VP, Software Engineering

We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage Group, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.     

Our culture values diversity, engagement, and discovery

Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through inclusive programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-diversity/.       

What you'll do here:

As a VP of Software Engineering in our Product Technology and Innovation organization, you will be responsible for the delivery of innovative, market leading platforms/products that continue to transform the education technology industry. As a successful technical leader, you will build and lead remote software engineering organizations using agile methodologies (scrum) to design and build high availability enterprise software. You will partner closely with product and design teams, and lead through data and insights, obsess about customer outcomes in every decision made, and drive measurable improvements in user engagement. We want to take you with us on this journey to transform the education industry. If you are excited about digital transformation and want to work in a fast-paced environment and an exciting industry, this role is for you!       

Responsibilities

• Responsible for working with multiple leaders, including the Platform Technology leadership team and business partners in crafting a clear, convincing technical strategy and road map to achieve the business unit goals.

• Responsible for collaborating across multiple functions to align on priorities for scaling and building our products globally across multiple markets.

• Deliver products that scale to support our millions of customers worldwide. Stay up-to-date with emerging technologies and industry trends, and integrate relevant advancements into our product roadmaps.

• Partner with multi-functional leaders to standardize development, testing and release processes to ensure quality products are delivered on time

• Drive ongoing product and technology strategy reviews in conjunction with the Product Leaders and senior stakeholders and drive strategic technological discussions

• Lead high performing engineering teams, develop an internal and external pipeline of high caliber talent and inspire leaders to deliver against priorities

• Create a high-performance, transparent environment focused on accountability and results

• Develop a culture of continuous learning and professional development, providing opportunities for team members to grow and excel in their roles.       

Skills you will need here:    

Required

• 10 years of leadership experience, including developing technology strategies and driving innovation

• 15 years of progressive software development experience

• Experience building, developing, motivating and 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).

• Strong experience modernizing monolithic architectures, implementing hybrid cloud strategies, and creating APIs to bridge legacy systems with cloud-native platforms.

• Proven ability to design and build scalable, secure, high-availability enterprise systems, leveraging CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks for global user bases.

• Skilled in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe), fostering high-performing engineering teams, and using tools like Jira or Azure DevOps to ensure efficient delivery and alignment with business priorities.

• Experience with development methodologies and project lifecycle principles, with a proven track record of successfully planning, organizing, prioritizing, executing,