Director, Software Engineering - Remote Opportunity!

About the role

At KinderCare Learning Companies, the first and only early childhood education provider recognized with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, we offer a variety of early education and child care options for families. The Director of Software Engineering provides strategic leadership for software engineering and solution architecture capabilities, supporting enterprise-wide digital products and platforms. This leader sets and upholds best practices for the architectural design, development, and support of our mission-critical applications and services—systems integral to several rapidly growing lines of business as we undertake a digital transformation of our field- and family-facing experience software.

The successful candidate is a highly collaborative servant leader who scales team impact through strong architectural foundations, modern AI-assisted engineering practices, and continuous process improvement. With a dedicated customer focus, this leader works closely with peers across Product Management, Quality Engineering, Portfolio, and Infrastructure/Operations to ensure the company's software products meet the needs of KinderCare's families and center staff.

Responsibilities

• Create a clear vision and strategy for KinderCare’s Software Engineering capability, incorporating people, process, and technology to deliver a high-functioning capability with a maturity plan and timeline
• Lead the development and delivery of high-quality software solutions using sound engineering and architectural principles across multiple platforms, ensuring they meet business and customer requirements
• Develop managers, software engineers, architects, and cross-functional technical leaders across distributed teams, including on-shore and off-shore resources; build organizational capability through workforce planning, succession planning, talent development, and leadership coaching
• Improve team throughput and developer productivity through adoption of AI development tooling, modern engineering practices, and disciplined process improvement
• Establish, maintain, and govern the architectural direction and technical roadmap for the company's software products, keeping them current with emerging technologies and trends
• Balance a blended workforce of contract workers and full-time employees to optimize delivery capacity, cost, and knowledge continuity
• Work closely with Product Management and other stakeholders to understand their needs and ensure software products are aligned with business goals
• Partner closely with Quality Engineering, Portfolio, and Infrastructure/Operations to ensure software is delivered on time, securely, and to the highest quality standards
• Set quarterly team objectives and key results aligned with business priorities, technology strategy, and functional excellence, then ensure all team members are working toward those goals
• Ensure software development and architecture processes are efficient, effective, and scalable and evangelize KinderCare’s Discovery to Delivery framework with the teams
• Communicate progress, risks, and opportunities effectively and promptly to senior leadership to enable fast decision-making and set clear expectations with stakeholders at all levels
• Participate in cross-functional technology leadership activities, including process definition, best practice definition, and strategic initiatives
• Provide customer-focused responsiveness to solving problems and incident management
• Cultivate an MVP-delivery mindset across all teams and individuals

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of experience in software development, with a proven track record of delivering high-quality software products; 5+ years in a leadership role managing and developing teams of software engineers, both on- and off-shore
• Experience managing software architects and developing architectural talent
• Hands-on experience building software with modern AI development tools (AI coding assistants and agentic development workflows), and a track record of improving team throughput through AI tooling and process improvement
• Experience delivering high-quality customer websites, applications, and services, including payment solutions and financial transactional systems (billing, contracts, etc.)
• Strong technical background, with experience in software architecture, design patterns, and development methodologies
• Experience optimizing software engineering delivery in an Agile modality across multiple platforms and product teams
• Experience balancing a blended team of contract workers/full-time employees and managing vendor relationships for both individual contract engineers and managed software engineering services
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to think creatively and strategically
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and complex projects in a fast-paced, dynamic environment

Benefits

• Discounted child care benefits for your whole family
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits for your family (and pets, too)
• Employee assistance programs for mental health and personal growth
• Health and wellness programs, paid time off, and discounts for work necessities such as cell phones

We operate research-backed, accredited, and customizable programs in more than 2,000 sites and centers across 40 states and the District of Columbia.