R&D Lead

R&D Lead

1Kosmos · India (Remote) · Full-time · Posted 2026-02-18

Workplace: remote

Department: Engineering

Description

R&D Lead

The Lead of R&D will spearhead technology discovery, applied research, and technical innovation across backend, APIs,

web, mobile, cloud, and emerging platforms. This role focuses on identifying, validating, and de-risking new technologies

and enabling their transition into product engineering teams.

This position does not own day-to-day product engineering or feature delivery but works closely with Product Engineering

to influence future platforms and architectures.

Experience Level: 12+ yrs

Skillset Required: Docker, Kubernetes, DevSecOps, CI/CD pipeline, Expertise in one or more of: Java, Node.js, Go

(Golang), C / C++, JavaScript / TypeScript

Key Responsibilities

• Lead technology research and discovery initiatives across backend systems, APIs, web, mobile, cloud, and emerging

domains.

• Identify, evaluate, and prototype emerging technologies, tools, frameworks, and architectural patterns relevant to

the company’s strategic roadmap.

• Drive proof-of-concept (PoC), spike solutions, and experimental platforms to validate feasibility, scalability, security,

and performance.

• Establish structured research → validation → handoff model to transition successful innovations to Product

Engineering teams.

• Act as a technical thought leader, influencing long-term architecture, platform evolution, and build-vs-buy decisions.

• Partner with Product Management, Product Engineering, Security, and QA teams to ensure research outcomes align

with business and compliance needs.

• Ensure research outcomes adhere to security, quality, regulatory, and compliance standards from inception.

• Track industry trends, academic research, open-source ecosystems, and startup innovations to maintain a

competitive technology edge.

• Define success metrics for R&D initiatives and regularly communicate outcomes to executive stakeholders.

Requirements

• Required Skills and Experience

• • 12+ years of experience in R&D, applied research, platform engineering, or innovation leadership.

• • Proven experience leading cross-functional technical research teams and exploratory initiatives.

• • Strong background in distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and modern application stacks.

• • Demonstrated ability to translate research and experimentation into production-adoptable solutions.

• • Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

• • Experience managing multiple concurrent research tracks with varying levels of maturity.

• • Deep understanding of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies (AWS, Azure, GCP).

• • Ability to review, guide, and influence production-level code without being the primary implementer.

• • Strong architectural judgment with a security-first mindset.

• Good-to-Have Qualifications

• • Experience establishing R&D best practices, including experimentation frameworks and technical evaluation

• criteria.

• • Familiarity with DevSecOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, and secure software supply chains.

• • Hands-on expertise in one or more of:

• • Java

• • Node.js

• • Go (Golang)

• • C / C++

• • JavaScript / TypeScript

• • Experience with containers and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes.

• • Exposure to identity, security, cryptography, or authentication technologies (strong plus).

Apply

Apply at 1Kosmos

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