Engineering Operations Manager

Founded in 2014, Circles is a global technology company reimagining the telco industry with its innovative SaaS platform, empowering telco operators worldwide to effortlessly launch innovative digital brands or refresh existing ones, accelerating their transformation into techcos.

Today, Circles partners with leading telco operators across multiple countries and continents, including KDDI Corporation, Etisalat Group (e&), AT&T, and Telkomsel, creating blueprints for future telco and digital experiences enjoyed by millions of consumers globally.

Besides its SaaS business, Circles operates three other distinct businesses:

• Circles.Life: A wholly-owned digital lifestyle telco brand based in Singapore, Circles.Life is powered by Circles’ SaaS platform and pioneering go-to-market strategies. It is the digital market leader in Singapore and has won numerous awards for marketing, customer service, and innovative product offerings beyond connectivity.

• Circles Aspire: A global provider of Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) solutions. Its cloud-based Experience Cloud platform enables enterprises, service providers and developers to deliver and scale mobile, messaging, IoT, and connectivity services worldwide.

• Jetpac: Specializing in travel tech solutions, Jetpac provides seamless eSIM roaming for over 200 destinations and innovative travel lifestyle products, redefining connectivity for digital travelers. Jetpac was awarded Travel eSIM of the Year.

Circles is backed by renowned global investors, including Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia), Warburg Pincus, Founders Fund, and EDBI (the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board), with a track record of backing industry challengers.

Role - Engineering Operations Manager

Location: Bangalore, India

Reports to: Head of Engineering Operations

About the Role

Circles is looking for an Engineering Operations Manager to drive the smooth functioning and execution of processes across the Engineering organization: tracking spend, ensuring timely project delivery, resolving blockers, and acting as a close operating partner to Engineering teams headquartered in Bangalore, India and Sri Lanka. While this role sits in Engineering, s/he will be required to work closely with Project Management Office, Finance and Procurement, and is best suited to someone who is equally comfortable in a steering committee, a budget review, and a vendor contract negotiation.

In the Engineering Operations team, we believe strongly in potential and fit over perfect CVs. If this role excites you, even if you don’t check every single box, please apply. We’d love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities, in order of importance

1. Program & Delivery Governance

• Partner with the Project Management Office to ensure smooth execution of large-scale engineering and delivery projects. 

• Join steering committees, account reviews and deep dives to track progress, surface and resolve issues, and build the systems and processes needed to drive issues to closure from an Engineering standpoint.

• Triage and prioritize outstanding, unresolved issues and escalate to Engineering leadership as needed.

2. Vendor & Contract Management

• Work with Vendor Management/Procurement and Finance to build a consistent process for managing technology service providers and vendors, ensuring contracts are properly reviewed, tracked and renewed on time, and identifying cost optimization opportunities where relevant. Maintain visibility over the vendor landscape and upcoming contract renewals.

3. Business Reviews & Reporting

• Prepare for and run periodic Engineering business reviews with Engineering leadership, surfacing KPIs, budget deviations and areas requiring resolution. Ensure these items are tracked to closure.

4. Process Optimization & Standardization

• Analyze existing workflows to identify inefficiencies and recommend improvements. Develop scalable processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs), partner with internal teams to implement enhancements, and monitor effectiveness over time.

5. Resource & Capacity Planning

• From time to time, perform analysis on resourcing and capacity planning tools to recommend improvements to how Engineering allocates and plans capacity.

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field

• 5-10 years of experience in engineering/IT operations, technical program management, or PMO roles within a technology or SaaS organization

• Working knowledge of software delivery methodologies (Agile/Scrum), engineering budgeting, and IT vendor/contract lifecycles

• Experience with cloud infrastructure, SaaS/IaaS/PaaS licensing models and large-scale engineering delivery projects is a strong plus

Skills & Competencies

• Strong program and project management skills, with experience running and participating in steering committees, account reviews, and cross-functional deep dives

• Solid grasp of IT/engineering and business operations, with exposure to tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, Coupa, SAP Ariba or more

• Strong analytical skills and comfort working in Excel/Sheets or spend/resourcing analytics tools

• Ability to interpret budgets, KPIs, and delivery metrics, and translate them into clear, actionable follow-ups for leadership

• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, able to work effectively with Engineering leaders, PMO, Finance, and Procurement

• A self-starter and problem solver who can build structure and process from ambiguity, and work independently while collaborating across a matrixed organization

• Comfortable operating across distributed teams and time zones

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional certifications such as PMP, ITIL, or equivalent

• Experience working with distributed/offshore engineering teams or in a multinational technology environment

• Familiarity with data privacy, cybersecurity and third-party risk considerations as they relate to technology vendors

Circles is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, disability or age.

Data Protection and Privacy Statement 

By submitting an application for this position, you, as the applicant, or your authorised representative(s), consent to Circles’ Candidate Data Protection and Privacy Policy. You also agree to the collection, use, and/or disclosure of your personal data by us solely for recruitment purposes as specified in the Policy. You acknowledge that you have read and understood the Policy, are aware of your rights regarding your personal data, and accept the terms relating to international data transfers, where applicable. You further understand that you may withdraw consent at any time, which may affect our ability to consider your application. In instances where your personal data or application is submitted by a third party, it is understood that such third party has been duly authorised by you to disclose the relevant personal data and provide consent on your behalf, and that you have been made aware of this Policy.

To all recruitment agencies: Circles will only acknowledge resumes shared by recruitment agencies if selected in our preferred supplier partnership program.

Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, Circles, employees or any other company location. Circles will not be held accountable for any fees related to unsolicited resumes not uploaded via our ATS.