Cengage Learning

Manager, Software Engineering, Content Automations

Cengage Learning$101K — $140K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent experience.
  • 3+ years of technology leadership experience, managing global teams and technology strategies.
  • Solid understanding of AI concepts, including machine learning and generative AI techniques.
  • Hands-on experience with commercial and open-source GenAI tools and frameworks.
  • Experience in modernizing legacy systems and designing cloud-native solutions on AWS, GCP, or Azure.
  • Proven ability in building scalable, high-availability enterprise systems.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with content teams to analyze workflows and identify AI automation opportunities.
  • Lead the delivery of automation initiatives with onsite and offshore teams.
  • Drive the development of AI tools through prototyping and continuous improvement.
  • Collaborate with Product Managers to deliver scalable engineering solutions.
  • Lead a high-performing engineering team focused on quality and accountability.
  • Engage in customer discovery activities to develop effective technology solutions.
  • Track improvements in quality and efficiency through SDLC tools and report to executives.

Benefits

  • Access to a comprehensive Total Rewards package.
  • Participation in a discretionary incentive bonus program.
  • Opportunities for professional development and coaching.
Full Job Description
What you'll do here:

As the Software Engineering Manager, you will manage and lead all aspects of a team dedicated to:
  • Partner with content teams to analyze current workflows, identify automation opportunities, and design AI-first solutions that improve efficiency and quality.
  • Lead end-to-end delivery of automation initiatives, collaborating with onsite and offshore engineering teams as well as cross-functional partners across the organization.
  • Drive development of AI-powered tools through prototyping (POCs), enhancements, and continuous improvement of existing platforms.
  • Work closely with Product Managers and business partners to deliver innovative, scalable solutions while ensuring alignment to engineering guidelines in developing, implementation, and operations.


Following the Product Operating Model (POM), you will collaborate with product and design teams in your role as technical lead. Together you will focus on improving customer outcomes through frequent stakeholder engagements and data-driven insights.
  • Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing engineering team focused on quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.
  • Reimagine and optimize content creation workflows using modern platforms, automation, and generative AI.
  • Engage in driving POM Discovery activities including continuous customer engagement, both internal and external, to derive solutions that meet end user, company, and technology goals.
  • Track quality and efficiency improvements through well instrumented SDLC tools and report progress to executive teams.
  • Balance technical debt and other maintenance activities alongside new feature development within each sprint.
  • Work with partners and customers to establish and handle product backlogs, product estimates and budgets.
  • Stay ahead of on emerging technologies and industry trends to inject continuous innovation into our product roadmaps.


Skills You Will Need Here:

Education & Experience
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and recent, relevant work experience.
  • 3+ years of technology leadership experience, including developing technology strategies, fostering innovation, and leading globally distributed teams.

Generative AI & Emerging Technologies
  • 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 CODEX, LangChain).

Architecture & Cloud Platforms
  • Experience in maintaining and/or modernizing legacy or monolithic architectures, migrating systems to modular, cloud-native platforms, and implementing hybrid cloud strategies.
  • Ability to design and develop APIs that integrate legacy systems with modern solutions.
  • Comfortable designing and deploying cloud native solutions on AWS, GCP, or Azure, using containers, serverless, and cloud storage/compute services.

Software Engineering & Product Delivery
  • Proven ability to build secure, resilient, scalable, high-availability enterprise systems for global user bases.
  • Strong experience with agile delivery (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and tooling such as Jira or Azure DevOps
  • Proven success organizing teams and delivery around a Product Operating Model

Collaboration & Communication
  • Demonstrated skills in working with cross-functional teams in distributed, remote-first environments.
  • Ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including executives.


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.

15% Annual: Individual Target

$101,900.00 - $140,000.00 USD

About Cengage Learning

Cengage is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world. The company provides print and digital textbooks, instructor supplements, online reference databases, distance learning courses, test preparation materials, corporate training courses, career assessment tools, and other educational materials. Cengage was founded in 2007 as a merger between Thomson Learning and Gale. In 2018, the company filed for bankruptcy and emerged with a new ownership structure. Cengage has approximately 5,000 employees and generates over $1.5 billion in annual revenue.
Learn more about Cengage Learning
Size
5,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1994

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