Technology Lead, Platforms & Ecommerce Engineering

** We believe in the power and joy of learning*
* At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose - driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Cengage's portfolio of businesses supports student choice by providing a range of pathways that help learners achieve their goals and lead a choice-filled life.

** Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery*
* Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work.

We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see   .

** What you'll do here:*
* In your role as Technology Lead, Platforms & Ecommerce Engineering within our Digital organization, you are responsible for building and operating our ecommerce platforms and the capabilities that enable them, including CMS, identity, and enterprise integrations. You will lead a lean, high-performing team using agile principles to design, integrate, and operate scalable, reliable solutions. You will partner closely with enterprise stakeholders to support delivery of customer-facing experiences.

With a strong focus on reliability and scalability, you will ensure platforms are stable, secure, and performant while enabling continuous improvement. You will also help advance how AI is applied within engineering workflows to improve efficiency.

** As the Technology Lead,
** you will divide your time between team leadership and hands-on development, leading engineers while contributing directly to delivery. You will operate in a cross-functional, agile environment, working closely with Experience Engineering, IT, Marketing, Design, and Dev Ops to align on priorities and execution. You will collaborate with other technology leads to provide technical direction and alignment across teams, and must be comfortable adapting your leadership style to the situation, leading when needed and contributing as an individual engineer when appropriate.

** Job Duties*
* + Drive iterative delivery using agile methodologies

+ Lead development and operation of core commerce platforms and supporting capabilities (CMS, identity, integrations)

+ Define, prioritize, and communicate work clearly across Experience Engineering and stakeholders

+ Design and build backend services and APIs to support transaction flows

+ Own integrations across enterprise platforms including ecommerce (currently SAP), CRM (Salesforce), identity (Okta), and marketing systems

+ Contribute directly to critical development and integration work

+ Partner with Experience Engineering to enable efficient use of platform capabilities

+ Ensure services are reliable, secure, and performant through strong testing and quality practices

+ Monitor performance and integration health across critical flows

+ Collaborate with Dev Ops on environments and delivery practices as needed

+ Stay current with backend, integration, and AI-assisted development practices

+ Apply AI-assisted approaches to improve efficiency and delivery quality

+ Build a focused, accountable, high-performing team culture

** Skills*
* ** Required*
* + Bachelor degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent combination of education and recent relevant work experience required

+ 5+ years in a technical leadership or team lead role, including developing technology strategies and driving innovation

+ Strong experience with backend development, API design, and integration patterns

+ Experience working with ecommerce and CMS platforms

+ Experience integrating with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, SAP, identity providers, or marketing systems

+ Strong understanding of system design, scalability, and reliability

+ Experience working in agile teams

+ Strong communication skills

** Preferred*
* +

Experience with headless CMS and composable architectures

+

Experience with event-driven architecture or middleware

+

Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or similar)

+ Experience using AI-assisted development tools

** What Success Looks Like*
* + Stable, reliable ecommerce platforms with minimal downtime

+ Reliable execution of critical ecommerce flows (pricing, cart, checkout, orders)

+ High-quality, reusable APIs that enable rapid frontend development

+ Seamless integrations supporting end-to-end ecommerce experiences

+ Efficient, predictable delivery of platform capabilities

+ Reduced integration friction for Experience Engineering

** Key Expectations & Tradeoffs*
* + Prioritize reliability and scalability while…