Associate Director, Platform Engineering

About CENIC

Join the team that connects California to the world — advancing education and research statewide by providing the world‑class computing network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. Our organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high‑capacity computer network with more than 8,000 miles of optical fiber. The network serves over 20 million users across California, including the vast majority of K‑20 students, together with educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public‑serving institutions.

Reporting to the Director of Engineering, the Associate Director, Platform Engineering, is a senior technical leadership role responsible for overseeing CENIC’s platform engineering function, which combines software engineering, systems engineering, automation, tooling, and end‑user engineering services. This role provides strategic and technical leadership across teams responsible for designing, building, implementing, and supporting internal software platforms, network and systems tooling, automation frameworks, and infrastructure services that enable secure, scalable, and reliable operations across CENIC.

The Senior Manager partners closely with engineering leadership, security, and stakeholders to align platform capabilities with organizational goals and operational needs.

Supervision of Platform Engineering staff, including Principal Software Engineer, Lead Software Engineer, Automation Software Engineer, UI/UX Engineer, Network Tools Engineer, Systems Engineer, Systems Administrator, Associate Systems Administrator, Systems & Tools Interns, and Trainees.

• Provide leadership, direction, and technical oversight for platform engineering functions spanning software development, systems engineering, automation, tooling, and end‑user engineering services.
• Lead, mentor, and develop senior technical leaders and individual contributors.
• Define, evolve, and drive engineering standards, best practices, and architectures related to internal platforms, automation, Dev Ops practices, tooling, and system reliability.
• Partner with engineering leadership and stakeholders to define requirements, prioritize roadmaps, and deliver scalable solutions.
• Ensure reliable operation, capacity planning, disaster recovery planning, and lifecycle management of systems and platforms.
• Ensure that all supervised personnel are aware of and adhere to general security principles, as well as CENIC‑specific security policies, both established and evolving.

• Ability to consider, understand, and prioritize security (and privacy, where applicable) principles, practices, and procedures in all aspects of your role with CENIC.
• Ability to prioritize and execute tasks in a dynamic environment.
• Balance multiple projects in order to complete them successfully and within expected timelines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with a focus on high‑quality customer service.
• Ability to work in a team‑oriented, collaborative environment.
• Experience leading or managing teams of Software and Systems Engineers.
• Expertise in developing software development standards, processes, and procedures.
• Extensive experience designing and implementing enterprise application architectures.

• At least 10 years of relevant technical work experience and 5 years of experience managing a team of engineering and/or technical operations professionals responsible for critical systems.
• Experience administering Unix/Linux systems.
• Experience in Dev Ops environments.

• Experience with in the research and education community.
• Excellent project management, interpersonal, and organizational skills, with the ability to drive and implement ideas in a changing environment.
• Experience in software development and infrastructure management.
• Exposure to an Agile software development environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

This position operates in a professional office environment with standard office…