VP, Core Systems Engineering — Scale & AI Platform

Cengage Group; Anchorage (AK); On-site; USD 193,000 - 308,000; Full time

Job summary

Cengage Group is seeking a visionary Vice President, Core Systems within Product Technology to lead shared tech capabilities enabling scalable digital products across markets. You will guide a high-performing, distributed engineering organization, modernize platforms with AI and cloud-native practices, and partner with product teams to deliver impactful learning experiences.

You will drive strategic execution, governance, and operational excellence, shaping a broad technology portfolio for

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software, platform, or enterprise technology experience, with leadership of shared services.
• 8+ years of senior engineering leadership across distributed teams and multiple domains.
• Experience defining and executing platform or shared-services strategies across complex product portfolios.
• Experience running high-availability enterprise systems with reliability targets and incident management practices.
• Experience leading AI-enabled product platforms, personalization services, or enterprise data capabilities.
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms into cloud-native, modular architectures.
• Demonstrated success consolidating and simplifying to reduce technical debt and cost.
• Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships, and platform investment tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy, roadmap, and operating model for the core systems aligned to Product Technology strategy.
• Advance the build-once, scale-everywhere approach by creating reusable capabilities.
• Modernize Core Systems with AI, cloud-native architecture, API-first design, automation, and observability.
• Establish shared AI infrastructure, data, retrieval, and platform services for product teams.
• Partner with product and business leaders to drive adoption while allowing market-specific tailoring.
• Drive engineering excellence with CI/CD, incident management, and performance metrics.
• Evaluate build, buy, and partner options with clear cost transparency and strategic alignment.

Skills

Software leadership

Senior engineering leadership

Platform strategy

AI-enabled platforms

Cloud-native architecture

Executive communication

Budget management

Cross-functional leadership

Tools

AWS

CI/CD tooling

Observability tools

Job description

Cengage Group is seeking a visionary Vice President, Core Systems within Product Technology to lead shared tech capabilities enabling scalable digital products across markets. You will guide a high-performing, distributed engineering organization, modernize platforms with AI and cloud-native practices, and partner with product teams to deliver impactful learning experiences.

You will drive strategic execution, governance, and operational excellence, shaping a broad technology portfolio for