VP of Software Engineering, Guild Education
$300-355.9k
+ Variable compensation and stock options
More information about location
Upskilling and education platform for America's workforce
Posted today
Upskilling and education platform for America's workforce
1001+ employees
Posted today
$300-355.9k
+ Variable compensation and stock options
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To unlock opportunity for America’s workforce through education and upskilling.
Role
Who you are
- Proven ability to lead a multi-team engineering organization at the VP level — setting direction across several domains and owning outcomes across both product and platform engineering. You’re energized by leading well at this level and the scope it carries
- Demonstrated people-leadership as a manager of managers — you set clear standards, drive execution and remove blockers, grow talent through frequent, actionable feedback, and build psychologically safe, inclusive teams
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and driving to outcomes — you simplify complexity, make practical trade-offs with incomplete information, and orient teams around measurable impact rather than activity
- Deep technical credibility — you can weigh architectural decisions on their merits and earn the trust of senior engineers — plus the judgment to balance reliable, cost-aware systems with room for growth bets
- Strong cross-functional partnership — you build trust with Product, Design, and peer engineering leaders, and explain technical strategy and trade-offs clearly to both engineers and executives
Desirable
- Experience scaling consumer or B2B2C growth-product engineering and/or internal developer platforms in a high-growth environment
- Familiarity with a modern AWS serverless stack (e.g., Lambda, Aurora), GraphQL, and the tooling that supports an AI-native software development lifecycle
- Experience leading engineering through an AI-native transformation — building with AI as a first class citizen, agentic workflows, and platform guardrails responsibly
- Background partnering with Data/AI engineering to ship AI-native product experiences
What the job involves
- Guild is hiring a VP of Engineering to lead our product, platform, and foundational engineering teams. In this role, you’ll own how these teams plan, build, and ship — balancing reliable, efficient delivery with the growth bets that move the business. We’re looking for a seasoned engineering leader who’s energized by leading at this level, comfortable navigating ambiguity, and focused on driving to clear outcomes
- Set technical and organizational direction across product, platform, and foundational engineering — turning Guild’s business strategy into a clear roadmap and putting your teams’ effort where it matters most
- Own how the organization plans and ships — estimation, release readiness, and incident response — improving predictability and throughput with lightweight process, and clearing the blockers that slow teams down
- Balance shipping solid, reliable software with placing growth bets — deciding when to harden core systems and pay down tech debt, and when to fund the experiments that open new growth for members and employer partners
- Own the internal platform and foundational engineering — DevOps, shared services, CI/CD, and testing — so product teams can ship without wrestling the plumbing and the systems underneath stay reliable and secure
- Lead through ambiguity to outcomes — bring clarity to messy problems, decide with incomplete information, and keep teams focused on measurable impact as priorities shift
- Develop leaders and talent — coach and grow multiple Directors and Engineering Managers, set clear expectations, give frequent and actionable feedback, and create stretch opportunities so your people do the best work of their careers
- Build an inclusive, sustainable engineering culture — psychologically safe teams, a modern and AI-forward way of working, and a pace people can keep
- Partner across the company — work closely with Product, Design, and Data & AI engineering leaders, and represent engineering with executives and key vendors (e.g., AWS, Auth0) to align technical investment with company priorities
Our take
The recruitment process can be the most costly element of a company's operation, with future-proof skillsets requirements resulting in the hiring of staff for niche tasks. Many existing employees of a company could have the potential to fill talent gaps and prevent the need for a new hire, but they often lack the training for such roles. Helping to solve this problem, Guild Education helps employers partner with nonprofit universities to train staff across a variety of subject matters, including high school completion programs, vocational opportunities, and enrollment in higher education.
As professional development is a strong employer benefit, Guild Education also pitches itself as a perk for employees, aiming to increase retention and worker satisfaction. By solving two major problems - a skills shortage and worker retention, it has gained large companies such as Chipotle, Target, Hilton and PepsiCo as corporate clients.
The platform has secured some serious funding too. And is using this funding to develop its healthcare and financial services learning modules and increase its offering to workers by exploring new ways to lower the barriers to learning, for instance through childcare solutions and financial wellness tools.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-5% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Jun 2022
$265m
SERIES F
Jun 2021
$150m
SERIES E
Total funding: $643.5m
Company benefits
- Equity stake in the company providing ownership and a path to future earnings (when we succeed, we all benefit)
- free one-on-one coaching with a certified financial planner, a platform with budgeting tools, investment and equity management center and many more financial resources through Origin (we believe financial literacy not only supports you personally, but also has a lasting impact in creating positive generational wealth practices)
- Employee Assistance Fund for unforeseen crises, disasters, and/or personal hardships and you need a little extra financial support (funded by the company and fellow Guilders to create a community of support)
- legal support and resources to navigate complicated situations like estate planning name changes, immigration, and more
- 401(k) plan with a range of diverse investment options and personalized retirement advice
- Well-rounded wellness benefits including free and low cost mental health resources and financial wellbeing support services
- Education benefits and tuition assistance to help your future development and growth
- Multiple paths to meet educational and professional goals
- Fertility benefits built into all of our medical plans
- A $10,000 family planning fund to take care of costs that aren’t covered by the medical plans like adoption, surrogacy, and egg freezing expenses
- 12-20 weeks of paid leave and a ramp-up program for Guilders to ease back into work after an extended time away
- An additional 3 weeks of paid leave if you are going through the adoption, surrogacy, or foster process to use prior to your child's arrival/placement to prepare and attend necessary meeting
- Inclusive guidance and support as you go through your family planning journey through Cleo
- Our on-site childcare center, The Beehive, offering care for children 3 months-6 years of age for employees and their friends and family members located in Colorado
- Personalized 1:1 support for anyone on the parenthood journey with access to a network of clinicians, experts, and specialists through Cleo
- 80 hours of low cost ($2/hr) emergency backup care for times employees unexpectedly find themselves without primary care for the ones they are responsible for
- Dedicated support in finding background-checked care providers to assist with child care, elder care, and chronic care needs through Helpr
- The ability to bring an actively nursing child and companion on work related trips
- Inclusive, affordable medical and behavioral healthcare when you need it
- Open PTO is available so Guilders can rest, recharge, and bring their best selves to work
- 10 Holidays including a collective week off over the 4th of July plus 5 floating holidays for cultural and religious events you celebrate
- Our leave policies are there to support employees and offer 12 weeks of fully paid medical, non-birthing parent, and caregiving leave as of day one of employment while birthing parents receive 18-20 weeks of fully paid leave
- Once Guilders reach 4.5 years of service, they are eligible for a 5-week fully paid sabbatical leave
- Up to 10 days of bereavement leave
- Up to 10 days of jury duty
- 8 sick days
Company HQ
Central Business District, Denver, CO
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