Director Software Engineering

Ascend Learning is a national leader in data driven, online educational solutions for learners, educators and employers in high-growth, licensure-driven professions spanning healthcare, fitness and wellness, skilled trades, insurance and financial services. We are passionate about accelerating learning while impacting job readiness, employment success and employee retention with the belief that our work changes lives.

Our culture is intentionally results-driven and selfless with a relentless focus on our customers. We believe in trust, transparency, freedom and responsibility with a commitment to meritocracy, inclusion and diversity of thought. Continual investment in our over 1500 employees is also a core principle realized through ongoing professional development and providing opportunities to grow, develop and lead. Ascend Learning is headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and remote workers in cities across the U.S.

Ascend Learning is hiring an engineering director focused on the delivery of our CRM platforms to all business segments. The engineering director will provide leadership and strategic direction to internal and external on-shore, near-shore, and off-shore team members to build and operate customer relationship management (CRM) platforms for the Ascend Learning brands.

This role will be responsible for the overall vision, architecture, and iteration of end-to-end CRM platforms in collaboration with our architecture and product groups. The ideal candidate will provide hands-on technical leadership and manage flow of work closely with cross functional teams and collaborate with engineers to develop standard platform across multiple business units. Should also possess the ability to motivate and build a team to deliver on key initiatives.

This position will work hybrid from Ascend Learning's Leawood office preferred. Other office locations and remote considered.

Responsibilities:

• Drive CRM platform implementations serving Marketing, Sales, Customer Service and Project Operations and how these solutions help our customers achieve their desired business outcomes
• Employ in-depth knowledge and skills to provide technical oversight across CRM and related products, reviewing and analyzing solutions to support continuous improvements in quality, efficiency, performance, scalability, monitoring, security etc.
• Partner with Architecture, Product Management, and PMO to ensure alignment with the business goals and priorities, and customer expectations are met for performance and functionality
• Own the operational continuity of your platforms and responsibility of ensuring 24/7 uptime of the platforms and own the RCA and resolution of outages/incidents
• Team management for performance reviews and compensation input, professional development, recruitment, team building, and alignment
• Provides structure to the team's work and coaches teammates on how to organize their work systematically to deliver high-quality outcomes and coaches others on how to present themselves and their ideas in a manner that builds credibility and respect

Education & Experience:

• 10+ years of proven technology experience delivering IT platforms and services to business groups. Experience with providing CRM platform services to business groups, including Dynamics 365 CE (SaaS) and Salesforce, is a plus.
• 5+ years of experience leading engineering teams.
• Deep knowledge and experience of implementing and migrating CRM and Customer 360 products, architecture and best practices and methodologies
• Hands-on experience in Agile software delivery models (SAFe, Kanban, Scrum, etc.)
• Experience with Release Management, Source Control, CI/CD and Deployment concepts and technologies such as Github, Jenkins, Dataverse, Azure DevOps, etc
• Integration experience using API technologies (REST) and Integration/Middleware tools such as Kafka, LogicApps, Tibco, etc.

Skills & Abilities:

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex needs into structured requirements and partner with engineering to drive technical design and software development
• Proven record of accomplishment of aligning and influencing stakeholders and driving consensus at all levels in a large organization
• Operate as a Strategic manager with strong operational, project management and technical architecture skills
• Excel in our values and be a collaborative teammate that works well in challenging situations and is comfortable working closely with/through engineering

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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