Tech Lead/Sr Manager, Software Engineering

Cengage Group; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 138,200 - 221,100; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group in Columbus, OH, seeks an Engineering Manager / Technology Lead to guide the ed2go engineering teams, architect scalable, cloud-native platforms, and deliver high availability 24/7. You will lead remote software teams using Agile, partner with product and design, and focus on customer outcomes.

This role balances team management with product development, driving iterative releases, modernizing architectures, and embracing GenAI capabilities to enhance learning experiences.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of leadership experience developing technology strategies and driving innovation.
• Experience building, motivating and leading a global workforce across time zones.
• Experience modernizing monolithic architectures and creating APIs to bridge legacy systems with cloud-native platforms.

Responsibilities

• Apply Agile methodologies and drive iterative development and rapid time-to-market.
• Collaborate with engineering to define user stories, backlog priorities and high-quality releases.
• Act as player/coach, owning solution implementation and team delivery.
• Communicate clearly with product, design and engineering teams across the organization.
• Meet with partners and customers to understand needs and guide technology options.
• Monitor product performance, gather feedback, and drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Leadership

Global teamwork

Cloud-native design

AWS & Kubernetes

CI/CD

Agile/Scrum

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

AWS CDK

Job description

What you'll do here:

As an Engineering Manager / Technology Lead in our Product Technology and Innovation organization, you are responsible for the delivery of innovative, market leading platforms and products that continue to improve the education technology industry. Specifically, you will lead our Cengage's flagship ed2go engineering teams that provide focused digital learning experiences. As a successful technology leader, you will build and lead remote software engineering organizations using agile principles to architect and deliver high availability and Cloud Native software. You will partner closely with product and design teams and lead through data driven insights. With an eye toward customer centric focus, you will obsess about customer outcomes in every decision made and drive measurable improvements in user engagement. We want to take you with us on this journey to transform the education industry. If you are excited about digital transformation and want to work in a fast-paced environment and an exciting industry, this role is for you.

As the Engineering Manager, you will divide time, effort and attention between team management responsibilities and product development responsibilities - leading software development teams for application development and platform support. You will be working in a multi-functional and Agile team environment. You will work jointly with other technology and product leads to provide direction and leadership to the Agile teams. Managers must be comfortable with situational leadership, able to function equally well as a leader or as a team member respecting the team opinion.

Job Duties

• Apply Agile methodologies and the principles of Product Operating Model (POM) to drive iterative development, continuous improvement, and rapid time-to-market.
• Collaborate directly with engineering teams to define user stories, prioritize backlog items, and drive timely, high-quality product releases.
• Act as a player/coach, both creating solutions and owning the team(s) for solution implementation.
• Communicate clearly across product teams, technology teams, interface designers and domain authorities in different parts of the organization.
• Meet with product partners, customers and other technologists to understand customers' learning and technological needs; provide guidance on technology solution options.
• Monitor product performance, analyze important data, and gather user feedback to continuously iterate and improve the product. Conduct post-release evaluations, retrospectives, and A/B testing to inform future product enhancements and strategic decision-making.
• Design, architect, and implement new features and functionality with the expectation that you will own and drive the development using an iterative methodology and deliver products that scale to support our millions of customers.
• Responsible for ensuring our customers enjoy a consistently reliable and high-performing experience with our platforms, available 24/7.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and industry trends and integrate relevant advancements into our product roadmaps.
• Cultivate a high-performance, transparent culture of continuous improvement focused on accountability and results.

Skills you will need here:

• 5+ years of leadership experience, including developing technology strategies and driving innovation
• Experience building, developing, motivating and leading a global workforce of employees and contractors across different time zones
• Strong experience modernizing monolithic architectures, implementing hybrid cloud strategies, and creating APIs to bridge legacy systems with cloud-native platforms.
• Expertise in AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudFormation), cloud-native development (Kubernetes, Docker, microservices), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK).
• Proven track record to compose and build scalable, secure, high-availability enterprise systems, bringing to bear CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks for global user bases.
• Skilled in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe), fostering high-performing engineering teams, and using tools like Jira or Azure DevOps to ensure efficient delivery and alignment with business priorities

Generative AI & Emerging Technologies

• Proven understanding of generative AI concepts and frameworks, such as LLMs, multimodal models, prompt engineering, AI agent orchestration, retrieval augmented generation, and vector databases.
• Familiarity with agentic workflows and AI-enabled automation for applications such as content management, search, personalization, or workflow optimization.
• Knowledge of AI safety, responsible AI practices, and content moderation systems
• Hands-on experience integrating or experimenting with commercial and open-source GenAI technologies and toolkits (e.g., OpenAI, Hugging Face, LangChain).
• Motivation to be up to date with advancements in GenAI, MLOps, and digital transformation.

Collaboration & Communication

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills—capable of partnering effectively with multi-functional teams, including product, build, and engineering, in distributed and remote-first environments.
• Experienced in breaking down complicated technical concepts for diverse technical and non-technical audiences, including executives and partners.
• Proactive approach to learning new technologies, embracing experimentation, and incorporating emerging practices into platforms and teams.
• Commitment to continuous improvement for both product and engineering culture.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [e-mail].

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here (https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/perspectives/2024/cengage-group-total-rewards-philosophy/) to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy .

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program. This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.

20% Annual: Individual Target

$138,200.00 - $221,100.00 USD

Cengage, a global edtech company, supports learners, educators and institutions across more than 100 countries. With products serving nearly 16 million digital users across the Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning markets, we’ve built a learning ecosystem that connects education to employment. We combine trusted content, AI-powered insights and scalable digital platforms to power learning for every future and drive meaningful outcomes at every stage of the learning journey.

Warning

Be aware, there has been an increase of targeted recruitment scams perpetrated by bad actors falsely providing job offers on behalf Cengage Group to candidates as a means of obtaining personal information. Note that Cengage will always interview candidates via live in-person meetings, phone calls and video calls before an offer would be extended. Also, be sure to check that communication is coming from an @cengage.com email address.