Director Software Development Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

We believe in the power and joy of learning
At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose - driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
Cengage's portfolio of businesses supports student choice by providing a range of pathways that help learners achieve their goals and lead a choice-filled life.
Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery
Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/
What you'll do here:
As a Director of Software Engineering at Cengage, you will be responsible for the delivery of innovative, market leading platforms and products that continue to advance the education technology industry. Specifically, you will guide our Higher Education development teams in delivering trusted digital content that improves learning and research outcomes in the classroom, library, and beyond. Your role will be pivotal in shaping the AI-driven, high-performing remote software engineering teams.
Following the Product Operating Model (POM), you'll collaborate with product and design teams, making data-driven decisions that focus on improving customer outcomes through frequent stakeholder engagements and data-driven insights. If you are passionate about digital transformation and thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, this opportunity is ideal for you!
Responsibilities

• Work with multiple leaders, including the Digital leadership team and business partners, to craft a convincing technical strategy and roadmap(s) to achieve business unit goals.
• Collaborate across functions to align on priorities for scaling and building our products globally.
• Identify scalable products and deliver them to support our global customer base. You will incorporate new technologies and industry trends into the outcomes.
• Partner with multi-functional leaders, through POM, to standardize and improve development, testing, and release processes, ensuring timely delivery of quality products.
• Drive product and technology strategy reviews with Product Leaders and senior collaborators, leading strategic technological discussions.
• Lead high-performing engineering teams, developing a pipeline of high-caliber talent and encouraging leaders to achieve priorities.
• Cultivate a high-performance, transparent environment passionate about accountability and results.
• Reinvent and optimize the SDLC using modern frameworks, principles, automation, and generative AI.
• Champion a culture of continuous learning and professional development, offering team members opportunities to grow.

Skills you will need here:

• 5+ years of leadership experience in developing technology strategies and driving innovation.
• 10+ years of progressive software development experience.
• Experience leading a global workforce of employees and contractors across different time zones.
• Expertise in AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudFormation), cloud-native development (Kubernetes, Docker, microservices), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, AWS CDK).
• Solid understanding of AI concepts, technologies and methods, including machine learning, Language, Reasoning & multimodal models, prompt & context engineering, developing and using skills & agent frameworks, RAG, and vector databases.
• Hands-on experience integrating or experimenting with commercial and open-source GenAI technologies and toolkits (e.g., coding assistants, OpenAI, Hugging Face, LangChain).
• Strong experience in modernizing monolithic architectures, implementing hybrid cloud strategies, and crafting APIs to bridge legacy systems with cloud-native platforms.
• Proven ability to compose and build scalable, secure, high-availability enterprise systems using CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks.
• Skilled in agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and customer-centric product models to drive iterative development and rapid time-to-market.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field, or equivalent combination of education and recent, relevant work experience.

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 accommodations.ta@cengage.com.
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 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.
25% Annual: Individual Target
$138,200.00 - $221,100.00 USD