Director of Engineering

At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers.

We do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in:

We are looking for a Director of Engineering to lead a growing number of engineering teams. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, you will play a critical role on the Platform Engineering Leadership team, focusing on continuing to develop and execute a strategy to innovate on the world’s leading learning management system (LMS). You will achieve success by hiring and growing world-class engineers and team leaders, comprising all core engineering disciplines (software engineers, site reliability engineers, software engineers in test, etc.). From there, you will lead these teams to deliver outstanding software, at scale, to our customers worldwide, all while relentlessly driving a technology agenda forward.

Like our customers, we value a learning culture and expect our engineers to work closely with product and support to build the best possible solutions, not just write code to a spec. Engineers at Instructure enjoy an annual company-wide tech conference, biweekly tech talks, and quarterly Hackweeks, all designed to encourage as much exploration and learning as possible. Much of our work is open source, including our primary product (Canvas). Check us out on Github: www.github.com/instructure https://www.github.com/instructure.

This role is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and we are a hybrid work environment.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Build a world-class team that continues to improve and delivers software that people love.

• Coach, mentor, train, and develop the team. Engineers feel motivated when they are valued, delivering, and learning—help make that happen.

• Be a cultural beacon out of our Salt Lake City headquarters.

• Partner with cross-functional peers to develop and execute an innovative, market-leading strategy.

• Establish and track clear, useful metrics to keep us focused on what matters, ask the right questions, and drive continuous improvement.

• Ensure high-quality code by creating and enforcing technical standards.

• Ensure the product is performant, stable, and up to date.

• Partner closely with product managers to understand requirements and prioritize work as a team.

• Manage external delivery partners, in addition to internal teams, to accelerate development efforts.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW / HAVE:

• Significant experience in SaaS software engineering.

• Experience with modern web development and web-scale architectures.

• Experience leading and managing engineering teams, including hiring and performance management.

• Passion and proven success in test automation and devops.

• Excellent coding skills in multiple languages.

• Track record of making and keeping commitments.

• Demonstrable experience with widespread AI adoption for agentic coding and measuring its impact on an engineering organization.

• Successful experience with a full product life cycle using agile methodologies.

• Detail-oriented and data-minded approach.

• Effective communication skills.

• Willingness to take risks.

• Enough humility to admit mistakes and learn from both your successes and failures.

Get in on all the awesome at Instructure!

We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect:

• Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.

• Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.

• Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.

• Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support

• Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth

• The technology and tools you need to do your best work

• Motivosity employee recognition program

• A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection

We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes.

Instructure is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We comply with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws in every country where we operate.

All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws.

Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.