Software Engineering Manager

# Software Engineering Manager ## About the Role Pearson is seeking a **Software Engineering Manager** to lead a team of 5–8 software engineers within the **Enterprise Learning & Skills (ELS)** engineering organization. The team builds, scales, and evolves a large-scale, API-driven platform used globally to issue and verify digital credentials. This is a people- and delivery-focused leadership role responsible for team health, performance, development, and reliable delivery. The Engineering Manager will prioritize work, remove blockers, guide technical discussions, support onboarding, maintain engineering standards, and collaborate with Product, Customer Success, and external vendors. Production coding is not required, but strong technical depth is needed to evaluate trade-offs and guide engineering practices. ## Key Responsibilities * Lead, coach, and support a team of 5–8 software engineers working with Ruby on Rails services and React frontends. * Own team well-being, performance, development, and day-to-day delivery. * Plan and allocate daily and sprint work and monitor progress against delivery schedules. * Maintain clear priorities and make timely course corrections to keep projects on track. * Troubleshoot obstacles, clarify requirements, and coordinate handoffs across engineers, teams, and vendors. * Triage bugs and production issues while minimizing customer disruption. * Maintain coding, QA, code review, testing, and documentation standards. * Provide real-time constructive feedback and conduct regular 1:1 meetings. * Recognize individual contributions and celebrate team milestones. * Own onboarding and skill development for new team members. * Identify and introduce team-level process improvements. * Escalate unresolved or higher-impact issues to senior engineering leadership appropriately. * Champion responsible use of AI-assisted development tools for coding, testing, documentation, debugging, and learning. * Promote secure, ethical, and resilient engineering practices. * Uphold data and information security expectations across team deliverables. ## Required Qualifications ### Experience * **5+ years of professional software development experience.** * **2+ years of experience managing or formally leading a software engineering team.** * Proven experience managing reliable day-to-day engineering delivery. * Experience onboarding and developing software engineers. * Demonstrated ability to identify challenges, evaluate options, and drive practical solutions. ### Technical Skills * Working familiarity with: * Ruby on Rails * React * AWS * PostgreSQL * Understanding of API management, cloud computing, DevOps practices, and software design. * Technical ability to guide engineering discussions and evaluate technical trade-offs. * Strong understanding of information and data security fundamentals. * Comfortable using AI tools for software development, testing, documentation, debugging, and learning. ### Leadership & Communication * Strong collaboration and communication skills with engineers, non-technical stakeholders, and external vendors. * Sound judgment regarding when to resolve issues within the team and when to escalate. * Adaptability and commitment to continuous learning. * Ethical and customer-focused approach to decision-making. * Ability to maintain coding and QA standards, task accuracy, and reliable delivery schedules. ## Preferred Qualifications * Hands-on experience as a **Rails, React, or full-stack engineer** before moving into management. * Experience designing, deploying, or operating production workloads on **AWS and Azure**. * Familiarity with **CI/CD** and automated deployment practices. * Experience managing work delivered through third-party or vendor teams. * Experience with resilience planning, incident management, or on-call processes for customer-facing systems. * Experience with distributed or service-oriented systems. * Experience with asynchronous and event-driven communication between services. * Experience introducing AI agents or automated AI tooling into engineering workflows. ## AI-Native Expectations The Engineering Manager should be comfortable using AI tools and guiding a team that uses AI for coding, testing, documentation, debugging, and learning. The role includes establishing expectations for validating AI-generated output, helping engineers exercise sound judgment regarding AI use, and exploring responsible applications of AI agents and automation to improve productivity and quality. ## Success Measures Success in this role is measured through: * Consistent adherence to coding and QA standards. * Accurate and timely completion of engineering tasks. * Reliable daily and sprint delivery schedules. * Timely escalation of unresolved issues. * Strong code review coverage and thorough testing. * Successful implementation of team-level process improvements. * Reduced onboarding time and fewer onboarding errors for new team members. * Continued growth and capability of the engineering team. ## Work Arrangement & Employment * **Employment Type:** Full-Time * **Work Arrangement:** Remote * **Team:** Engineering – Enterprise Learning & Skills * **Organization:** Enterprise Learning & Skills * **Job Family:** Technology * **Job Function:** Engineering * **Workplace Type:** Remote * **Req ID:** 26041 ## Compensation * **Full-Time Salary Range:** $150,000–$190,000 * Compensation varies based on factors including skills, experience, and location. * Eligible to participate in an **annual incentive program**. * Benefits information is referenced in the original posting. ## About Pearson Pearson is a global lifelong learning company focused on helping people realize their potential through learning. The Enterprise Learning & Skills organization develops solutions that support learning and digital credentialing. ## Equal Employment Opportunity Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. Pearson provides consideration to qualified applicants without regard to protected characteristics under applicable law and actively seeks qualified protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are available for individuals with disabilities who are unable or limited in accessing the company's career site.