The Opportunity

VP of Platform Engineering, AccelerEd

ADELPHI, MD

The VP of Platform Engineering will be responsible for developing and retaining talent, as well as ensuring the software engineering team has the skills and capabilities required to meet business needs. This senior-level role also oversees the implementation of strategic initiatives, modernizing and optimizing applications, and is responsible for championing best practices and ensuring initiatives achieve desired business outcomes.

Responsibilities

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

• Develop platform-oriented strategy, responsible for delivery, enhanced velocity, and management of efficient resource capacity. Work with product management leadership to design, manage, and/or execute product and application roadmaps.
• Utilize futuristic tools, technology, and frameworks for enhancing business experience.
• Lead the platform organization to successful delivery of business outcomes.
• Manage the organization budget, with ongoing focus on personnel, vendor, and indirect expenditures.
• Build strong working relationships with business leaders to ensure the technology teams meet expectations and contribute to the achievement of business goals.
• Collaborate with other IT leaders and business leaders to develop short- and long-term strategic plans.
• Support and facilitate innovative and experimental software development work to test new ideas, within bounded cost and time frames.
• Provide leadership, vision, and direction for the software engineering organization.

TALENT MANAGEMENT

• Develop efficient workforce strategy to meet the organization’s current and future needs through developing, hiring, and/or sourcing talent.
• Manage resource allocation across teams to maximize business impact of resources and ensure each team has the skills and capabilities needed to achieve its objectives.
• Manage technology talent, playing a key role in performance management and compensation processes, role and competency definition, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
• Partner with Human Resources to create learning and development opportunities aligned to the organization’s skill and capability needs, and to provide rewarding career paths for software engineering staff.
• Recruit and hire talent to address new needs and skill gaps.
• Facilitate collaboration and partnership across software engineering teams and stakeholders.
• Build a culture that supports learning, collaboration, transparency, and inclusiveness.
• Manage employee engagement and promote a compelling employee value proposition to retain software engineering staff.

OVERSIGHT FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES

• Champion best practices and modern software development methods and tools.
• Lead software engineering teams and other stakeholders to set goals for improving code quality, maintainability, security, and scalability. Monitor progress against these goals.
• Implement and manage software development status reporting, metrics, and benchmarks.
• Manage collaboration with Infrastructure and Operations to ensure software performs well in production and meets SLAs.
• Work with the Information Security team to ensure platforms are effectively secured and that risks are mitigated.
• Oversee management of relationships with consultants, vendors, and contractors and support negotiation of statements of work and business terms with suppliers.
• In collaboration with IT leaders, oversee DevOps processes and practices, including automating the handoff of code releases from development to operations.

VENDOR MANAGEMENT

• Accountable for managing all vendors used by the platform, from software vendors to implementation vendors.
• Assist in contract negotiations.
• Ensure the vendors are meeting the requirements of the contract and if not, ensure the vendor takes corrective measures.
• Evaluating new vendors as needed.