Director, Engineering Operations and Strategy

Overview

Build the Future
At McGraw Hill, we are dedicated to delivering digital learning experiences that transform education for learners and educators. Our focus is on creating seamless, impactful products that truly benefit our users while supporting growth and collaboration across teams. We foster a culture that values innovation, teamwork, and a balance between career growth and personal well-being.

How can you make an impact?

We're looking for a Director of Engineering, Strategy and Enablement, to act as a force multiplier for our engineering leadership team. This role exists to help a 250-engineer organization operate better - not by owning delivery, but by enabling the systems, practices, and leadership behaviors that make delivery predictable, scalable, and humane.

You'll partner closely with the VP of Engineering and engineering leaders at all levels to translate strategy into execution, improve organizational effectiveness, and elevate leadership capability. Think of this role as a jetpack for engineering leaders: reducing friction, increasing leverage, and helping the organization continuously improve.

This role blends strategic operations with leadership enablement. It requires someone who understands how software organizations actually work - and who enjoys the "invisible" but high-impact work that makes them great.

This is a remote position open to applicants authorized to work for any employer within the United States.

What You'll Do:

Strategic Operations & Organizational Systems

• Translate engineering strategy into executable initiatives with clear owners, milestones, and success metrics.
• Lead cross-cutting initiatives outside normal product delivery (e.g., developer productivity, AI enablement, training programs, security practices, engineering measurement).
• Design and improve engineering operating rhythms (planning, reviews, retrospectives, leadership forums).
• Map and re-engineer engineering processes to reduce friction and improve flow (onboarding, delivery, incident response, quality, tech debt).
• Define and operationalize meaningful engineering metrics and dashboards that inform decisions rather than create noise.
• Drive adoption and change management for new practices, tools, and ways of working.

Leadership Enablement & Partnership

• Act as a thought partner and trusted advisor to engineering leaders (managers through VPs).
• Help leaders clarify priorities, prepare for key decisions, and follow through on commitments.
• Facilitate alignment across leaders and teams when priorities, incentives, or perspectives diverge.
• Coach leaders toward system-level thinking (moving from "doing the work" to "building the system").
• Improve leadership communication, decision-making clarity, and organizational focus.

Culture & Continuous Improvement

• Surface organizational bottlenecks, risks, and blind spots early - and help drive thoughtful interventions.
• Foster a culture of learning, transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure that operational rigor doesn't come at the cost of trust, autonomy, or psychological safety.

Who You Are:

• 7+ years of applicable experience.
• Bachelor's degree in business or technology or data / business analytics.
• Background in software engineering, engineering management, technical program management, or engineering operations.
• Experience working across multiple teams and leaders in a complex engineering organization.
• Strong systems thinker - you naturally look for root causes, feedback loops, and leverage points.
• Comfortable influencing without formal authority.
• Excellent communicator - able to synthesize complexity into clear narratives for leaders.
• You enjoy process design, operational problem-solving, and leadership enablement.
• Pragmatic and outcome-oriented: you care less about perfect frameworks and more about what actually sticks.

What Success Looks Like

• Engineering leaders feel supported, focused, and more effective.
• Strategic initiatives move from ideas to embedded practices.
• The organization gains clarity, consistency, and operational maturity without becoming bureaucratic.
• Engineering health, productivity, and capability improve measurably over time.

Why work for us?

The work you do at McGraw Hill will be work that matters. We are collectively building experiences that will help shape the future of education. Play your part and experience a sense of fulfilment that will inspire you to even greater heights.

The pay range for this position is between $120,000 - $200,000 annually. However, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. An annual bonus plan may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical and/or other benefits, depending on the position offered. Click here to learn more about our benefit offerings.

McGraw Hill recruiters always use a "@mheducation.com" email address and/or from our Applicant Tracking System, iCIMS. Any variation of this email domain should be considered suspicious. Additionally, McGraw Hill recruiters and authorized representatives will never request sensitive information in email.

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