Company Overview

Xpress is a homegrown Filipino ride-hailing and mobility platform serving Manila, Bataan, Boracay and Dumaguete. We're scaling into new markets and building the technology that supports it. We're hiring a Director of Engineering & Delivery to lead our engineering operations and delivery as we enter our next stage of growth.

Position Overview

The Director of Engineering & Delivery leads the day-to-day operations of our engineering organization. You will be responsible for how our engineering teams are structured, how they deliver, and how consistently they ship.

A core part of this role is setting the standard for how AI-forward engineering is done at Xpress by actively implementing modern AI development practices and raising the bar for the entire engineering organization. Were investing in becoming an AI-forward engineering company, and we want a leader who has either successfully led this transformation before or is eager to drive it at scale.

You will work closely with our CTO, who leads technical vision and system architecture, and with our Head of Product on roadmap execution. Your focus will be the operational side of engineering teams, cadence, delivery excellence, quality standards, and execution discipline.

This role will own and oversee key operational functions across the engineering organization, including:

Sprint planning, release management, retrospectives, and post-mortems
Weekly delivery reporting with live dependency and blocker tracking
Engineering hiring and team scaling across both the Philippines and Europe
Rollout and operational standards for AI development tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent platforms
Code review processes, testing discipline, and engineering quality enforcement
Management of external development partners and engineering vendors
Direct line management of the PH Engineering Lead, EU Engineering Lead, and QA Lead

This is a senior leadership role based in Metro Manila, reporting directly to the CEO. You will work closely with our CTO, who leads technical vision and system architecture, and with our Head of Product on roadmap execution. This is a senior role based in Metro Manila, reporting to the CEO.

Key Responsibilities

Delivery Management
Own end-to-end delivery across the Xpress eco-system
Establish and run delivery cadence: sprint planning, releases, retrospectives, and post-mortems
Set up weekly delivery reporting with clear visibility on progress, blockers, and dependencies
Engineering Team Leadership
Lead the PH Engineering Lead, EU Engineering Lead, and QA Lead
Build clear ownership and accountability within each team
Develop direct reports and grow the engineering bench in the Philippines
Hiring and Org Structure
Run engineering hiring across distributed teams in PH and EU
Define team structures, ownership boundaries, and decision rights
Manage external development partners and hold them to delivery standards
Cross-Functional Coordination
Partner with the CTO on translating technical direction into delivery plans
Partner with the Head of Product on roadmap sequencing and trade-offs
Partner with Operations on the systems that run the business day-to-day
Provide regular delivery updates to the CEO and leadership team
Engineering Standards
Enforce code review, testing, and quality standards across all teams
Maintain platform reliability as we expand into new markets
AI-Assisted Development
Set the standard for daily AI-assisted development across all engineering teams - by practicing it yourself and raising the bar for the team
Establish productivity benchmarks - cycle time, time-to-merge, output per engineer - and improve them quarter over quarter
Build the standards, review processes, and guardrails that let AI-assisted development scale safely
Partner with the CTO on the architectural decisions that enable or constrain AI-forward development

Qualifications

At least 8 years of software engineering experience
At least 4 years leading engineering teams of 20 or more engineers
Experience as a Director of Engineering, Head of Delivery, or equivalent at a consumer-facing technology company ride-hailing, marketplace, fintech, logistics, or mobility is a strong advantage
Hands-on experience with modern AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or equivalent) and a clear point of view on how to scale them across an engineering team
Experience managing distributed engineering teams across multiple time zones
Track record of installing and running delivery cadence in a growing engineering organization
Hands-on technical depth. You ship code regularly, you use AI development tools as part of your daily workflow, and you lead from the craft - not from above it
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

Who Should Apply

Engineering Managers or Senior Engineering Managers looking to step into a Director role
Directors of Engineering at smaller PH technology companies looking for bigger scope
Engineering leaders returning from overseas roles (Singapore, Australia, Middle East, US)
Filipino engineering managers from regional companies such as Grab, Gojek, Shopee, Lazada, GCash, Maya, or similar