Senior Manager, Infrastructure Engineering & Cloud Architect - National Student Clearinghouse

Are you looking for more than just a job and want to make difference? If so, then join the National Student Clearinghouse talent community and discover your impact today!

We are a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the leading provider of educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services. Serving the education, workforce and learner communities has been at the heart of our mission for over 30 years. Our work — performed in a trusted, secure, and private environment — provides numerous time- and cost-saving benefits to students, schools, administrators, and requestors. Education leaders rely on the Clearinghouse’s unique national student data resources to better understand student pathways and outcomes in order to help students succeed, and our research better informs practitioners and policymakers about student educational pathways and enables informed decision making.

About the Role:

This role will serve as a strategic IT advisor in the planning and vision-setting for cloud adoption and modernization of the enterprise IT computing infrastructure including the design, development, and deployment of cloud solutions. Engage in thought leadership discussions and leading engineering team to provide a solution for the incremental steps required to evolve IT and integrate key infrastructure components across the enterprise. As a key leader on the Infrastructure, Platforms, and Cloud leadership team, this individual will collaborate and partner with other enterprise leaders and vendors to strategize, design, implement, and high-level architectures that support IT modernization efforts.

This individual will lead a team of engineers to ensure the successful migration of services to the cloud Contribute to the cost optimization, identifying ways to reduce expenses without sacrificing quality, including supporting negotiations with vendor contracts and selecting cost-effective technologies. Contribute to conduct investment analysis to assess the financial viability of new Cloud investments, analyzing return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) to guide strategic decisions. This role will be responsibilities for developing a comprehensive cloud strategy aligned with company goals, creating a cloud adoption roadmap, and enforcing governance policies for cloud architecture. Responsible for designing cloud architecture solutions that meet various requirements, creating detailed architecture blueprints and documentation, and selecting suitable cloud platforms and services based on business needs.

Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

How You Contribute:

• Demonstrate NSC’s competencies, which align with our corporate values. Demonstrate NSC’s competencies, which align with our corporate values.
  • Management Competencies include Making Complex Decisions, Being Flexible and Adaptive, Build Collaborative Relationships, Focusing on Performance, and Optimizing Diverse Talent.

Making Complex Decisions:

• Analyze and research current and future solutions, and assess customer and/or system issues, interact directly with customers and NSC teams when necessary and identify and implement overall best solution while exercising sound judgment.
• Lead Engineering group to optimize the most efficient and resilient infrastructure, and assist other NSC teams to quickly identify, troubleshoot and resolve system outages and communicate status throughout the process.
• Research, investigate, conduct feasibility studies, and through a collaborative approach recommend and implement new or improved infrastructure IT processes.
• Identify and implement solutions and processes that support the organization’s migration from on premise services to hybrid, multi-cloud-based services.
• Provide technical and architectural leadership, support cloud strategy development, and offer troubleshooting leadership during outages. Additionally, manage a team of systems engineers, fostering their growth and overseeing the creation of essential engineering support documentation
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Engineering, Development, Operation, Finance, Data) to understand requirements, architect solutions, and ensure successful delivery of cloud projects.
• Gain concurrence on production cutover readiness items including migration, integration requirements, financial sustainability, and supplier qualification and diversity.
• Manage multiple competing cross-organizational projects/programs simultaneously with engineers, technicians, project managers and senior management on a daily basis.
• Guide IT staff and business units in the development of cloud strategy.

Being Flexible and Adaptable:

• Help team members deal with uncertainty and act, when necessary, without having the full picture.
• Guide teams through the uncertainty of diagnosing and resolving system outages, considering alternative approaches to resolving issues while helping the team focus on near term and long-term solutions.

Building Collaborative Relationships:

• Build and maintain collaborative relationships across the organization, specifically with IT Operation, EA, Customer Care, Product, Prod Support, IT, Business and Data teams.
• Collaborate and seek feedback from IT and Data Teams to ensure systems and services are implemented and updated as anticipated. Embrace a Problem-Solving Mindset.
• Work cross-functionally to drive consensus across multiple stake holders.
• Be open to different ideas and perspectives, and share information and involve others in decisions, when possible.
• Identify opportunities to break down silos.
• Integrate Advanced Technologies, while boosting creativity for cost-effective solutions

Focusing on Performance:

• Prioritize tasks on hand in collaboration with organizations priority, and other stakeholders, and various involved teams to optimize performance.
• Develop, test, implement, monitor and report on overall system and production solutions, and turnover system management responsibilities to Infrastructure Operation.
• Ensure engineering processes and procedures are documented and maintained.
• Act as the highest escalation point for all escalated outages and system impactful issues. Identify a fix, collaborate with Operations, and Change Mgmt. CR approval, and implement solutions to resolve outages.
• Monitor and maintain health of Clearinghouse systems through tools and processes, including the use of third parties for off hour monitoring, to ensure systems are highly available.
• Communicate across the organization regarding status/health of systems.

Optimizing Diverse Talent:

• Day to day management of NSC’s Infrastructure tasks and projects associated with, NSC engineering staff and contractors, including offshore contractors.

Workforce Management:

• Build a team-based environment that aligns with company values, ways of working, and competencies.
• Recruit and select the best talent to help optimize skills and experiences and motivate and manage staff to maximize productivity and efficiency.
• Develop and manage career development and advancement opportunities at the Clearinghouse through MAPS conversations, developing and reporting on performance and goals, and defining and monitoring training and development plans to ensure job and career satisfaction.
• Coach, mentor and ensure staff is adequately trained and provide guidance, as needed.
• Monitor performance including annual reviews, rewards, and compensation structure.
• Reward employees using formal and informal methods.

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science or Business Administration, an equivalent combination of education and experience, including through military service will also be considered.
• 10+ years of experience in IT Engineering or Infrastructure.
• Prior experience performing in a leadership role excising independent decision making, and projects to successful completion.
• Proficient in some of the following:
  • Cloud platform expertise, infrastructure design and implementation, automation with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), networking, security, DevSecOps, multi-cloud environments, disaster recovery and high availability, and performance.
  • Advancing infrastructure resiliency, cloud strategy, digital transformation drive towards the cloud.
• Flexibility to work and provide support in a 24X7 environment.
• Talented at the employee competencies:
  • Communicates Effectively - Excellent communication and effective presentation skills. Coupled with the demonstrated ability to communicate effectively and confidently with all levels of staff, including presenting technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Collaborates - Proven track record of developing positive relationships at all levels with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Customer focus and Be Open and Authentic - Positive and professional attitude with the demonstrated ability to adapt to a dynamic, fast paced industry and environment.
  • Optimizes Work Processes - Demonstrated proficiency aligning the team/organization on goals and objectives.
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers/human-resource-policies/, for more details.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Additional Desired Requirements:

• Master’s degree in computer science.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
• Experience with agile development methodologies.

Physical Demands:

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of telephone.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
• Must be able to communicate, learn, read, and concentrate.
• Must have oral communication and hearing.
• Must be flexible to work after business hours and on weekends when necessary.
• May be required to provide on-call remote and/or 24/7 technical support.

Benefits and Related Information

The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account, are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays and up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period. Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 11 paid holidays per year.

Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health and wellness benefits. To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance!

Additionally, we reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $180,000 and $196,588. Message for Internal Candidates: If you feel that you qualify and meet the requirements of the job, we highly encourage you to apply and focus on preparing for the application process. Once the final candidates are selected, a full review of compensation will be completed prior to any offer made.

The requisition will be open for a minimum of three days, and applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities: The National Student Clearinghouse is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer that does not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status (or known to have a spousal, family, business, social or other relationship or association with a protected veteran), sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, natural hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment.

Pay Transparency Notice: The National Student Clearinghouse is a federal contractor that abides by all applicable equal opportunity laws and regulations. Under these laws, companies doing business with the federal government must provide applicants and employees with certain policies, including the following information. The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)