Head of Core Systems & Scalable AI Platform

Cengage Group; Billings (MT); On-site; USD 193,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group in the United States seeks a Vice President, Core Systems within Product Technology to lead shared technology capabilities enabling digital products to scale across markets. You will drive the core systems strategy, partner with product, security, and compliance, and build reusable capabilities for AI-enabled learning platforms.

You will mentor a high‑performing engineering leadership team, modernize cloud-native architectures, and ensure reliability, scalability, and fast delivery

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software/enterprise technology leadership experience.
• 8+ years of senior engineering leadership across distributed teams.
• Experience defining platform/shared-services strategies across complex portfolios.
• 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 that reduce technical debt and cost.
• Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships and investments.
• Excellent executive communication to align senior leaders.
• Strong organizational leadership and succession planning.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy, roadmap, and operating model for core systems.
• Advance build-once, scale-everywhere with reusable capabilities.
• Modernize Core Systems with AI, cloud-native architecture, API-first design, and observability.
• Establish shared AI infrastructure and platform services for product teams.
• Collaborate with product and business leaders to tailor experiences per market needs.
• Lead engineering leadership team and foster accountability, inclusion and growth.
• Provide financial transparency for shared services and investment tradeoffs.

Skills

15+ years software/enterprise tech

8+ years senior engineering leadership

Platform/shared-services strategy

High-availability enterprise systems

AI-enabled platforms/infrastructure

Cloud-native, modular architecture

Consolidation and simplification

Budget/vendor cost optimization

Executive communication

Leadership of leaders

Job description

Cengage Group in the United States seeks a Vice President, Core Systems within Product Technology to lead shared technology capabilities enabling digital products to scale across markets. You will drive the core systems strategy, partner with product, security, and compliance, and build reusable capabilities for AI-enabled learning platforms.

You will mentor a high‑performing engineering leadership team, modernize cloud-native architectures, and ensure reliability, scalability, and fast delivery