---
title: 'Engineering Team Lead at HRS'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-team-lead-hrs-mohali-k7pq0ghn41e0'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Engineering Team Lead at HRS

- **Company:** HRS
- **Location:** Mohali, India
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-09-10
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hrs/c16f735a-1181-471d-b639-62bcffb978bd

## Job description

Title- Engineering Team Lead (AI-First) Location- Mohali

## Why is this role mission critical

At HRS, the mission is to become the most trusted global platform for managing corporate Lodging and Meetings & Groups programs. As the company digitally reimagines corporate travel through Connect, a unified interface for enterprise clients, travel agents, and hotel suppliers, engineering leadership becomes central to turning platform ambition into reliable execution. To support that mission, this role is defined as an AI-first Engineering Team Lead focused on building and evolving intelligent, scalable, and resilient product capabilities for hotel tech and corporate travel. AI-first engineering leadership generally combines team leadership, technical credibility, cross-functional execution, and the ability to embed AI-powered workflows and agentic patterns into software delivery and product design. This is a hybrid leadership role that sits between technical leadership and engineering management. AI-first engineering manager and lead roles commonly emphasize credible technical direction, close product partnership, ownership of delivery outcomes, and the expectation that leaders can step into architecture, debugging, or implementation when needed, even if they are not coding every day. The role unlocks robust, automated, and intelligent workflows across the supplier and traveler ecosystem, with a strong focus on hotel technology and corporate travel use cases. Domain familiarity in hotel tech and travel platforms is especially valuable because it helps leaders make better decisions around integrations, user journeys, and operational reliability in complex distribution environments.

What makes this role exciting As Engineering Team Lead for an AI-first organization, this role leads a cross-functional team spanning engineers, QA, SRE, and interns, while partnering closely with the counterpart Product Manager to deliver business outcomes. AI-first team lead roles are increasingly structured around dual leadership with Product, where engineering owns the how, technical quality, architecture, and delivery, while Product owns prioritization and user value. This role is responsible for shaping how AI and agentic thinking are applied first across the product and engineering lifecycle. Recent AI-first lead and manager roles consistently emphasize directing AI tools architecturally, designing agent workflows, defining evaluation and guardrail approaches, and using AI to accelerate delivery without compromising reliability, safety, or enterprise quality. The role will:

- Lead and guide a cross-functional squad of software engineers, QA, SRE, and interns toward clear delivery, quality, and reliability outcomes.
- Partner closely with the Product Manager as a co-owner of execution, trade-offs, roadmap shaping, and stakeholder communication.
- Provide technically credible leadership across architecture, integration design, operational readiness, and engineering standards.
- Maintain enough hands-on depth to step into design reviews, incident resolution, debugging, proof-of-concepts, or critical implementation work when required.
- Drive AI-first and agentic-first thinking across the Product Software Development Life Cycle, including AI-assisted & Human-assisted AI development, workflow automation, evaluation, and guardrails.
- Build and improve systems that support hotel suppliers, corporate travelers, travel managers, and related business stakeholders through scalable platform capabilities.
- Work across Product, Architecture, SRE, Operations, Supplier-facing teams, and business stakeholders to deliver cohesive end-to-end solutions.
- Strengthen platform readiness through observability, incident response discipline, performance optimization, and reliable release practices.

Beyond direct team leadership, this role contributes to broader engineering maturity by championing AI-enabled ways of working, mentoring teams on how to use AI safely and effectively, and helping the organization evolve toward more intelligent automation. AI-first leadership roles increasingly expect leaders to define standards for AI velocity, multi-agent workflows, evaluation, and engineering quality at scale. This is an opportunity to shape platform engineering in a high-value TravelTech environment where strong domain intuition, product partnership, and AI-first execution can materially improve supplier experience, operational efficiency, and customer outcomes.

## What you bring

- Proven experience leading software delivery teams in a hybrid technical leadership and people leadership capacity. [3+ years in technical leadership, team leadership, or player-coach roles]
- Strong software engineering background with the technical depth to guide architecture, review designs, challenge trade-offs, and step in hands-on when necessary. [8+ years of software engineering experience]
- Demonstrated success managing cross-functional collaboration across engineers, QA, SRE, interns, Product Managers, architects, and business stakeholders.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trusted partnerships and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences.
- Experience working in a close counterpart model with Product Managers to align roadmap, priorities, delivery plans, and customer value.
- Deep interest in AI-first software development, with familiarity in AI-assisted engineering, LLM-based workflows, agentic systems, RAG, orchestration patterns, evaluation approaches, and guardrails.
- Ability to guide teams in applying AI and automation pragmatically across development, testing, operations, incident response, and product capabilities.
- Strong understanding of modern engineering practices including cloud-native architecture, APIs, distributed systems, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and secure software delivery.
- Experience in hotel tech, hospitality platforms, TravelTech, or corporate travel is a strong plus, especially where product and engineering decisions depend on domain knowledge, partner integrations, and operational sensitivity.
- Familiarity with enterprise workflows involving suppliers, travel programs, booking ecosystems, or complex third-party integrations is an added advantage.
- Self-starter with a growth mindset, strong judgment, and bias toward outcomes, simplification, and continuous improvement.
- Excellent English communication skills, including the ability to influence stakeholders, align teams, and translate technical direction into business impact.

## Why join us

This role sits at the center of shaping an AI-first engineering culture in a domain where operational quality, automation, and partner experience matter deeply. Current AI-first engineering leadership roles place strong emphasis on using AI not just as an add-on, but as a primary lens for how teams build, operate, and scale software systems. The opportunity is especially compelling because it combines technical leadership, stakeholder influence, product partnership, and domain relevance in hotel tech and corporate travel. It offers the chance to guide teams that build intelligent, adaptive, and reliable platforms for a complex global ecosystem, while helping define what agentic-first engineering looks like in practice. Ready to make a difference? Apply now!

## About HRS

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: HRS is a global technology platform that reimagines corporate lodging and meetings management through an AI-powered end-to-end SaaS solution.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped, owned by CEO Tobias Ragge)
- **Headquarters**: Cologne, Germany
- **Founded**: 1972
- **Founders**: Founded as a regional reservation service; current CEO and owner is Tobias Ragge

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Corporate travel management (lodging and meetings), Fintech (payment solutions), Sustainability tech (Green Stay Initiative)
- **Target Customers**: B2B — Enterprise (Fortune 500), SMBs, and business travelers
- **Mission/Purpose**: "To reinvent the way business travelers can STAY, WORK and PAY" by challenging legacy structures and over-engineered ecosystems.

## Products & Services
- **[HRS Connect](https://corporate.hrs.com/)**: An all-in-one booking and procurement platform for lodging (transient, groups, longstay) and meetings. It connects to GDS, non-GDS, OTA, and direct inventory, automates rate filtering, rebooking, payment, and invoicing.
- **[HRS Copilot](https://corporate.hrs.com/)**: A patent-pending AI-powered assistant that provides real-time, data-driven recommendations to optimize savings, compliance, traveler satisfaction, and carbon emissions. Integrates with existing tech stacks and expense systems.
- **[HRS Green Stay](https://corporate.hrs.com/)**: An ISO 14067-certified initiative that provides science-based property-level data on water, waste, and energy consumption, enabling companies to report, reduce, and remove CO₂ emissions from hotel stays. HRS is a Climate Pledge signatory.
- **[HRS Payment Solutions](https://corporate.hrs.com/)**: Automated payment and invoicing tools that include VAT reclaim, line-item invoice data, and credit card rebate optimization.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly available (privately held by CEO)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue not disclosed; the company serves **35% of Fortune 500 companies** [corporate.hrs.com](https://corporate.hrs.com/).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: HRS is privately owned. It partners with 200+ solutions (TMCs, OBTs, expense and payment systems). Strategic equity investment in Itelya for integrated payment solutions.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Recognized among **Germany’s TOP 100 Most Innovative Companies** [corporate.hrs.com](https://corporate.hrs.com/about).
    - Member of the **Global Sustainable Tourism Council**.
    - **EcoVadis Bronze Medal** (top 35% globally) for sustainability management.
    - Operates in **30 markets** globally including London, Milan, Mumbai, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, and Sydney [jobs.hrs.com](https://jobs.hrs.com/content/Our-history/?locale=en_US).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Data-First Moat**: Their patented rate filter, automated rebooking, and Copilot AI generate unique, actionable data that creates lock-in with enterprise clients.
- **End-to-End Automation**: Unlike traditional TMCs, HRS offers a fully automated process from procurement to payment and reclaim, reducing manual work and delivering VAT rebates.
- **Sustainability Standard-Setting**: The Green Stay Initiative is a first-of-its-kind, science-based, ISO-certified tool that directly ties sustainability data into procurement decisions.
- **50-Year Heritage + Startup Agility**: Described as a "50-year-old start-up," they combine the stability of a mature company with the innovation culture of a tech firm.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI-First Transformation**: Deepening the role of Copilot to move from a booking tool to a strategic decision-making assistant for travel and procurement managers.
- **Fintech Expansion**: Integrating payment and invoicing deeper into the platform to create a unified "stay, work, pay" experience (e.g., investment in Itelya).
- **Net-Zero Leadership**: Pledging net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 (a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement) and scaling the Green Stay initiative globally.
- **Platform Convergence**: Unifying lodging, meetings, and longstay under a single, seamless interface to increase adoption and spend visibility.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as a "tribe of Intrapreneurs" with a focus on entrepreneurship, passion, enthusiasm, and teaming. The CEO Tobias Ragge says: "Be a missionary, work hard, have fun, and make history" [jobs.hrs.com](https://jobs.hrs.com/content/Culture/?locale=en_US).
- **Diversity**: Over **850 employees** representing **57 nationalities**, with a strong emphasis on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) [jobs.hrs.com](https://jobs.hrs.com/content/Culture/?locale=en_US).
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Not explicitly stated as fully remote. The company operates from 30+ global markets (Cologne HQ, London, New York, San Francisco, etc.), suggesting a hybrid or in-office collaborative environment depending on role.
- **Perks & Engineering Culture**:
    - Ranked among Germany’s TOP 100 most innovative companies, indicating strong R&D and engineering investment.
    - Culture of "learning from failure and scaling through operational excellence."
    - Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI, fintech, and sustainability solutions at a global scale.
    - Young, agile environment with a 50-year history of stability.

## Sources
1. [corporate.hrs.com](https://corporate.hrs.com/) – Official corporate site (products, mission, partners)
2. [corporate.hrs.com/about](https://corporate.hrs.com/about) – About page (history, leadership, sustainability, DEI)
3. [jobs.hrs.com](https://jobs.hrs.com/content/Culture/?locale=en_US) – Culture and careers page
4. [jobs.hrs.com](https://jobs.hrs.com/content/Our-history/?locale=en_US) – History & team success factors
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/hrs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hrs) – Official careers portal (Ashby)

## Other roles at HRS

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- [Cash Collection Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/cash-collection-specialist-hrs-mumbai-hvb292t23e8k) — Mumbai, India
- [Billing Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/billing-specialist-hrs-mumbai-q54qercrxmvt) — Mumbai, India
- [Product Marketing Manager - Meetings (all genders)](https://feeny.ai/job/product-marketing-manager-meetings-all-genders-hrs-berlin-41b202g19d2c) — Berlin, Germany
- [Product Marketing Manager - Payment (all genders)](https://feeny.ai/job/product-marketing-manager-payment-all-genders-hrs-berlin-x3rex6rm0jvh) — Berlin, Germany
- [Senior Customer Success Manager - Public Sector (all genders)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-customer-success-manager-public-sector-all-genders-hrs-cologne-mp1b7g6hp7j0) — Cologne, Germany
- [Account Executive](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-hrs-tokyo-6dcmgd81r4xj) — Tokyo, Japan
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