VP of Product Engineering

Accountabilities:

As VP of Product Engineering, you will lead engineering strategy, technical architecture, team development, and product delivery across a complex, customer-facing platform. Working in close partnership with Product, Infrastructure, Data, and Security teams, you will ensure engineering priorities align with customer needs and long-term business objectives.

• Product and engineering strategy: Partner with the VP of Product to define and own the product and engineering roadmap, balancing immediate customer priorities with long-term scalability, resilience, and security.

• Engineering leadership: Lead five product engineering teams comprising approximately 40 engineers, developing a strong organization through effective management, coaching, hiring, and leadership development.

• Technical direction and architecture: Establish technical direction for products built on a container-based microservices architecture in AWS, and engage directly with complex systems, design decisions, and architectural tradeoffs.

• AI-driven development: Lead the adoption of AI across the software development lifecycle, integrating AI into design, coding, testing, code review, and release processes to improve engineering productivity and delivery quality.

• Product delivery and execution: Establish predictable delivery practices, focus teams on high-impact customer needs, and strengthen collaboration between Product and Engineering.

• Platform reliability and security: Ensure customer-facing SaaS products meet high standards for availability, resilience, security, and performance across a two-sided platform serving school districts and application partners.

• Customer engagement: Build relationships with school district CIOs, application partner CTOs, chief customer officers, and technical teams to understand their needs and translate feedback into product and architecture decisions.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Work closely with Infrastructure, Data, and Security platform teams to maintain a cohesive, reliable, and scalable technology ecosystem.

• External representation: Represent the organization in customer business reviews, industry events, and education technology standards groups.

• Engineering culture: Build an inclusive, high-performing engineering organization where managers and engineers take ownership, contribute to strategic decisions, and continuously improve technical practices.

• International and ecosystem growth: Where relevant, support product evolution for international markets, developer ecosystems, and external application integrations.

Requirements:

The ideal candidate is a technically accomplished engineering executive who has successfully led multiple teams through managers, partnered with Product at the strategic level, and built reliable customer-facing SaaS platforms at scale. You should combine architectural depth with strong executive communication, customer engagement, and a demonstrated ability to modernize engineering practices through AI.

• Engineering leadership experience: At least 10 years of experience as an engineering leader, including at least 3 years at Director level or above.

• Organizational leadership: Proven experience leading a multi-team engineering organization of approximately 30 or more engineers through managers.

• Manager development: Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, and develop engineering managers while building an inclusive, high-performing culture.

• Technical expertise: A strong software engineering background and the ability to review technical designs, challenge architecture decisions, and engage deeply with complex systems.

• AI adoption: Experience leading an engineering organization in applying AI across the software development lifecycle, with measurable results in how teams design, build, test, review, and ship software.

• Customer-facing SaaS: Experience building and operating external SaaS products that require high availability, resilience, security, and scalability.

• Strategic product partnership: Experience working as a peer to a senior Product leader to define product strategy and roadmaps, rather than simply executing an established plan.

• Executive and customer engagement: Experience working directly with technical decision-makers, including CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders, and translating their feedback into product and architecture decisions.

• Communication skills: Ability to communicate technical strategy, architectural tradeoffs, and business implications clearly to executives, customers, and engineering teams.

• Travel availability: Willingness to travel one to two times per quarter for company and customer meetings.

• Preferred identity expertise: Experience with single sign-on, identity lifecycle management, directories, student rostering, or access management products.

• Preferred platform experience: Experience building two-sided platforms, developer ecosystems, or APIs used by external companies.

• Preferred international experience: Experience adapting products for international customers, including regional requirements, languages, and data privacy regulations.

• Preferred industry background: Experience in education technology, K–12 or higher education, or another regulated industry such as healthcare or finance.

• Preferred technical stack: Familiarity with AWS, Go, Node.js, TypeScript, and container-based microservices.

• Preferred scale and industry engagement: Experience supporting platforms with millions of daily users and participating in industry standards bodies, technical speaking engagements, writing, or advisory boards.

Benefits:

• Competitive base salary:

  • $325,000–$350,000 annually for candidates based in the United States outside New York City and San Francisco, California.

  • $340,000–$375,000 annually for candidates based in New York City or San Francisco, California.

  • Final offers depend on experience and level of expertise.

  • Flexible paid time off: Flexible PTO to support work-life balance.

  • Paid parental leave: Paid leave for eligible new parents.

  • Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage.

  • Mental health support: Access to mental healthcare services.

  • Professional development: A dedicated budget for learning and career growth.

  • Company gatherings: An annual company retreat and team events.

  • Inclusive culture: A commitment to diversity, belonging, and creating an environment where employees can contribute authentically and feel supported.