Associate VP, Engineering (M5)

Strategic Leadership & Vision

• Define and execute the long-term engineering strategy, ensuring engineering capabilities align with the company’s product vision, architectural direction, AI-first strategy, and business objectives.
• Develop a multi-year engineering roadmap that advances software delivery, engineering productivity, AI-enabled development, and organizational scalability.
• Champion the evolution of agentic engineering and modern software engineering practices, positioning the organization to leverage emerging technologies responsibly and effectively.
• Align engineering investments, organizational priorities, and technology initiatives with long-term business growth and customer success.

Technical Domain Oversight (Engineering Excellence)

• Provide executive oversight of Software Engineering, Agentic Engineering, and Test Engineering, ensuring consistent engineering excellence across the Development organization.
• Establish engineering standards, software development methodologies, AI-assisted engineering practices, and quality expectations that enable scalable, secure, and maintainable software delivery.
• Partner with Architecture leadership to ensure engineering execution consistently aligns with enterprise architecture, technical standards, and long-term technology strategy.
• Partner with Infrastructure leadership to ensure engineering platforms, development environments, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud capabilities enable reliable, high-velocity software delivery.
• Oversee engineering governance for AI-enabled software development, including secure coding, automated testing, observability, responsible AI usage, operational readiness, and software quality.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Define and monitor engineering performance metrics that measure delivery predictability, engineering productivity, software quality, developer experience, AI adoption, and operational effectiveness.
• Drive continuous improvement by advancing engineering processes, AI-assisted development workflows, automation, testing strategies, and release practices across all engineering teams.
• Sponsor initiatives that improve developer productivity through modern tooling, intelligent automation, engineering analytics, and AI-enabled software development.
• Oversee engineering budgets, resource planning, vendor relationships, and technology investments that strengthen organizational capability and operational efficiency.
• Continuously evaluate engineering risks, technical debt, and organizational bottlenecks, implementing strategies that improve long-term delivery performance and engineering resilience.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product Management, Product Operations, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, UX, and executive leadership to align engineering priorities with company strategy and customer outcomes.
• Provide executive guidance on engineering tradeoffs, delivery risks, technology investments, and organizational priorities to support informed business decisions.
• Foster collaboration across Engineering, Architecture, Infrastructure, Product Management, and Product Operations to establish a unified software development lifecycle and consistent engineering practices.
• Represent the Engineering organization in executive planning, organizational initiatives, strategic customer engagements, and enterprise technology discussions.

Talent Development & Organizational Growth

• Hire, coach, mentor, and develop Engineering Managers, Technical Leads, Agentic Engineering Leads, Test Engineering Leaders, and other engineering leaders.
• Build a high-performing engineering organization centered on accountability, innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and technical excellence.
• Develop leadership pipelines, succession plans, and organizational structures that enable Engineering to scale effectively with company growth.
• Champion engineering career development, AI literacy, technical leadership, and modern engineering practices across the organization.

This role is 100% remote eligible, with quarterly strategy meetings that are in-person.

NOTE: This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may be asked to perform other related duties as assigned to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• 12+ years of experience in software engineering, software development, or engineering leadership within a technology organization.
• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience managing engineering organizations, engineering managers, or multiple software development teams.
• Demonstrated success leading high-performing engineering organizations that deliver secure, scalable, and high-quality software in Agile environments.
• Deep expertise in modern software engineering practices, software development lifecycles, quality engineering, CI/CD, and engineering operational excellence.
• Experience implementing AI-enabled software development, agentic engineering practices, developer productivity initiatives, and intelligent engineering workflows.
• Strong understanding of software architecture principles, cloud-native development, DevSecOps, testing strategies, observability, and modern engineering platforms.
• Demonstrated experience establishing engineering standards, development practices, quality expectations, and engineering governance across multiple teams.
• Proven ability to align engineering execution with product strategy, architectural direction, and business objectives while influencing executive stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success leading organizational transformation, engineering modernization, and cross-functional technology initiatives.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, strategic planning, and organizational leadership skills.
• Ability to remain stationary for extended periods while working with computers and participating in meetings.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Experience leading engineering organizations within a SaaS, cloud-native, or high-growth technology company.
• Experience building or scaling AI-enabled software development organizations, agentic engineering capabilities, or developer experience (DevEx) initiatives.
• Experience leading quality engineering, test automation, release engineering, or engineering platform organizations.
• Experience driving engineering transformation through automation, AI-assisted development, and continuous delivery practices.
• Familiarity with education technology, identity and access management, or highly regulated software environments.

Preferred Experience with:

• AI-assisted software development tools (Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Amazon Q, Cursor, Windsurf, or similar)
• Modern software development platforms and source control systems (GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, or equivalent)
• CI/CD, DevSecOps, automated testing, and software delivery platforms
• Agile planning and engineering management tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear, or equivalent)
• Engineering observability, monitoring, code quality, and developer productivity platforms
• Cloud-native application development and container platforms (AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, or equivalent)

United States Remote $180,000 - $200,000 a year - Full-time, Pulled from the full job description

• Tuition reimbursement
• Pet insurance
• Parental leave
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance, * Generous Paid Time Off: 4+ weeks of vacation and 13+ paid holidays
• Parental Leave: 12 weeks fully paid for all parents
• Retirement: 401(k) with 0.5:1 company match
• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision plans
• Insurance: Company-paid life, short-term disability, and long-term disability, plus voluntary options including supplemental life, accident, and pet insurance

Perks:

• Volunteer Time Off: Give back through ClassLink Cares paid volunteer days
• Lifelong Learning: Tuition reimbursement for continued education
• Growth & Development: Coaching and internal programs to support career and personal growth
• Supportive Culture: A workplace that values curiosity, compassion, and continuous learning
• Connection & Community: Annual company retreats and team events with bright, fun coworkers

At ClassLink, we believe the best ideas come from bringing together diverse perspectives. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve and fostering a workplace where every team member feels valued, respected, and empowered to grow.

At ClassLink, we believe learning should be accessible, engaging, and empowering for every student, every educator, everywhere. That’s why we build secure, intuitive tools that empower more than 26 million students and educators worldwide. From simplifying access with single sign-on, to advancing equity with usage analytics, to automating secure rostering, our platform helps schools focus on what matters most: teaching and learning.

We’re not just building tools, we’re building what’s next in education. By removing barriers and enabling data-driven decisions, our solutions help educators lead with confidence and students thrive in and out of the classroom every day.

Our team is driven by purpose and grounded in three core values:

• Strive to Grow - always learning, improving, and innovating.
• Deliver Worthwhile Experiences - for our users, our partners, and each other.
• Contribute with Heart - putting people first in everything we do.

These values shape how we work, innovate, and support the communities we serve. If you’re ready to do work that makes a real difference, and grow alongside a team that values collaboration, support, and continuous improvement. ClassLink is the place for you.

The Associate Vice President (AVP) of Engineering provides executive leadership for ClassLink’s software engineering organization, including Software Engineering, Agentic Engineering, and Test Engineering. This role defines and executes the organization’s engineering strategy by establishing modern software development practices, advancing AI-assisted and agentic engineering capabilities, and developing high-performing engineering leaders. Partnering closely with Architecture, Infrastructure, Product Management, Product Operations, Security, and executive leadership, the AVP aligns engineering execution with business and technology strategy while fostering a culture of innovation, technical excellence, and continuous improvement. Through strategic leadership, engineering automation, quality engineering, and operational excellence, this role accelerates product delivery, improves software quality and developer productivity, strengthens delivery predictability, and enables scalable, sustainable innovation that supports ClassLink’s long-term growth.