Director, Software Engineering

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The Director of Software Engineering is a key member of the executive team, responsible for inspiring and leading the engineering team in building the platform that delivers affordable, innovative education to over 100,000 enrolled students. This role will provide technical expertise, vision, and mentorship to guide the software engineering team. The Director will oversee multiple teams focused on designing, developing, delivering, and supporting applications that meet the University's needs. With a strong, solutions-oriented mindset, they will lead managers through the execution and delivery of ambitious improvements in the Ed Tech group. Additionally, they will serve as a mentor to other managers, a trusted resource for fellow directors, a cross-functional partner, and a leader in best practices for prioritization and project timelines.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

1. Meets business needs by managing the activities of developers consistently delivering quality solutions on-time, within budget, and scope.
2. Works with internal customers to gather business processes and project requirements.
3. Actively drives the development life cycle from requirements analysis, feasibility estimates, design, code, documentation, testing, implementation, and support.
4. Develops project plans, resource planning, scheduling, and managing development timelines.
5. Develops and guides cross-functional software teams, implementing industry standard methodologies for efficient development processes.
6. Responsible for ensuring that design reviews, code reviews, and mentoring of the software development team are conducted.
7. Supports change management process to manage software releases, application patching and changes to production configurations.
8. Manages multiple tasks and responsibilities in high-pressure environments; excelling at pinpointing and resolving problems in early project stages to avoid cost/time expenses.
9. Provides oversight and management of department expenses and budget planning.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

1. Strong people and management skills to interact with staff, colleagues, cross-functional teams, third parties and senior management.
2. Ability to drive a culture of quality and personal accountability through development and delivery teams.
3. Competent in the tools, processes and best practices of software engineering and software operations.
4. Demonstrates commitment to quality through the ability to translate complex technical requirements into functional software using best practices.
5. Expert in vendor contract management and management of distributed development teams and resources.
6. Expert in project management methodologies, including Scrum.
7. Experience in application architecture and making rational buy vs. build and interface decisions.
8. Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to work equally well in self-managed and team-based Agile/Scrum projects.

Job Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

1. Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related field.
2. 15+ years of experience in delivering high-quality software solutions, with at least 4 years as an individual contributor in programming or software engineering.
3. 3+ years of validated experience leading teams, including a minimum of 2 years at the Senior Manager or Director level.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Pay Range: $185,500.00 - $333,900.00

WGU will accept applications for this position until 12:00 AM ET, 11/16/2024.

How to apply: apply online.

Full-time Regular Positions(FT classification, standard working hours = 40)

This is a full-time, regular position that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

The University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.