Job Description
Category-defining tech. Career-defining work.
Lots of tech companies disrupt. But, many fail when they try to scale. We’re different. CockroachDB makes it easier for companies to build and scale apps. This is how and why we’re helping some of the most innovative companies on the planet. We tackle problems head-on and focus on solutions that create lasting impact.
Because when our customers win, we all win.
The Role
We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to lead teams within our Platform Engineering organization in India. Platform Engineering at Cockroach Labs is the backbone of CockroachDB and CockroachDB Cloud - encompassing observability, supportability, monetization and billing, engineering productivity, and test engineering teams. Beyond building the core infrastructure, Platform Engineering is the team at the frontier of AI innovation - developing and embedding AI-powered capabilities that enable every engineering team across Cockroach Labs to build faster, operate smarter, and innovate at scale. This is where infrastructure meets intelligence, and engineers here have a unique opportunity to shape the future of software development with an AI-first mindset. This is a key leadership role responsible for driving engineering excellence across these critical platform infrastructure domains at our India site.
As an Engineering Manager in the India site, you will have a direct impact on how the organization is structured and built to ensure cross-geo collaboration is successful. You will partner with the Senior EM of Platform Engineering, HR, Recruiting and other stakeholders to create a culture of excellence and accountability in the site. You will tightly collaborate with functional leaders and managers cross-geo to align on priorities while maintaining autonomy for local execution.
You Will
- Lead and grow one or more platform engineering teams in India, with the scope to expand to additional teams over time.
- Help engineers successfully navigate their day-to-day by providing them the resources they need, as well as access to individuals who can help them accomplish their goals at Cockroach Labs.
- Partner closely with engineering and product leadership to define and drive the engineering roadmap for platform capabilities that underpin CockroachDB and CockroachDB Cloud.
- Collaborate with managers across teams to tackle people management challenges, and to ensure coordination of platform, product, and infrastructure initiatives as we scale.
- Coach and provide direct feedback to your team to guide personal development and growth beyond just technical skills. Managing performance and making sure that our engineers are achieving their goals is essential to retaining a high-performing team.
- Foster a high-performance, inclusive, and growth-oriented culture aligned with Cockroach Labs values - win with customers, build the future, achieve together, and own the outcome.
- Champion effective cross-geo collaboration, ensuring strong engineering partnerships across time zones and geographies.
- Be excited to bring your technical understanding and platform architecture knowledge to Cockroach Labs and continually deepen your knowledge of distributed systems and platform infrastructure.
- Engage with the broader tech community through tech talks, community meetups, conferences, and hackathons - and encourage your team to participate in events that interest them.
The Expectations
In your first 30 days, you will become an integrated member of our engineering team. You’ll spend time learning about the different team’s domains, processes and people, as well as learning about CockroachDB and CockroachDB Cloud. We believe it’s essential for you to take this first month to become familiar with our technology, our platform engineering landscape, and our company.
After 3 months, you will be fully integrated into the team and comfortable leading the team’s execution in partnership with engineering leadership. You’ll have built an understanding of the team’s tech stack and feel comfortable with the architecture and components across the platform. You’ll understand the team’s priorities and roadmap.
After 6 months, you’ll be ready for our next quarterly planning process, with a comprehensive understanding of our roadmap and priorities. You will be making sure that each member of your team is working on projects that align with both our needs and their interests, and will be able to partner with them to shape their career development.
You Have
- 10+ years of overall engineering experience, with at least 2-4 years in engineering management or technical leadership roles.
- Experience managing platform, infrastructure, developer tools, or cloud services engineering teams.
- Comfort collaborating with stakeholders across different time zones and geo locations in a remote office environment.
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), distributed systems, and infrastructure software.
- Exposure to programming languages such as Go, Python, or similar; comfort with backend and infrastructure codebases.
- Strong product and architecture intuition with a systems-thinking mindset - able to see how different teams’ work interconnects across a platform.
- A passion for building relationships and a genuine sense of responsibility for the welfare of the engineering team you manage, including their professional development and growth.
- Experience with performance management, including understanding the importance of building an effective team that can function independently while collaborating and supporting each other.
- Experience partnering across departments and ensuring coordination with internal teams (e.g., Product, Documentation, Marketing, Support).
The Team
Reporting to Abhishek Munnolimath - Sr. Manager, Platform Engineering
Abhishek joined Cockroach Labs in April 2025 as a Senior Engineering Manager leading all platform teams in India which include the Monetization Platform, Supportability, AI Supportability, Code Systems, and Test Engineering Org teams. With 15+ years of experience across Oracle, Microsoft, and SaaS companies like Freshworks, he brings deep expertise in cloud services, security, and distributed systems. Passionate about people leadership, mentoring, and business impact, he is excited by Cockroach Labs’ potential to disrupt industries like gaming, e-commerce, and financial services. Outside work, he enjoys yoga, travel, social give back and time with his two daughters.
BabuSrithar Muthukrishnan - India Site Lead & Senior Director of Platform Engineering
BabuSrithar (Srithar) heads Platform Engineering and is the Site Leader for the India office. He is responsible for our growth strategy and is a cultural champion in the region. He is passionate about building high-quality software products and lean teams by leveraging everyone’s potential. He enjoys working with people and learning along the way. Before joining Cockroach Labs, BabuSrithar held senior leadership positions at companies like Nutanix, Clumio and most recently was VP of Engineering at Apty where he led the engineering function globally. When not at work, he enjoys his time with his family.
Cockroach Labs is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you need additional accommodations to feel comfortable during your interview process, please email us at accessibility@cockroachlabs.com.
Cockroach Labs has a hybrid work model, with Roachers that are local to one of our offices coming in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and working flexibly the rest of the week. While we’ve learned valuable lessons working remotely, nothing can replace the connection, creativity, and fun that occurs when Roachers get together and we are committed to fostering a workplace that encourages collaboration and allows us all to do our best work.
Benefits
- Stock Options
- Medical Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Life and Disability Insurance
- Professional Development Funds
- Flexible Time Off
- Paid Holidays
- Paid Sick Days
- Paid Parental Leave
- Retirement Benefits
- Mental Wellbeing Benefits
- And more!
