Director, Engineering Operations and Strategy

McGraw Hill is dedicated to delivering digital learning experiences that transform education for learners and educators. They are seeking a Director of Engineering Operations and Strategy to enhance the effectiveness of their engineering leadership team and improve organizational systems and practices.

Responsibilities:

• 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
• 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
• 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

Requirements:

• 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