Director, Software Engineering

Cengage Group

1d

About The Position

As a Director of Software Engineering at Cengage, you will lead the charge in delivering world-class platforms and products that revolutionize the education technology industry. Specifically, you will guide our School Learning Platform teams in creating outstanding courseware, learning, and partner experiences for K-12 education. Your role will be pivotal in building and leading agile, high-performing remote software engineering teams. Following the Product Operating Model (POM), you'll collaborate closely with product and design teams, making data-driven decisions that focus on improving customer outcomes through frequent stakeholder engagements and data-driven insights. If you are passionate about digital transformation and thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, this opportunity is perfect for you!

Requirements

• 5+ years of leadership experience in developing technology strategies and driving innovation.
• 10+ years of progressive software development experience.
• Experience leading a global workforce of employees and contractors across different time zones.
• Expertise in AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudFormation), cloud-native development (Kubernetes, Docker, microservices), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK).
• Solid understanding of AI concepts, technologies and methods, including machine learning, Language, Reasoning & multimodal models, prompt & context engineering, developing and using skills & agent frameworks, RAG, and vector databases.
• Hands-on experience integrating or experimenting with commercial and open-source GenAI technologies and toolkits (e.g., coding assistants, OpenAI, Hugging Face, LangChain).
• Strong experience in modernizing monolithic architectures, implementing hybrid cloud strategies, and crafting APIs to bridge legacy systems with cloud-native platforms.
• Proven ability to compose and build scalable, secure, high-availability enterprise systems using CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks.
• Skilled in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and customer-centric product models to drive iterative development and rapid time-to-market.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent combination of education and recent, relevant work experience.

Responsibilities

• Work with multiple leaders, including the Digital leadership team and business partners, to craft a convincing technical strategy and roadmap(s) to achieve business unit goals.
• Collaborate across functions to align on priorities for scaling and building our products globally.
• Using the framework of the Product Operating Model, you will identify scalable products and deliver them to support our global customer base.
• You will incorporate new technologies and industry trends into the outcomes.
• Partner with multi-functional leaders, through POM, to standardize and improve development, testing, and release processes, ensuring timely delivery of quality products.
• Drive product and technology strategy reviews with Product Leaders and senior collaborators, leading strategic technological discussions.
• Lead high-performing engineering teams, developing a pipeline of high-caliber talent and encouraging leaders to achieve priorities.
• Foster a high-performance, transparent environment passionate about accountability and results.
• Reinvent and optimize the SDLC using modern frameworks, principles, automation, and generative AI.
• Cultivate a culture of continuous learning and professional development, offering team members opportunities to grow.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director