Director, Hands-on Labs

Pluralsight

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

As the Director, Hands-on Labs, you will set the technical vision, hands-on learning strategy, and operational strategy for building and scaling high-quality hands-on lab experiences across the Pluralsight platform. We're looking for a technologist at heart - someone who has developed software, led technical teams, understands how real-world technical environments are designed, tested, deployed, maintained, and can help shape how learners build practical technical skills through hands-on experiences. You'll bring this to life by leading a team responsible for delivering technically accurate, reliable, and scalable hands-on learning experiences. In addition, you will be accountable for balancing innovation, quality, learner experience, reliability, and throughput while creating scalable systems, standards, and workflows for lab production. Lastly, collaboration is key at Pluralsight, so this requires close partnership with other Content teams, Product, Engineering, and R&D to improve the technical foundations of lab delivery and shape the future of hands-on learning at Pluralsight.

Requirements

5–8 years of experience in software development, technical leadership, platform engineering, cloud engineering, DevOps, cybersecurity, technical content, learning experience delivery, or related technical domains.
3+ years of people leadership experience, including leading software engineers, technical producers, senior ICs, managers, or cross-functional technical teams.
Demonstrated experience building, shipping, operating, supporting, or troubleshooting software systems, cloud environments, developer tools, infrastructure, labs, or technical platforms.
Proven ability to lead technical discussions, evaluate architectural tradeoffs, and make decisions that balance quality, scalability, reliability, learner experience, maintainability, and delivery timelines.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives.
Proven ability to assess multiple project needs, prioritize effectively, and manage tradeoffs across scope, schedule, quality, technical complexity, and learner impact.
Ability to provide constructive feedback, coaching, and mentorship while building high-performing teams through development, accountability, and clear expectations.
Experience working in fast-paced teams and asynchronously with remote teams across time zones.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading software development teams, technical teams, senior technical ICs, or other cross-functional technical groups.
Technical proficiency in software development, IT operations, DevOps, cloud, cybersecurity, data, AI/ML, or similar technology domains.
Working knowledge of AI technologies, including how AI is influencing learning experiences, content creation workflows, software development practices, and the broader technology industry.
Ability to establish technical standards for lab creation, including environment configuration, validation and testing practices, versioning, maintenance, quality gates, and troubleshooting expectations.
Background leading automation, tooling, or workflow improvements in partnership with Engineering, R&D, Product, or platform teams.
Experience in technical education, developer enablement, learning platforms, labs, sandboxes, interactive technical environments, or instructional environments preferred.
Experience in technical learning, developer education, hands-on labs, sandboxes, interactive training, technical enablement, or technical content production preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead and develop a team responsible for building, validating, maintaining, and scaling hands-on labs and interactive technical experiences.
Drive career growth, performance management, coaching, and team structure planning for Technical Content Producers and technical contributors.
Shape the strategy for hands-on learning at Pluralsight, defining how labs, sandboxes, interactive technical experiences, and emerging learning formats help learners build practical skills, demonstrate competency, and apply technologies in real-world scenarios.
Own the lab production operating model, including intake, prioritization, staffing and capacity planning, delivery forecasting, roadmap alignment, quality gates, and technical review processes.
Partner with Engineering and Product teams to improve lab platform capabilities, developer tooling, telemetry, QA systems, and operational reliability.
Improve lab development workflows through automation, reusable patterns, technical documentation, templates, testing frameworks, and repeatable production systems.
Lead technical reviews and deep dives to assess lab feasibility, topical accuracy, architecture, platform fit, reliability, and long-term maintainability.
Identify, surface, and mitigate risks related to technical scope, platform constraints, lab quality, learner experience, and delivery schedules.
Build a culture of technical excellence, ownership, continuous improvement, and learner-centered execution.