Director of Software Engineering

Corteva Agriscience; Johnston (IA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Development opportunities

Higher purpose

Health benefits

Paid time off

Parental leave

Retirement plan

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Vylor is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to translate business strategy into multi-year technical direction and lead an engineering function of 10+ managers. You’ll own portfolio results, governance, and the budget, while ensuring delivery health, security, and operational excellence across portfolios.

You will shape organization design, workforce strategy, and succession, coach managers, and build a leadership bench.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computing or equivalent.
• Experience leading a multi-team engineering organization including managers.
• Experience hiring, coaching, and developing senior technical leaders.
• Experience translating strategy into multi-year direction.
• Experience owning portfolio results, delivery health, budget, and investment return.
• Experience setting governance for engineering excellence, resilience, and security.
• Experience shaping organization design, workforce strategy, and succession.
• Ability to lead through influence and brief executives on strategy and risk.
• Working knowledge of security, privacy, compliance, and accessibility practices.

Responsibilities

• Translate business strategy into multi-year technical and organizational direction.
• Balance customer value, risk, architecture, data, and operations across portfolios.
• Set functional expectations for engineering excellence, governance, resilience, and responsible technology.
• Sustain consistent quality, security, and incident response mechanisms across teams.
• Make explicit investment and risk trade-offs and sponsor durable improvements.
• Own technology risk posture with security, architecture, and audit partners.
• Unite functions around shared outcomes, operating agreements, and governance.
• Clarify decision rights and remove organizational barriers across the function.
• Build the leadership bench and workforce strategy for the function.
• Coach managers, hire well, and shape organization design, mobility, and succession.
• Simplify the portfolio and operating model with clear principles and decision rights.
• Set a functional innovation agenda and manage a portfolio of bets.
• Create paths from exploration to scale for the bets that prove out.
• Own portfolio results and return on people, platform, and technology investment.
• Sustain delivery health and predictability; correct course with evidence.
• Reallocate resources, stop low-value work, and hold leaders accountable.
• Own budget and sourcing strategy and represent the function to executives.
• Anticipate change, reframe plans quickly, and lead functional transformation.
• Sustain confidence through change without minimizing real risk.

Skills

Leadership

Multi-team leadership

Engineering management

Strategy translation

Executive briefings

Education

Bachelor's degree in computing

Job description

Join Vylor—Powering the Future of Agriculture

At Vylor, we’re advancing agriculture through breakthrough science—combining elite germplasm, cutting-edge biotech, and next-generation expertise in gene editing and molecular breeding. Our portfolio includes trusted industry brands like Pioneer®, Brevant®, and Hoegemeyer®, delivering performance farmers rely on.

Join us to help scale innovation globally and shape what’s next in crop science.

Who are we and what do we do?

Vylor is a global leader in advanced seed and genetics. For more than a century, we've advanced scientific discovery and breakthrough innovation to help farmers feed and fuel the world. Our business is backed by next-generation scientific expertise and multiple, distinct routes to market, like our industry-leading seed brands and our licensing business.

The Vylor innovation engine will be anchored in the agriculture industry’s most elite germplasm and transformative biotech. The company will leverage its next generation scientific expertise in disciplines like gene editing and molecular breeding to further strengthen its core business while exploring opportunities to expand to new row crops — and potentially beyond. Vylor will scale these innovations using its leading routes-to-market and by significantly expanding its licensing business.

We are looking for an innovative, energetic, and transformational Director of Software Engineering.

The Director of Software Engineering translates business strategy into multi-year technical and organizational direction for an engineering function, and owns what that function produces. Accountability covers portfolio results and return on people and platform investment, governance for engineering excellence and resilience, technology risk posture, budget and sourcing strategy, organization design, and the leadership bench — alongside the delivery health, quality, and people practices the function depends on. Typically 10 or more years of experience, including leading managers. The scorecard is portfolio value delivered and an operating model simpler than the one inherited.

Primary Responsibilities - How will you help us G row!

• Translate business strategy into multi-year technical and organizational direction.

• Balance customer value, risk, architecture, data, and operations across portfolios.

• Set functional expectations for engineering excellence, governance, resilience, and responsible technology.

• Sustain consistent quality, security, and incident response mechanisms across teams.

• Make explicit investment and risk trade-offs and sponsor durable improvements.

• Own technology risk posture with security, architecture, and audit partners.

• Unite functions around shared outcomes, operating agreements, and governance.

• Clarify decision rights and remove organizational barriers across the function.

• Build the leadership bench and workforce strategy for the function.

• Coach managers, hire well, and shape organization design, mobility, and succession.

• Simplify the portfolio and operating model with clear principles and decision rights.

• Set a functional innovation agenda and manage a portfolio of bets.

• Create paths from exploration to scale for the bets that prove out.

• Own portfolio results and return on people, platform, and technology investment.

• Sustain delivery health and predictability; correct course with evidence.

• Reallocate resources, stop low-value work, and hold leaders accountable.

• Own budget and sourcing strategy and represent the function to executives.

• Anticipate change, reframe plans quickly, and lead functional transformation.

• Sustain confidence through change without minimizing real risk.

Education and Experience – What you will bring to the table!

• Bachelor's degree in a computing field, or equivalent education and experience.

• Experience leading a multi-team engineering organization, including leading managers.

• Experience hiring, coaching, and developing managers and senior technical leaders.

• Experience translating strategy into multi-year direction and delivering against it.

• Experience owning portfolio results, delivery health, budget, and investment return.

• Experience setting governance for engineering excellence, resilience, and security.

• Experience shaping organization design, workforce strategy, and succession.

• Ability to lead through influence and brief executives on strategy and risk.

• Working knowledge of security, privacy, compliance, and accessibility practices.

Preferred Experience

• Ten or more years of experience, including leading managers of engineering teams.

• Experience in agriculture, a global enterprise, or another regulated environment.

• Experience leading modernization, platform strategy, cloud, or data and AI build-out.

• Experience with portfolio governance, product operating models, and vendor management.

Benefits – How We’ll Support You:

• Numerous development opportunities offered to build your skills

• Be part of a company with a higher purpose and contribute to making the world a better place

• Health benefits for you and your family on your first day of employment

• Four weeks of paid time off and two weeks of well-being pay per year, plus paid holidays

• Excellent parental leave which includes a minimum of 16 weeks for mother and father

• Future planning with our competitive retirement savings plan and tuition reimbursement program

• Learn more about our total rewards package here - Corteva Benefits (https://hrportal.ehr.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2Nre68t3vrs%3d&portalid=351)

• Check out life at Vylor! https://www.linkedin.com/company/vylorgenetics/

Corteva announced to separate our current advanced seed and genetics business to establish a standalone company, operating as Vylor, Inc. The process of the planned separation is anticipated to be completed the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to legal requirements and board approval. Should you accept this position, it is anticipated that, following conclusion of the separation, you would be an employee of Vylor, Inc. and your employment would be governed by Vylor, Inc. employment processes, programs, policies, and benefit plans. In that case, details of any planned changes would be provided to you by Vylor, Inc. at an appropriate time and subject to any necessary consultation processes.

Vylor is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to embracing our differences to enrich lives, advance innovation, and boost company performance. Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, military or veteran status, pregnancy related conditions (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), disability or any other protected status in accordance with federal, state, or local laws.

Corteva Agriscience™ is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to boldly embracing the power of inclusion, diversity, and equity to enrich the lives of our employees and strengthen the performance of our company, while advancing equity in agriculture. Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability or any other protected class. Discrimination, harassment and retaliation are inconsistent with our values and will not be tolerated. If you require a reasonable accommodation to search or apply for a position, please visit:Accessibility Page for Contact Information

For US Applicants: See the ‘Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law’ poster. To all recruitment agencies: Corteva does not accept unsolicited third party resumes and is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.