Lead Engineer, Secure Client Engineering

About the role

Secure Client Engineering is part of Product Security and takes on some of the toughest security challenges in Bluebook, College Board’s digital assessment application. Our team designs and builds the protections that help keep Bluebook secure and resilient across macOS, iPad, Windows, and ChromeOS. We are a small, deeply collaborative group of poly-skilled engineers who solve hard problems together, write production code, and share ownership of both the work and the outcome. Through ensemble programming, also known as mob programming, we bring a hands-on, high-trust approach to engineering that values curiosity, craftsmanship, and continuous learning.

As a Lead Engineer on the Secure Client Engineering team, you will play a hands-on role in protecting the integrity of Bluebook, the application students rely on for digital assessments across Windows, macOS, iPad, and ChromeOS. You’ll provide technical leadership by guiding architecture and design decisions, setting a high bar for engineering quality, and mentoring teammates, while remaining deeply involved in implementation. You’ll work close to the operating system, leveraging native platform capabilities to tackle complex, low-level challenges at the intersection of software engineering and security. This role is built for engineers who thrive on hard problems without clear answers, combining deep technical expertise with sound judgment to design resilient client-side protections in an ever-evolving landscape.

In this role, you will

Design & Implementation (70%)

• Collaborate daily with other engineers on the team using mob programming to solve complex technical problems through software engineering while guiding approaches and unblocking the team.
• Maintain the highest engineering standards in collaboration across teams with product owners, architects, and stakeholders, in support of our systems and services.
• Use your deep understanding of the applications within the Digital Assessment Platform to drive the design and implementation of novel solutions to security challenges in desktop and mobile applications, across Windows, macOS, iOS, and ChromeOS.
• Lead by example in writing code for both native and web environments, building component-based, performant, stable, and secure solutions with a focus on lower-level code that interfaces with the native operating system.
• Understand new product requirements and lead the decomposition of the work into well-defined functional changes for verification.

Team Operations & Success (30%)

• Drive continuous improvement of the team’s engineering practices, efficiency, speed, and quality.
• Lead and influence discussions on architecture, testing strategies, developer experience, security, performance, and resilience.
• Lead and contribute to code and design reviews, setting quality standards and providing actionable feedback to elevate the team.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of complex production issues, ensuring root causes are understood and addressed.
• Champion and evolve development standards and security policies, ensuring consistent adoption across the team.
• Drive the adoption of AI-augmented and agentic engineering practices, establishing effective patterns for rapidly implementing, testing, and delivering high-quality code based within the team’s collaborative engineering model.
• Continuously develop and share skills needed to thrive in a poly-skilled, increasingly AI-native engineering environment.
• Evaluate and introduce new methods and tools, guiding adoption to improve team effectiveness in a post-agile environment.

About you

• You have 8+ years of production-level software development experience, with a significant portion spent on native desktop or platform-level applications, owning complex systems and guiding the entire lifecycle of features, including design, development, documentation, and deployment.
• You have deep, hands-on experience with native Windows development, including working directly with lower-level operating system APIs, memory, processes, and/or kernel-level interfaces; experience on macOS, iOS, or ChromeOS is a plus.
• You have strong proficiency in C++ for production systems, including experience with lower-level Windows development such as Win32 APIs, kernel-mode components, or driver development.
• You have proficiency in reviewing and improving code structure and architecture for testability, maintainability, and scalability, with hands-on experience in multiple languages and frameworks such as JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Node.js, C++, and Swift.
• You have familiarity with cloud-based development workflows, including version control in GitHub and basic exposure to AWS or similar cloud platforms as part of the software delivery lifecycle.
• You have a love of learning and a growth mindset. Software engineering is your craft, not just your job.
• You have an openness and genuine enthusiasm to mob programming as a primary working mode.
• You have strong problem-solving skills, leading efforts to tackle complex technical challenges and partnering with Product Owners to shape and prioritize solutions.
• You have strong technical research skills as it pertains to quickly building a working understanding of large open source repositories, as well as undocumented and closed source systems, to inform and drive solution design that extends beyond what may be publicly available for a given problem.
• You have experience defining engineering standards and leading code and design reviews to ensure high-quality, consistent systems.
• You have proven ability to introduce and drive adoption of new ideas, improving systems and processes with measurable impact.
• You are an effective communicator and technical leader, able to provide actionable feedback, mentor team members, and participate in interviews to evaluate engineering talent.
• You are willing and able to travel 3–5 times a year to our NYC or Reston, VA office.

Differentiators

• Experience developing anti-cheat controls in video game or similar software.
• Experience building resilient client-side systems in adversarial or security-sensitive environments.
• Comfort with low-level debugging, reviewing assembly, and understanding of the low-level components of native development.

All roles at College Board require:

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal.
• A learner’s mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

Authorization to work in the United States is required.

What we offer

At College Board, we offer more than a paycheck—we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We’re a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.

Compensation

The hiring range for this role is $168,000–$183,000. Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board. We aim to make our best offer upfront, rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data. We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live. You’ll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process.

College Board reaches more than 7 million students a year, helping them navigate the path from high school to college and career. We’re a mission-driven, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to excellence in education. Founded 125 years ago, we are committed to clearing a path for all students to own their future. We pioneered programs like the SAT® and AP® to expand opportunities for students and help them develop the skills they need. Our BigFuture® program helps students plan for college, pay for college, and explore careers.

Mission

Clearing a path for all students to own their future.

What guides us

At College Board, our work is guided by four Operating Principles, and we seek team members who not only align with these principles but actively live them out in their day-to-day work:

• Prioritize and Simplify: We focus on what matters most, reduce complexity, and move quickly when needed.
• Say and Receive: We give and receive feedback candidly and kindly, welcoming growth and healthy debate.
• Go for Greatness: We pursue excellence using data, iteration, and bold thinking to raise the bar.
• Lead as One College Board: We build a culture of trust, inclusion, and shared responsibility for long-term impact.

We value and provide growth, recognition, and purpose

In addition to a competitive salary and benefits, we offer:

• Annual bonuses and opportunities for merit-based raises and promotions.
• A mission-driven workplace where your impact matters.
• A team that invests in your development and success.