Saurabh Sinha’s path to Warner Bros. Discovery wasn’t straightforward—but his persistence and passion for building at scale brought him here in 2021. As Director, Engineering, he shares his journey establishing the India Innovation Hub, tackling global-scale challenges, and shaping the future of platform engineering at WBD.

Q: Can you tell us about your professional background before joining WBD? What drew you to the tech space?

A: I bring over two decades of experience across engineering, software development, and IT leadership. My journey has spanned service providers, captives, and product companies—each adding a unique lens to how I approach technology. What always drew me to tech was its power to solve at scale. Over the years, I’ve increasingly focused on roles where engineering drives core value—not just operations.

Q: You joined us in 2021. What drew you in to apply for a role with us?

A: I was actively seeking a product-first, engineering-driven organization—one where I could build platform capabilities from the ground up and influence strategy. The opportunity here stood out because it wasn’t just another tech role—it was about leading platform engineering for D2C products with real consumer impact. The fact that it was still early-stage in India made it even more compelling, as I saw the chance to shape the India Innovation Hub (IIH) from scratch.

Q: You mentioned that it took multiple applications and proactively reaching out to get a call—what kept you persistent, and how did it finally come together?

A: When you’re passionate about a mission, persistence is natural. I believed in the potential of my first role so much that—even after multiple unsuccessful applications—I kept going. Eventually, I reached out directly to the head of IIH through LinkedIn. That outreach opened the door, and within days, I was in conversation with the People & Culture team. It was a moment that reaffirmed the power of intent and clarity of purpose.

Q: What were those initial interviews like? What kind of qualities or potential were they looking for in the first few technologists in India?

A: The process was rigorous and structured. It wasn’t just about technical skills—it tested leadership vision, cultural alignment, and mental models. I spoke to global leaders from Seattle and New York, across domains like platform engineering, data, ML, and architecture. It was clear that WBD was looking for leaders who could establish platform engineering functions, build systems, and think beyond team boundaries. The expectation wasn’t just delivery—it was thought leadership.

Q: As one of the first technology leaders in India for WBD, what were some of the key challenges—and wins—in establishing the engineering team here?

A: One major challenge was scaling IIH post-COVID—hiring top talent, building distributed collaboration models, and establishing engineering DNA. We started with fewer engineers and consultants and scaled 3 times in a few months. I helped build core functions like scale testing, observability, client performance test, and automation infrastructure from the ground up. Creating a shared global vision with real-time feedback loops helped us move fast and build strong foundations.

Q: You’ve spoken highly abouy the culture at WBD. What makes it unique, especially from a tech leadership perspective? Can you share any specific moments where mentorship made a difference?

A: WBD’s leadership is incredibly accessible. It’s a flat structure where ideas are welcome and feedback is fast. I had direct engagement with global SVPs and CTO. They not only trusted me to establish new engineering functions but also gave clear strategic direction. When I expressed interest in expanding into data engineering and observability, they supported me without hesitation. This culture of trust and a growth mindset is what sets WBD apart.

Q: You’re known as a problem-solver. What are some of the most exciting or complex problems you've worked on at WBD so far?

A: One of the most exciting challenges was building WBD’s scale testing capability from the ground up. When I started, there was no unified approach — teams across regions used different tools, methodologies, and metrics. We were preparing for a global platform expected to serve tens of millions of concurrent users, yet we didn’t have a cohesive way to test readiness at that scale.

We began by framing the problem strategically — defining ownership, aligning leadership across geographies, and standardizing on a modern tooling stack using k6, Gatling, and AWS-based load simulation. I built a cross-regional performance engineering team and introduced a “shift-left” culture where scalability became everyone’s responsibility early in the development cycle.

The real work lay in discovering the unknowns — diagnosing hidden bottlenecks across backend services, CDN configurations, and data flows — and fixing them under tight launch timelines. The result was a global-scale readiness program that allowed us to launch seamlessly, with zero performance incidents on day one.

Beyond that, the same foundation helped us create a unified client performance test framework, driving consistency and accountability across all QA teams globally.

It’s been a transformative journey — not just solving for scale, but building a culture that treats performance as a shared success metric.

Q: You’ve built functions like analytics, monitoring, and reporting within the media supply chain. What’s next for your team and for engineering at WBD India?

A: I’m driving the next phase of our platform transformation—focused on scale, automation, and intelligence. Our India-based platform teams are now building strategic decision-support systems that serve both engineering and business stakeholders. The vision is to move beyond reactive dashboards to intelligent, self-service platforms that use agentic AI and generative models to surface trends, anomalies, and recommendations proactively transforming how we run and scale media workflows globally. 

Q: What advice would you give to technologists or aspiring leaders who want to build impactful careers with WBD?

A: Own your growth. At WBD, opportunities are everywhere—but it’s up to you to raise your hand, stay curious, and deliver with intent. Whether you want to build platforms, solve large-scale challenges, or lead teams—this is a place where your passion can translate into real impact. Just stay open, stay humble, and keep building.