Director, CRM Engineering

At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to eliminate the back row in education – and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class digital education at scale. As the parent company of edX, the world’s leading online learning platform, 2U powers more than 4,000 online higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees. Together with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporate partners, we are helping to unlock human potential.

What We’re Looking For:

We are seeking a thoughtful, collaborative, and results-driven engineering leader to lead the strategy, development, and operational excellence of our enterprise CRM platforms. This role is ideal for a leader who blends technical depth with strong people management, thrives in agile environments, and is passionate about building high-performing teams that deliver sustainable, high-quality software.

As the Director of CRM Engineering, you will oversee the evolution of our Salesforce ecosystem—supporting marketing, sales, service, and student success across the learner lifecycle. You’ll work closely with cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Marketing, Enrollment, and Data to ensure the CRM stack is scalable, secure, and optimized for growth.

You are a maker at heart, capable of balancing strategic leadership with hands-on technical guidance. You are comfortable mentoring teams on practices such as test-driven development (TDD), pair programming, and agile retrospectives, while driving architectural and platform decisions. You’ve led teams of 12–20 engineers, often globally distributed, and are adept at scaling both people and platforms in high-growth or transformation settings.

Above all, you care about delivering quality software at scale—in a way that is sustainable, innovative, and impactful. You bring a growth mindset, operational rigor, and a deep belief in the power of empowered, well-supported teams.

Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

Strategic & Technical Leadership

• Own and evolve the enterprise CRM strategy (primarily Salesforce) to support marketing, sales, student success, and service delivery across the full learner lifecycle.
• Provide hands-on architectural oversight and technical direction on platform configuration, integration, and automation, ensuring scalability, performance, and security.
• Balance long-term platform vision with pragmatic short-term decision-making to enable sustainable delivery and innovation.

Team & People Management

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of 12–20 engineers, architects, and DevOps professionals in an agile environment.
• Foster a strong engineering culture grounded in continuous improvement, test-driven development (TDD), pair programming, retrospectives, and engineering excellence.
• Champion career development, inclusion, team health, and productivity through thoughtful leadership and coaching.

Platform Delivery & Operational Excellence

• Drive the end-to-end delivery of CRM initiatives, including new implementations, enhancements, integrations with Learning Management platforms, and user-centric automation.
• Establish robust engineering practices, CI/CD pipelines, release governance, and automated testing frameworks to deliver quality software efficiently.
• Own SLAs, platform performance, uptime, and incident response in partnership Vendors, and QA teams.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Marketing, Enrollment, Student Success, and Data teams to align on roadmaps, business needs, and delivery goals.
• Translate business priorities into scalable technical solutions with measurable impact.
• Act as a trusted technology partner, effectively communicating platform capabilities, trade-offs, and timelines.

 Innovation, AI Enablement & CRM Transformation

• Support integration of AI/ML capabilities into CRM workflows (e.g., AgentForce, Einstein GPT, predictive lead scoring).
• Drive continuous evaluation of platform improvements, third-party apps, and innovations that enhance learner and partner engagement.
• Ability to thrive in an ever evolving landscape, run POC’s for new tools/technologies and faster Go to Market product shipment.
• Contribute to the broader AI and automation strategy in alignment with the Magic Lab and Customer Engagement Technologies portfolio.

 Governance & Vendor Management

• Manage vendor relationships for CRM-related services and tools, including contracts, SOWs, and performance oversight.
• Ensure compliance with enterprise security, data privacy (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and IT governance standards.

Things That Should Be In Your Background:

• Minimum 12+ years in the IT field (required)
• At least 5+ years of leadership experience, including team management and strategic planning responsibilities 
• At least 3 years in a delivery lead role, leading complex Salesforce deployments with multiple stakeholder groups, managing executive stakeholders, operating and steering committees 
• Experience building and managing technical delivery teams in an onshore/offshore environment 
• Experience managing Vendors such as Salesforce
• One or more Salesforce Architect Certifications, including but not limited to: Application Architect, System Architect, Sharing and Visibility Architect, Integration Architect, Data Architect, Identity and Access Management Architect, CPQ
• Event-driven architecture: Segment, Kafka, Amazon Lambda (at least one required)
• Change Management:  Git, Copado

Other Attributes That Will Help You In This Role:

• Experience in an EdTech, Publishing domain 
• Experience with Agentforce
• Agile Delivery Certifications: CSM, CSPO
• Languages: Python, Java, JavaScript
• Database / Query Languages: SQL, SOQL, T-SQL, GraphQL, MySQL, MongoDB/MongoEngine
• Migration Tools: Talend
• Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, GCP 

While this position is open to remote candidates across the U.S., we will prioritize those who live in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area and who are available to come into our Headquarters in Arlington, VA two days a week.

Benefits & Culture

Our global employee base is a diverse collection of innovators, dreamers, and doers working together to transform lives through higher education. We believe that every employee can advance our shared purpose, and that life at 2U should be fun and meaningful. If you’re excited by the opportunity to provide over 40 million learners and counting with access to world-class online higher education, then join us – and do work that makes a difference. #NoBackRow

We offer comprehensive benefits (unique per country) and excellent work/life balance.
Full-time, U.S. benefits include: 

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Life insurance, disability, and 401(k) employer match
• Free snacks and drinks in-office
• Generous paid holidays and leave policies, including unlimited PTO
• Additional time off benefits include: volunteer days, parental leave, and a company-wide winter break

The anticipated base salary range for this role is ($200,000 - $235,000), with potential bonus eligibility.  Salary offers are made based on the candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, budget for the position and cost of labor in the market in which the candidate will be hired.

2U Diversity and Inclusion Statement

At 2U, we are committed to building and sustaining a culture of belonging, respect, and inclusion. We are proud of the steps we’ve taken to bring together an employee base that embodies diverse walks of life, ideas, genders, ages, races, cultures, sexual orientations, abilities and other unique qualities. We strive to offer a workplace where every employee feels empowered by what makes us different, as well as by how we are alike. 

2U is committed to providing reasonable accommodations during our recruitment process. If you need assistance or accommodations, please reach out to us at: recruitingaccommodations@2u.com. 

About 2U LLC

For more than a decade, 2U has been the digital transformation partner of choice to great non-profit colleges and universities delivering high-quality online education at scale. As the parent company of edX, a leading global online learning platform, 2U provides over 45 million learners with access to world-class education in partnership with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporations. Our people and technology are powering more than 4,000 digital education offerings — from free courses to full degrees — and helping unlock human potential. To learn more: visit 2U.com.

About edX

edX is the education movement for restless learners and a leading global online learning platform from 2U. Together with the majority of the world’s top-ranked universities and industry-leading companies, we bring our community of over 45 million learners world-class education to support them at every stage of their lives and careers, from free courses to full degrees. And we're not stopping there — we're relentlessly pursuing our vision of a world where every learner can access education to unlock their potential, without the barriers of cost or location. Learn more at edX.org.

Learn more at https://2u.com/careers/
#NoBackRow

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by individuals assigned to this position, and are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required. All employees may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.

2U is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate against applicants or employees and ensures equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of their race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, national origin, age, marital status, disability, citizenship, military or veterans’ status, or any other classifications protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. 2U’s equal opportunity policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, training, promotion, job benefits and pay.