AI-First Software Engineering Manager

Cengage Group; Kansas City (MO); Remote; USD 102,000 - 163,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group, a global education technology company, seeks a Software Engineering Manager to lead a team delivering a world-class experience for our CLP platforms. You will shape an AI-first roadmap, collaborating with product and design to drive customer-focused outcomes.

You will lead a globally distributed engineering team, shaping delivery, celebrating innovation, and balancing maintenance with new features, while engaging stakeholders and executives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 2+ years of technology leadership, including global distributed teams.
• GenAI concepts, ML, LLMs, prompt engineering, RAG, and vector databases.
• Experience modernizing architectures, cloud-native platforms, and hybrid cloud strategies.
• Strong hands-on Java development (5+ years).
• Strong front-end expertise with React (5+ years).

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing engineering team focused on quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Reimagine and optimize software delivery processes using modern tools, automation, and generative AI.
• Engage in driving POM Discovery activities including continuous customer engagement to derive solutions that meet end user, company, and technology goals.
• Track quality and efficiency improvements through well instrumented SDLC tools and report progress to executive teams.
• Balance technical debt and maintenance with new feature development within each sprint.
• Work with partners and customers to establish and handle product backlogs, product estimates and budgets.
• Stay in front of emerging technologies and inject continuous innovation into product roadmaps.

Skills

Java development

React

Agile delivery

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

Job description

Cengage Group, a global education technology company, seeks a Software Engineering Manager to lead a team delivering a world-class experience for our CLP platforms. You will shape an AI-first roadmap, collaborating with product and design to drive customer-focused outcomes.

You will lead a globally distributed engineering team, shaping delivery, celebrating innovation, and balancing maintenance with new features, while engaging stakeholders and executives.