Head of Core Systems & Platform Engineering

Cengage Group; Wilmington (DE); On-site; USD 193,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group is seeking a strategic VP, Core Systems to lead shared technology capabilities enabling scalable digital products across markets. You will partner with leaders across Higher Education, School, English Language Learning and Work to build reusable, AI-enabled, cloud-native core services.

You will drive modernization, establish governance for data protection and compliance, and mentor a high-performing distributed engineering organization focused on reliability, speed, and innovation

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software or enterprise technology leadership.
• 8+ years leading senior engineers across multiple domains and time zones.
• Experience defining platform or shared-services strategies.
• Experience running high-availability enterprise systems with reliability targets.
• Experience leading AI-enabled product platforms and data capabilities.
• Modernizing legacy platforms into cloud-native modular architectures.
• Consolidation efforts to reduce technical debt and cost.
• Budget, vendor management, and cost optimization for large tech portfolios.
• Executive communication and stakeholder alignment.
• Leadership of leaders and talent development.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy, roadmap, and operating model for the core systems.
• Advance build-once, scale-everywhere reusable capabilities.
• Modernize Core Systems using AI, cloud-native, API-first approaches.
• Establish shared AI infrastructure and platform services for safe learning experiences.
• Partner with product and business leaders to increase adoption of shared capabilities.
• Drive operational excellence with engineering practices, CI/CD, observability, and portfolio execution.
• Evaluate build/buy/partner options with financial transparency.

Skills

15+ years software

8+ years leadership

platform strategy

high-availability systems

AI-enabled platforms

cloud-native architectures

consolidation efforts

budget management

executive communication

leadership of leaders

Tools

AWS

Data platforms

AI infrastructure

CI/CD

Observability

Job description

Cengage Group is seeking a strategic VP, Core Systems to lead shared technology capabilities enabling scalable digital products across markets. You will partner with leaders across Higher Education, School, English Language Learning and Work to build reusable, AI-enabled, cloud-native core services.

You will drive modernization, establish governance for data protection and compliance, and mentor a high-performing distributed engineering organization focused on reliability, speed, and innovation