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Western Governors University

Senior Manager, Technology - Craft Education

🇺🇸 Nashville, TN 🕑 Full-Time 💰 $161K - $290K 💻 Software Engineering 🗓️ March 24th, 2026

Edtech.com's Summary

Craft Education System is hiring a Senior Manager, Technology - Craft Education. This role leads engineering teams in product development and integration, providing vision, training, technical standards, and direction across multiple engineering domains including front-end, back-end, QA, and cloud. The Senior Manager collaborates with leadership and cross-functional teams to drive a culture of innovation, manage technical requirements, and ensure secure, scalable, and high-performing software solutions.

Highlights
  • Lead and supervise technology team members providing training, direction, and technical standards.
  • Collaborate with leadership, designers, developers, and subject matter experts to establish technical vision and analyze usability versus performance trade-offs.
  • Interface with product, project, and external teams to define and execute development projects.
  • Work with internal and external customers to gather technical requirements and negotiate dependencies.
  • Ensure optimized software performance for high utilization, 24x7 access, ADA accessibility, responsiveness, and scalability.
  • Maintain data security compliance with applicable laws.
  • Develop and direct software system testing procedures, programming, and documentation.
  • Continuously improve development approaches balancing quick execution with security and stability.
  • Minimum qualifications: Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience), 10+ years in web-based application development, and 2+ years leading software engineering teams.
  • Preferred qualifications: 5+ years leading software engineering teams, Master's degree, and experience in startup or early-stage company scaling.
  • Compensation range: $161,300 to $290,300 annually plus bonuses and comprehensive benefits including healthcare, retirement, paid time off, and tuition discounts.
  • Position involves occasional travel up to 20% and office presence in Nashville, TN.

Senior Manager, Technology - Craft Education Full Description

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: 
 
Grade: Executive Technical 715Pay Range: $161,300.00 - $290,300.00

Job Description
The Senior Manager, Technology role leads engineers on product development and integration teams. They will provide vision, training, technical standards, and direction to engineers who are required to know multiple languages for front-end, back-end, qa and cloud engineering responsibilities. They will work closely with leadership to strengthen a culture of collaboration and innovation within highly effective teams. They will contribute to cross-functional teams as a lead engineer mentoring or pairing with team members in technical and development tasks.
 
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
  • Supervises technology team members, providing training, technical standards, and direction.
  • Collaborates with leadership, designers, developers, and subject matter experts to establish the technical vision and analyze trade-offs between usability and performance needs, determining platforms, components, software applications, technologies, and security measures.
  • Interfaces with product, project, and external teams in the definition and execution of development projects; maintains collaborative relationships with all appropriate stakeholders.
  • Works with internal and external customers to elicit technical requirements. Negotiates dependencies and maintains productive working relationships.
  • Ensures optimized performance for high utilization, 24x7 access, accessibility (ADA), responsiveness, and scalability.
  • Ensures data is always handled securely and in compliance with applicable laws.
  • Develops and directs software system testing procedures, programming, and documentation.
  • Continuously improves team's development approach, maximizing team's ability to balance quick execution with security and stability.
  • Clearly communicates constraints, conflicts, requirements, compatibility issues, and items which could affect project outcome, final performance level, or product efficacy. Offers appropriate alternatives and contingency plans.
  • Performs other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:
  • Provide technical and architectural leadership and successfully coach an engineering team.
  • Develop and direct software system testing procedures, programming, and documentation; demonstrated commitment to efficient, secure, scalable, and maintainable code and engineering practices.
  • Demonstrated ability to understand business needs and execute on a business strategy.
  • Research, design, and develop computer software systems, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis.
  • Manage multiple tasks and responsibilities in rapid, deadline-driven environments; excelling at pinpointing and resolving problems in early project stages to avoid cost/time expenses.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; able to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical team members, external stakeholders, and management.
  • Maintain effective working relationships with team members and stakeholders.
  • Self-starter with bias for action while maintaining stable, secure user experiences.
  • Ability to ramp up quickly on new technologies.
  • Exhibit strong attention to detail.
  • Exhibit excellent judgment.
  • Provide team members with measurable goals and performance standards to track efficiency and performance against goals.

Necessary Skills/Areas of focus:
Organizational Structure/Performance:
  • Develops plan to accomplish division or job area responsibilities that align with department and provides individual team members performance goals and targets.
  • Compiles data to prepare budgets.
Problem Solving and Decision Making:
  • Responsible for making improvements of processes or systems to enhance performance of the job area.
  • Critical thinking skills and ability to prioritize competing priorities and communicate why and reasoning for decision
Communication and Influence:
  • Communicates with senior leaders in a concise and relevant manner and based on problems to solve.
Leadership and Talent Management:
  • Manages a team of professionals. Manages the work of assigned employees and/or supervisors who generally exercise some latitude and independence in their assignments.
  • Ensures proper training of team members, and actively participates in hiring, firing, and promotion decisions. Conducts performance reviews and recommends salary reviews.
  • Primarily achieves goals through leading a team.

Job Qualifications:
Minimum Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree in computer sciences, information technology, or related field OR equivalent and relevant work experience.
  • 10+ years of experience and a proven track record in developing web-based applications and web services including experience interfacing with databases, and integrating third party products with existing infrastructure.
  • 2 years of experience leading teams of software engineering professionals or related leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:
  • 5 years of experience leading teams of software engineering professionals or related leadership experience.
  • Master's degree in computer science, information technology, or related field.
  • Start up or early stage company experience growing to scale

Physical Requirements:
  • Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
  • Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

This position will sit in our Nashville, TN office and requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive. 
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.