Software Engineering Manager

The Software Engineering Manager is responsible for leading a cross-functional engineering team focused on developing and maintaining core components of our digital learning platform. This role provides hands-on technical leadership, supports engineers through day-to-day development activities, and ensures the team delivers high-quality, scalable, and secure software for our next-generation digital learning platform. The manager oversees execution across sprints, guides technical decision-making, and ensures that engineering work aligns with defined product and architectural requirements.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Manage and coach software engineers to ensure high-quality, on-time delivery.

• Oversee development workflows, code quality, and engineering best practices.

• Partner with Product, UX, Data, and Architecture teams to translate requirements into actionable plans.

• Manage AWS-based cloud solutions, ensuring scalability, reliability, and secure architecture.

• Support sprint planning, technical decisions, and cross-team alignment.

• Maintain project timelines, resolve risks, and drive continuous improvement in tooling and processes.

Job Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with management and product owners to shape and finalize release planning for digital products.

• Responsible for ensuring that team members and third-party vendors receive and work from product specifications and requirements and evaluate work based on those specs.

• Research and recommend improvements for the long-term sustainability and performance of digital products.

• Responsible for software development by team members and, as necessary, do hands-on development work.

• Conform with and abide by all regulations, policies, work procedures, and instructions.

• Ultimately shares responsibility with the Director of technology for the overall quality of products in the marketplace and internally.

• Cultivate a collaborative culture of shared ownership that empower teams with a shared sense of responsibility and champion blameless collaboration with collective accountability.

• Leads a team of developers, testers, and other technical team members, including setting expectations and measuring success, supporting individual and team growth, and ensuring team best practices are followed.

• Communicate with co-workers, management, customers, vendors, and others in a courteous and professional manner.

• Perform other role-related duties as assigned.

All our employees...

• work effectively, respectfully, and efficiently with internal and external colleagues.

• demonstrate a determination to succeed and a commitment to quality.

• are adaptable and resourceful; they learn quickly and adjust to change easily.

• think creatively and lean into innovation when it comes to understanding customers and solving problems.

• believe in our mission, share our values, and model ethical behavior.

Requirements for this Role:

• Bachelor's degree required, with a focus in computer science, management information systems, or software engineering preferred.

• 3+ years of staff management required, especially software engineering teams delivering data projects including data pipelines, ETL processes, and other data engineering workflows.

• Minimum 5 years in programming or software development; strong application development skills and sufficient exposure to Microsoft .NET and Python required.

• Strong problem-solving skills and availability at any time required to attend to "living" digital products.

• Strong understanding of Agile project management required, including experience implementing Agile practices and a willingness to be hands-on when needed, including contributing directly to coding tasks.

• Possesses functional expertise; can effectively share knowledge, train and coach others, and identify and resolve functional issues.

• Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills; able to build relationships, influence others, and give and receive effective feedback.

• Strong organizational and analytical skills; able to make data-driven decisions, prioritize tasks, manage deadlines, delegate, and utilize resources efficiently.

• Able to act with integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality in complex situations; comfortable holding others accountable for the same.

• Willing and able to travel when necessary.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Understanding the processes for budgeting, project approval, and production is strongly preferred.

• Strong AWS solution design and cloud architecture experience.

• Database management and data modeling (SQL/NoSQL).

• Experience designing system and application architecture.

• Proficiency in Python and modern backend frameworks.

• Hands-on CI/CD pipeline development and DevSecOps practices.

• Agile and Kanban delivery experience, including team leadership.

• Ability to manage scalable, secure, and well-documented codebases.

Big Ideas Learning, a Larson Texts Company, publishes K-12 mathematics materials that enhance teacher's instructional skills and resources, while igniting students' curiosity, self-confidence, and deep understanding of mathematics. Our mission is to develop relevant, rigorous, and conceptually rich K-12 instructional programs that enrich the mathematical journey for students, educators, and caregivers alike.

In 2024, we embraced a unified identity as Big Ideas Learning, a Larson Texts Company, to streamline our communication and reinforce our commitment to educational excellence and innovation.

We value our people and are committed to providing benefits that support their physical, emotional, financial, and social wellbeing.

Our comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Competitive Healthcare Coverage
• Flexible PTO
• 10 Paid Holidays
• Paid Leave
• Tuition & Certification Reimbursement for Full-time Employees
• Retirement Contributions
• Healthy Lifestyle Reimbursements
• Company Sponsored Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
• Company Sponsored Life Insurance
• A Robust Employee Assistance Program

Please visit our website to learn more about our company and our benefits.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive company culture that does not discriminate against candidates and employees because of their disability, sex, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, or any other protected status under the law.

We are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact the Human Resources Department at HumanResources@bigideaslearning.com.

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