Senior Director, Software Development

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Take ownership of delivery commitments for Connected Curriculum and associated product teams, ensuring reliable execution, quality, and operational readiness.

• Convert product roadmap priorities into engineering plans, capacity models, and sequencing strategies in collaboration with Product leadership.

• Set clear expectations for planning, estimation, dependency management, and risk mitigation.

• Provide transparent and accurate delivery visibility to executive stakeholders, proactively highlighting risks and tradeoffs.

• Ensure teams maintain a balance between feature delivery and continuous investment in reliability, scalability, and technical health.

• Serve as a senior technical leader, engaging thoroughly in architecture, system design, and cross-product technical decisions.

• Act as a core member of the Architecture Council, contributing to the definition and evolution of system-wide architectural direction.

• Lead the design and development of foundational platform services and shared components that support Connected Curriculum and other Modern Campus products.

• Ensure product architectures are in alignment with emerging platform standards, shared services, and long-term scalability objectives.

• Guide significant technical decisions and tradeoffs, balancing delivery speed with sustainability, reuse, and operational excellence.

• Maintain accountability for technical health across all systems under ownership, including performance, security, scalability, and reduction of technical debt.

• Spearhead modernization initiatives for legacy systems, aligning them with platform-oriented architecture.

• Promote the adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development practices, including development harnesses, workflow automation, and engineering guardrails that enhance delivery speed, quality, and scalability.

• Guide the design and evolution of agentic SDLC patterns that enable teams to safely incorporate AI into design, implementation, testing, review, documentation, and operational workflows.

• Ensure AI-enabled development practices are consistent with platform architecture, engineering standards, security requirements, and long-term maintainability.

• Lead and nurture engineering leadership across multiple teams and product areas, establishing expectations for delivery ownership, technical leadership, and team well-being.

• Oversee hiring, onboarding, performance management, and succession planning for assigned engineering teams.

• Build and retain high-performing organizations with strong technical expertise and leadership capabilities.

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and engineering excellence that aligns with Modern Campus values.

• Scale engineering leadership and execution across multiple product lines as the scope extends beyond Connected Curriculum. Implement consistent standards for delivery discipline, technical stewardship, and organizational health across all product engineering groups. Collaborate with Product leadership as scope expands to ensure engineering capacity, architecture, and delivery models scale effectively.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 12 years of professional software engineering experience in building and operating complex, customer-facing SaaS platforms.

• At least 6 years in engineering leadership roles responsible for multiple teams or product areas.

• Proven track record of owning delivery outcomes across a diverse portfolio of work.

• Deep technical knowledge and the ability to engage in detailed discussions regarding architecture, system design, and technical tradeoffs.

• Strong understanding of modern web application stacks, including: Frontend: React, TypeScript, modern frontend architectures; Backend: Java, Spring Boot, RESTful APIs; Data: Relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL); Cloud: AWS, containerized and CI/CD-based environments.

• Experience in designing or evolving platform-oriented architectures and shared services.

• Background in enhancing engineering effectiveness through AI-assisted development practices, workflow automation, or related SDLC innovations.

• Strong comprehension of how to utilize AI within the software development lifecycle while preserving quality, security, maintainability, and team accountability.

• Demonstrated ability to work closely with Product leadership and influence across organizational boundaries.

• Exceptional communication skills, including the capability to clearly convey technical risks and tradeoffs to executive audiences.

🏝️ Benefits

• A remote-first workplace!

• Rewards and recognition programs.

• Opportunities for learning and development.

• The chance to make a meaningful impact every day for universities striving to grow and students eager to learn!