Director Of Software Engineering and Architecture

About this role

At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to make learning limitless– and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class higher education at scale. As the parent company of edX, a leading online learning platform, 2U powers thousands of higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees. Together with our college, university, and corporate partners, we are helping accelerate careers and transform lives.

What We’re Looking For:

2U is looking for a highly technical, hands-on Director of Software Engineering with deep experience in modern cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, and full-stack platform development. This role combines technical leadership, architectural ownership, and delivery accountability across large-scale digital platforms supporting student/learner experience, applications, and data ecosystems.

This is not a traditional management-only role. You will operate as a player-coach, actively engaging in system design, architecture reviews, and technical decision-making while leading globally distributed engineering teams.

You will own both how systems are built and how they are delivered, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-performing platforms aligned with business outcomes. The ideal candidate has built and scaled complex systems, understands trade-offs deeply, and can drive end-to-end delivery with strong engineering rigor.

Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

Engineering & Platform Leadership

• Own and drive the architecture and engineering strategy for scalable, cloud-native platforms across student/learner experience, applications, and data ecosystems.

• Lead the design and evolution of systems using:

• Backend: Python, Ruby on Rails, Clojure, or Elixir

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, or HTML/CSS

• Data: MySQL, PostgreSQL

• Define and implement API-first, microservices, and event-driven architectures using modern design patterns.

• Establish architectural standards across frontend, backend, and integrations, including scalability, resiliency, security, and performance optimization.

• Drive build vs. buy vs. partner decisions, balancing speed, cost, and long-term platform ownership.

• Ensure systems are designed for high availability, observability, and global scale.

Delivery, AI & DevOps Execution

• Act as a hands-on technical leader across engineering and DevOps, owning how systems are designed, built, deployed, and operated

• Lead architecture and design reviews, code quality, and resolution of complex production issues

• Own end-to-end delivery and operations, including release cycles, system reliability, uptime, and performance

• Drive DevOps practices across:

• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Argo

• Containers: Docker, Kubernetes (EKS)

• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform

• Observability and monitoring

• Lead and mentor teams, ensuring accountability for both delivery outcomes and production stability

• Enable and guide adoption of AI/ML capabilities, including:

• Integrating AI services, APIs, and intelligent workflows into platforms

• Leveraging AI for automation, personalization, and engineering productivity (e.g., code generation, testing, operational insights)

• Establish strong execution discipline through:

• Definition of Ready / Done, sprint rigor, and release governance

• Metrics such as velocity, cycle time, deployment frequency, MTTR, and uptime

Agile Leadership & Collaboration

• Work closely with engineering, product, partner operations, and data teams in Agile environments.

• Translate long-term architectural vision into incremental, executable delivery plans.

• Participate actively in PI planning, sprint reviews, and technical design forums.

• Mentor senior engineers, tech leads, and solution architects.

Things That Should Be In Your Background:

• 12–15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with 5+ years in leadership roles

• Proven experience as a hands-on technical leader across engineering and DevOps

• Strong expertise in at least one of the following in each area:

• Languages: Python, TypeScript (Ruby, Clojure, or Elixir a plus)

• Frontend: React ecosystem

• Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL

• OpenAI API (GPT models, embeddings, function calling), Azure OpenAI Service, Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex…