Director, Software Engineering

Director, Software Engineering

Build the Future

Do you enjoy setting direction, building leaders, and driving engineering at scale? At McGraw Hill, our engineering leaders shape the future of learning. If you're passionate about building high-performing organizations, defining technical strategy, and connecting technology decisions to business outcomes, we'd love to hear from you.

We're looking for a Director of Software Engineering at McGraw Hill who thrives on organizational design, developing engineering managers, and driving multi-team delivery. This is a strategic leadership role that sits at the intersection of people, product, and technology — with direct impact on the direction and health of a significant portion of our engineering organization.

This is a remote position open to applicants authorized to work for any employer within the United States.

How can you make an Impact?

You'll be a key engineering leader in our organization — owning delivery across multiple teams, growing the next generation of engineering managers, and connecting engineering execution to company strategy. You'll operate at the intersection of people, product, and technology, shaping how we build and how we grow.

• Set technical direction that sticks: Translate business goals into a coherent engineering vision your teams can actually execute against. Make the hard calls about what to build, what to modernize, and what to leave behind — and communicate the reasoning clearly enough that your teams can make good decisions without you in the room.
• Build teams that can carry more weight over time: Anticipate where growth will break your current structure before it does. Make deliberate decisions about team boundaries, ownership, and spans of control — and revisit them as conditions change rather than treating org design as a one-time exercise.
• Recruit with intention: Personally shape hiring decisions, invest in talent relationships before you have an open role, and ensure the organization is always building toward the leadership capability it will need — not scrambling for it.
• Lead at org scale: Own delivery across multiple teams and multi-quarter programs. Use data to drive quality, throughput, and reliability — and build the systems that make success repeatable.
• Grow engineering leaders: Develop a bench of strong engineering managers and senior ICs. Build succession plans, drive calibrations, and create an environment where leaders are made, not just hired.
• Operate effectively across org boundaries: Your teams depend on platform, infrastructure, and SRE capabilities they don't own. Build the relationships and credibility to get what your teams need, hold up your end on shared standards, and keep dependencies from becoming blockers.
• Lead across geographies: Build trust and cohesion across onshore and nearshore engineers. Create alignment across time zones and communication styles, and manage vendor or partner relationships where applicable.
• Drive cross-functional alignment: Connect engineering vision to business outcomes. Build trust and alignment with executive stakeholders, Product, UX, and SRE — representing engineering at the highest levels of the organization.
• Build high-trust, high-performance culture: Raise the bar for inclusion, accountability, and team effectiveness. Develop a strong management layer and create the conditions for engineers and managers to do their best work.

What can you bring to the role?

• You're energized by operating at the intersection of people, technology, and business — you don't see those as competing priorities, you see them as the job.
• You bring clarity to ambiguity. When the path forward isn't obvious, you orient your teams rather than wait for direction.
• You hold a high bar and help people reach it — you give honest feedback, invest in development, and create accountability structures that feel fair.
• You think in systems. Whether it's team structure, delivery process, or technical architecture, you're always asking whether the current setup will scale.
• You treat hiring as a leadership responsibility, not a reactive exercise. You build relationships with senior talent before a role opens, move with urgency when one does, and raise the bar with every hire.
• You build bridges, not silos. You naturally invest in relationships with platform teams, shared services, and cross-functional partners rather than treating them as blockers.
• You're motivated by mission. The idea that the work your teams ship ends up in the hands of millions of students isn't a footnote — it drives you.
• You have a proven track record of superior tactical delivery in service of business strategy — you execute with precision while keeping the larger goal in view.
• You've built, managed, and developed high-performing engineering teams — you know what great looks like and you build toward it intentionally.
• You possess a strong full-stack software background with a focus on usability, accessibility, and scalability — you can engage credibly on frontend and backend tradeoffs and hold a high technical bar across the stack.
• You stay current on emerging software technologies and solutions, and bring that perspective into how your teams invest and evolve.
• You're an exceptional problem solver with strong analytical and diagnostic skills — you get to root cause quickly and make sound decisions under pressure.
• You're highly motivated, proactive, and collaborative, with a natural ability to persuade others and influence outcomes without relying on authority.

The technologies your teams build with include:

• Back-end: Go (most common), Java, Node.js, PHP
• Front-end: TypeScript, Angular, RxJS, NgRx, and Playwright
• Relational (MySQL and PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (DynamoDB) databases
• CI/CD and Infrastructure: GitHub (for version control & Actions), Docker, Kubernetes, New Relic
• Amazon Web Services (AWS): EKS, ECS, RDS, Lambda, and many other services
• Collaboration: JIRA, Confluence, Zoom, Slack, and Office 365

Why McGraw Hill?

The work you do at McGraw Hill will be work that matters. We are collectively building experiences that will help shape the future of education. Play your part and experience a sense of fulfilment that will inspire you to even greater heights.

The pay range for this position is between $185,000 - $240,000 annually, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. An annual bonus plan may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and/or other benefits, depending on the position offered.