeus channels, including our careers website. Any payment request or outreach via unofficial platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Telegram) should be treated as fraudulent.