Director Software Development Jobs At Pearson,Richmond, Virginia

Job Overview

Director Software Development

Purpose of the position

In Pearson Virtual Schools (PVS), we are creating a differentiated virtual K-12 experience that expands the ways in which children can learn, while igniting their passions and helping them gain the life skills they need to thrive in the modern world. We are growing and we want you to be a part of our bright future!

The Director of Software Engineering is responsible for managing agile software development teams (both onshore and offshore) as well as being an organizational and strategic leader. The software development teams are responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of features that serve to evolve our K-12 Virtual School experience. The Director of Software Engineering guides the team towards best technical and business outcomes, supporting multiple agile release trains, as well as builds an effective organization through coaching, mentorship, and technical and strategic leadership. Additionally, this role will make key decisions on how to best evolve the platform technology, making smart decisions on where to pay down technical debt vs where to invest in new technology, always driving the platform technology forward towards cutting edge technology and capabilities.

Core tasks and responsibilities

• Manages, mentors, coaches, motivates, and delegates tasks to managers and teams of talented software engineers and principal engineers.

• Responsible for the quality and timeliness of all their teams’ deliverables across multiple agile release trains.
• Acts as a thought leader and organizational driver for technical needs as part of the planning process; ensures all the correct technical team members are involved in the requirements discovery phase; asks questions and drives clarity around scope and requirements; partners closely with business and Product team to ensure we are achieving best outcomes for future work.
• Monitors team performance, provides timely and critical feedback on a regular cadence, establishes plans for improvement when necessary, and provides quarterly performance checkpoints with each direct report (at a minimum).
• Develops, maintains, communicates, and enforces development best practices, guidelines, and desk level procedures.
• Develops, maintains, and communicates software development metrics to be shared organizationally and with senior leadership
• Ability to quickly analyze situations and determine teams to delegate responsibility as well as appropriate levels of follow-up and accountability.
• Works together with other Directors and other leaders across technology and other departments to understand and address gaps or improvement opportunities in their organization.
• You will be expected to drive several department-wide initiatives that require senior leadership level execution, as well as drive initiatives that cross multiple departments in scope and scale.
• Responsible for overseeing recruiting, staffing, and hiring in your department, and support other departments for talent needs.
• Fosters a culture of continuous improvement in all areas of technology and instills the principles of this culture in the team.
• Accomplishes department and organization missions by completing related tasks as needed.
• Takes ownership and drives initiatives across departments and teams that may be larger than engineering specific topics, as needed.
• Provides detailed and timely status updates to upper management as needed.
• Oversees or supports the team during production outages as necessary.
• Maintains technical knowledge and understanding of the latest development methodologies and best practices by participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, maintaining personal networks, and participating in professional organizations.

• Other duties as assigned.

Personal Style

• You are a leader. People listen to you because what you have to say makes sense and is actionable.

• You are both strategic and tactical. You think of the bigger picture and drive your teams and the overall organization in the right direction and roll up your sleeves to support the team.
• You listen. You gather data and hear many perspectives to get “ground truth”.
• You have a bias towards action. You solve problems no matter where they are, and you work with others to rally them towards a solution. The words “not my job” are not in your vocabulary.
• You are candid yet compassionate. You don’t shy away from difficult conversations.
• You are proactive. You see problems as or before they arise, and you take action to work with the team to correct them.
• You are a thought leader. You see beyond the day to day and recommend better ways to do things in the future. You constructively propose better solutions to things that we are currently doing or work with others to hone their good ideas into great ones. “Because that’s how we’ve always done it” is not a good reason to keep doing something, in your eyes.
• You are collaborative by default. You draw in diverse perspectives, both technical and non-technical, and you can convey technical things in language your business partners can understand.

• You care about people and our mission. People are your #1 priority, both employees and customers.

Professional profile

Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required in Computer Sciences orequivalent

• Track record of effectively delivering large scale programs through Agile practices with consistent velocity/throughput improvements
• Comfortable leading matrix-based teams (direct, indirect, partners, etc.)
• Proven ability to successfully lead people through organizational changes and challenges
• Analytical Skills – Strong ability to use thinking and reasoning to solve a problem.
• Excellent verbal, written, and communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple projects, prioritize, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Evidence of strategic & analytical thinking, negotiation skills, problem-solving, planning skills, and good judgment is required
• Ability to balance strategic thinking/long term opportunities with operational focus
• Demonstrated experience to adapt to changing priorities
• Experience of working and thriving in a global matrix organization
• Ability to effectively lead a large software development team in a very detailed oriented, fast paced environment
• Ability to “connect the dots” when it comes to large system design and understand, communicate, and solve for enterprise scale technical integration concerns
• 8+ more years of supervisory experience in managing and leading teams
• 10+ more years of software development & delivery experience
• Experience developing and/or leading teams developing web-based applications.
• 6+ years’ experience with .NET framework development
• 4-5 years’ experience in analyzing business requirements, recommending technical solutions, and writing technical specifications and/or requirements
• SAFe Scaled Agile familiarity and/or certification preferred
• Experience with recruiting and hiring
• Demonstrated experience to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously
• Experience managing multiple global delivery vendors

• Advanced knowledge of Learning Management Systems (LMS), Educational Management Systems, or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is preferred.

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