Senior Engineering Director at TheCollegeBoard in Chicago, Illinois

Job Description:

College Board - Technology Organization - Item Cloud Team




Location: This is a fully remote role



Type: This is a full-time position



About the Team



The Item Cloud Green team builds and maintains software that empowers our AP program to create the content that is seen by several million students each year during their AP courses and exams. This software engineering team was founded at the beginning of 2022 with the purpose of revolutionizing the way some of our most valuable content is created. The team consists of 2 engineering managers, 13 engineers, and is supported by a dedicated product owner, content engineer, members of our design team, and a scrum master. This team is working with leading edge technologies to develop a platform that will grow over the course of many years. The team is positioned within the Technology division that serves as a visionary engine for the larger work of the organization. This director will have the opportunity to shape this new product and have a direct impact on what we are able to deliver for students.



About the Opportunity



In this role, you will provide technical leadership and management for a large team building an innovative platform. Your expertise will bridge the gap between complex business problems and technical solutions, ensuring the successful implementation of highly secure, data-intensive applications. By fostering a highly engaged team and collaborating closely with product and design colleagues, you will deliver next-generation form assembly capabilities, create new test question types for world languages and music theory, and ensure the smooth delivery of newly digitized AP tests in 2026 and 2027. Your leadership will elevate engineering standards, increase application stability, and drive the team towards excellence.



In this role, you will:




Provide technical leadership to the team (20%)

• Sort through options for solutioning, leveraging your own technical expertise.


• Provide guidance to team members on best practices and approaches based on deep knowledge of the product.


• Act as an arbiter as needed for technical decisions.


• Manage scope and actively work against developing technical debt.


• Monitor and manage costs, working with internal resources to optimize the cost and performance of applications.


• Approach every feature with a security-sensitive perspective.

Build and maintain a highly engaged, and high-performing team (40%)

• Facilitate strong communication across the team leveraging work-management tools.


• Cultivate norms that support strong communication, a positive working culture, and an engaged team.


• Invest in high-value meetings and Agile ceremonies that support your team's ability to focus and perform.


• Actively cultivate the superpowers of team members and leverage these to develop a world-class product.


• Support diversity and inclusion from the perspectives of demographics, skills, and experience.


• Manage work culture to ensure the mission and operating principles of College Board are consistently recognized and utilized to promote a productive and fair work environment.

Interface with Business Partners (40%)

• Develop deep understanding of the business needs your team serves to provide thought leadership and consistent messaging around the work of the team.


• Develop strong working relationships with business partners to understand the nuances of the complex systems supported by your product.


• Manage scope and workload, working with product owners to deliver the most valuable work first.

About you, you have

• Ideally 10 years' experience in Agile software application development, applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of life-cycle activities to meet the requirements for highly secure, data-heavy applications.


• Strong communication skills, customer relationship management skills and team building skills.


• Visionary leadership with a track record of having your innovative ideas adopted by initially reluctant parties.


• Knowledge of crossover/interdependencies between infrastructure tasks and development activities.


• A developer's mindset, ideally hands-on experience developing with technologies such as AWS, React, TypeScript, CDK, and Open Search


• A passion for delivering high quality products


• Able to travel 3-5 times a year to our NYC or Reston, VA office


• You are authorized to work in the United States.

About Our Process

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled


• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.

About Our Benefits and Compensation



College Board offers a competitive benefits and compensation program that attracts top talent looking to make a difference in education. As a self-sustaining non-profit, we believe in compensating employees equitably in relation to each other, their qualifications, their impact, and the relevant market.


The hiring range for a new employee in this position is $165,000 to $190,000.



College Board differentiates salaries by location so where you live will narrow the portion of this range in which you can expect a salary. Your salary will be carefully determined based on your location, relevant experience, the external labor market, and the pay of College Board employees in similar roles. College Board strives to provide our best offer up front based on this criteria.



Your salary is only one part of all that College Board offers, including but not limited to:

• A comprehensive package designed to support the well-being of employees and their families and promote education. Our robust benefits package includes health, dental, and vision insurance, generous paid time off, paid parental leave, fertility benefits, pet insurance, tuition assistance, retirement benefits, and more


• Recognition of exceptional performance through annual bonuses, salary growth over time through market increases, and opportunities for merit raises and promotions based on increased scope of responsibility


• A job that matters, a team that cares, and a place to learn, innovate and thrive

You can expect to have transparent conversations about benefits and compensation with our recruiters throughout your application process.



About Our Culture:

• We are motivated to positively impact the educational and career trajectories of millions of students a year.


• We prioritize building a diverse and inclusive team where every employee can thrive, and every voice is heard.


• We value learning and growth; we offer formal and informal ways to lead through your superpowers, sharpen your strengths, and meet your development goals.


• Our high-performing engineers work with the latest technologies, so you will be constantly learning and sharpening your skills, enabling you to be industry-forward instead of left behind technologically.

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