Staff Architect - DevOps/Developer Experience (DevEx) Leader

HARMAN Automotive Developer Experience Lead

Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Automotive

We're a global, multi-disciplinary team that's putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. At HARMAN Automotive, we give you the keys to fast-track your career.

About the Role

• Lead the Developer Experience (DevEx) pillar within the Software Factory, responsible for improving how developers, testers, and integrators build, test, and deliver software across the enterprise. The role focuses on enabling secure, standardized, and efficient development workflows using automation and cloud-based platforms.
• Own the end-to-end developer ecosystem across the software lifecycle, including onboarding, development environments, build and test workflows, tooling integration, and day-to-day developer productivity.
• Accountable for delivering an improved DevEx for approximately 2,000 developers, testers, and integrators, achieving around 20% effort savings and enabling approximately USD 25M in annual cost optimization through reduced setup time, faster development cycles, and improved tool standardization.
• Provide global leadership and mentoring to engineering teams across India, Germany, the United States, Romania, China, and Mexico, ensuring consistent adoption of DevEx standards and practices.
• Design and govern container-based development environments (e.g., cloud development workspaces), including capacity planning, usage governance, and cost optimization, to ensure predictable spend and operational stability.
• Work closely with Engineering, Architecture, Security, IT, and Cloud teams to align DevEx initiatives with enterprise standards, security requirements, and business priorities.
• Define and track DevEx success metrics, such as onboarding time, platform adoption, developer productivity, and cost efficiency, and provide regular status and financial impact reporting to leadership and controlling.

Your Team

• You will mentor a team of approximately 2000 Developers, Testers and Integrators with indirect reporting located in India, Germany, US, Romania, China & Mexico regions.

What You Will Do

• Design, implement, and operate end-to-end developer platforms covering the full software lifecycle (code, build, test, deploy, and operate), with a strong focus on automation, standardization, and reliability.
• Drive adoption of cloud-native, DevOps, and platform engineering practices to improve engineering throughput, software quality, and operational stability across global teams.
• Establish and govern standard GitHub workflows for repositories, branching, pull requests, code reviews, and requirements traceability, ensuring consistency, auditability, and scalable collaboration.
• Lead the integration of AI-enabled developer productivity tools, including AI-assisted coding and automated test generation, embedding them into daily engineering workflows to reduce manual effort and rework.
• Own end-to-end pipeline automation, including build, test, static code analysis, packaging, and quality gates, to ensure fast feedback, consistent quality, and reduced cycle time.
• Define and track developer productivity and experience metrics, including DORA and flow metrics, supported by dashboards and feedback loops to enable data-driven prioritization and continuous improvement.
• Define, standardize, and enforce toolchain governance across IDEs, code quality tools, and ALM integrations (e.g., IBM ALM, Jira), balancing developer flexibility with enterprise standards and cost control.
• Improve developer onboarding efficiency through automation, self-service, and targeted training, with a clear objective of completing onboarding in under three days for new developers.
• Act as a global mentor and change leader, driving adoption of DevEx standards through training, communication, and best-practice sharing across regions and engineering communities.

What You Need to Be Successful

• 18+ years in software engineering with strong DevOps/DevEx leadership experience.
• Expertise in containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), CI/CD frameworks (GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
• Automotive domain knowledge (ASPICE, safety, cybersecurity).
• Familiarity with ALM tools (IBM ALM, GitHub Enterprise, Jira).
• Strong Agile and project management skills.

Bonus Points if You Have

• Experience with AI-driven developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot).
• Knowledge of cloud-native architectures and observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana).
• Proven track record in cultural transformation and developer experience improvement.

What Makes You Eligible

• Willing to travel globally up to 20%.
• Ability to work in a hybrid environment with occasional on-site visits.
• Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment (post-offer).
• This position requires the use of a HARMAN or customer-owned vehicle. As such, any offer of employment will be contingent upon having a clean driving record, which will be evaluated and determined in HARMAN's sole discretion, no more than four (4) active points for moving violations (issued by any motor vehicle agency), and no references to operating a vehicle under the influence of controlled substances within the last 10 years.

What We Offer

• Flexible work environment, allowing for full-time remote work globally for positions that can be performed outside a HARMAN or customer location
• Access to employee discounts on world-class products (JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, and more)
• Extensive training opportunities through our own HARMAN University
• Competitive wellness benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• "Be Brilliant" employee recognition and rewards program
• An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development

About HARMAN: Where Innovation Unleashes Next-Level Technology

Ever since the 1920s, we've been amplifying the sense of sound. Today, that legacy endures, with integrated technology platforms that make the world smarter, safer, and more connected. Across automotive, lifestyle, and digital transformation solutions, we create innovative technologies that turn ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences. Our renowned automotive and lifestyle solutions can be found everywhere, from the music we play in our cars and homes to venues that feature today's most sought-after performers, while our digital transformation solutions serve humanity by addressing the world's ever-evolving needs and demands. Marketing our award-winning portfolio under 16 iconic brands, such as JBL, Mark Levinson, and Revel, we set ourselves apart by exceeding the highest engineering and design standards for our customers, our partners and each other. If you're ready to innovate and do work that makes a lasting impact, join our talent community today!

Important Notice: Recruitment Scams

Please be aware that HARMAN recruiters will always communicate with you from an '@harman.com', '@careers.harman.com' or '@harmanglobal.avature.net' email address. We will never ask for payments, banking, credit card, personal financial information or access to your LinkedIn/email account during the screening, interview, or recruitment process. If you are asked for such information or receive communication from an email address not ending in one of the above email domains about a job with HARMAN, please cease communication immediately and report the incident to us through: View email address on click.appcast.io.

You Belong Here

HARMAN is committed to making every employee feel welcomed, valued, and empowered. No matter what role you play, we encourage you to share your ideas, voice your distinct perspective, and bring your whole self with you – all within a support-minded culture that celebrates what makes each of us unique. We also recognize that learning is a lifelong pursuit and want you to flourish. We proudly offer added opportunities for training, development, and continuing education, further empowering you to live the career you want. HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. HARMAN strives to hire the best qualified candidates and is committed to building a workforce representative of the diverse marketplaces and communities of our global colleagues and customers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. HARMAN attracts, hires, and develops employees based on merit, qualifications and job-related performance.( ) HARMAN is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities.