VP, Core Systems Engineering: Scale, AI & Modernization

Cengage; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 193,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage is seeking a transformative VP, Software Engineering - Core Systems to lead shared tech capabilities that scale across Higher Education, School, and English language learning. You will guide AI-enabled modernization, cloud-native design, and a unified platform strategy while partnering with product, security, and compliance teams.

You will build distributed teams, drive automation and observability, and champion portfolio execution with a focus on reliability, innovation, and measurable

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software, platform, or enterprise technology experience.
• 8+ years of senior engineering leadership across distributed teams.
• Experience defining platform or shared-services strategies for complex portfolios.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy, roadmap, and operating model for core systems.
• Build reusable capabilities to scale across markets and verticals.
• Modernize through AI, cloud-native architecture, API-first integration, and automation.
• Lead consolidation of legacy capabilities and drive cost optimization.
• Develop executive-level partnerships and mentor a high-performing engineering leadership team.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Platform engineering

AI/ML in products

Cloud-native architectures

Incident management

Executive communication

Budget management

Talent development

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical debt reduction

Tools

AWS

CI/CD

Observability

Retrieval-augmented generation

Job description

Cengage is seeking a transformative VP, Software Engineering - Core Systems to lead shared tech capabilities that scale across Higher Education, School, and English language learning. You will guide AI-enabled modernization, cloud-native design, and a unified platform strategy while partnering with product, security, and compliance teams.

You will build distributed teams, drive automation and observability, and champion portfolio execution with a focus on reliability, innovation, and measurable