Closing Date: May 18, 2026

Salary Range: $76,821.60 - $101,879.70

Salary will be commensurate with education and experience

Job Code: ITM023

Pay Grade: P

Location: Atlanta, GA (Hybrid)

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is responsible for meeting the childcare and early education needs of Georgia's children and their families. The agency administers the nationally recognized Georgia's PreK Program, licenses childcare centers and home-based childcare, administers Georgia Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) program, federal nutrition programs, and manages Quality Rated, Georgia's community powered childcare rating system.

The department also houses the Head Start State Collaboration Office, distributes federal funding to enhance the quality and availability of childcare, and works collaboratively with Georgia childcare resource and referral agencies and organizations throughout the state to enhance early care and education.

Job Description

The Director, Enterprise Applications & Engineering provides strategic and operational leadership for DECAL’s enterprise application portfolio, engineering delivery practices, and modernization initiatives.

The role oversees a mixed enterprise application environment consisting primarily of proprietary .NET business applications, Salesforce platforms, enterprise integrations, and Azure-based services supporting mission-critical agency operations.

Own the full lifecycle of DECAL’s enterprise application portfolio—including roadmap planning, reliability, modernization, upgrades, and end-of-life decisions.

Drive delivery effectiveness across proprietary .NET and Salesforce engineering teams through disciplined Agile delivery, DevOps practices, and operational governance using Azure DevOps.

Establish and enforce engineering standards across application development, including code quality, security, documentation, release management, and architecture review practices.

Lead technical design reviews for new systems, enterprise integrations, platform enhancements, and modernization initiatives.

Lead the modernization of legacy .NET business systems toward scalable, cloud-aligned architectures on Microsoft Azure.

Oversee Salesforce platform governance, including platform health, technical debt management, release coordination, and ISV/vendor oversight.

Support adoption of automation and emerging technologies where they deliver measurable operational or business value.

This portfolio includes mission-critical enterprise platforms and SaaS/PaaS services requiring strong engineering governance, operational reliability, scalability, and long-term maintainability.

The Director partners closely with infrastructure, security, analytics, enterprise architecture, and business leadership teams to support modernization, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across the agency’s technology landscape.

Job Duties:

Enterprise Applications & Platform Leadership

• Lead the strategy, delivery, support, and lifecycle management of DECAL’s enterprise application portfolio.
• Lead modernization initiatives across proprietary .NET applications, Salesforce platforms, and Azure-based application services.
• Establish engineering governance, platform standards, and application management practices aligned with enterprise architecture objectives.
• Guide application roadmap planning, technical prioritization, scalability planning, and operational readiness activities.
• Lead application modernization and technical debt reduction initiatives across legacy and enterprise business systems.

Engineering Delivery, Release Management & Operational Excellence

• Advance engineering delivery capabilities, CI/CD practices, release management processes, and environment governance across engineering teams.
• Improve delivery quality, operational reliability, deployment consistency, and engineering efficiency through automation and standardized practices.
• Promote continuous improvement practices across development, testing, deployment, and support operations.
• Partner with infrastructure and security teams to support secure application delivery, operational resilience, and compliance alignment.
• Establish sustainable engineering practices supporting long-term maintainability, scalability, and operational supportability.

Salesforce & Enterprise Platform Governance

• Oversee Salesforce platform governance, release management, technical standards, and vendor-supported enhancements.
• Ensure alignment between Salesforce capabilities, enterprise integrations, and agency operational objectives.
• Govern enterprise application integrations and shared platform services using scalable and maintainable integration practices.
• Support API-first and cloud-aligned engineering approaches across enterprise applications and integration services.

Engineering Leadership & Solution Governance

• Provide technical leadership and oversight for enterprise application design, integrations, and modernization efforts.
• Review and guide major solution architecture decisions in collaboration with internal stakeholders and strategic vendors.
• Promote scalable, maintainable, and operationally sustainable engineering practices.
• Support adoption of automation and emerging technologies where they provide measurable operational or business value.

Vendor, Partner & Technology Management

• Manage technical relationships with SaaS vendors, system integrators, staffing partners, and implementation providers.
• Ensure vendor accountability for delivery quality, operational performance, security compliance, and support commitments.
• Evaluate technology solutions and modernization opportunities supporting long-term agency objectives.
• Support strategic technology planning and investment prioritization activities.

People Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead and mentor application, engineering, and platform teams in a collaborative and high-performing environment.
• Support workforce planning, succession planning, hiring, performance management, and professional development initiatives.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, operational ownership, and continuous learning.

Executive Partnership & Strategic Planning

• Serve as a technical advisor to executive leadership, governance committees, and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strategic planning, and investment prioritization for enterprise application initiatives.
• Communicate technical strategy, modernization priorities, operational risks, and delivery objectives to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Partner with agency leadership to align technology initiatives with operational and service-delivery goals.

Physical Position Requirements

• Ability to receive detailed information through oral communication. The ability to speak clearly and hear at a normal conversational level is required.

• Close visual acuity required to perform activities such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; viewing a computer terminal; and extensive reading and visual inspection.

• Requires the ability to exercise judgment, decisiveness, and creativity in situations involving the evaluation of information against sensory, judgmental, or subjective criteria.

Entry Qualifications:

Associate degree in a related field from an accredited college or university and five (5) years in a managerial or supervisory role; or seven (7) years in a managerial or supervisory role; or one (1) year of experience at the lower level Mgr 3, Information Technology (ITM022) or position equivalent.

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field from an accredited college or university. MBA or advanced degree preferred. Ten (10) or more years of directly related experience, with at least five (5) years leading engineering teams of 10 or more.

• Proven delivery record with .NET application platforms in production environments.

• Salesforce platform experience—governance, release management, and technical oversight (not just configuration).

• Azure DevOps fluency: designed CI/CD pipelines and sprint governance frameworks, not just approved them.

• Track record of executing modernization or migration programs—not just scoping them.

• Ability to translate technical decisions for executive and non-technical audiences without dumbing them down.

• Experience leading application development initiatives to serve programs and customers through digital, mobile, and cloud services.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is an equal opportunity employer. A background check will be completed upon hire, which may consist of any of the following: criminal history, credit history, employment history, educational records, IRS records and driving records.

If you are an individual with a disability who may require assistance or other reasonable accommodation in order to participate in the selection process for this position, you may contact our HR department at 678-879-2993. Due to the volume of submissions received by this office, information concerning application or interview status cannot be provided in writing, over the phone, or in person. All applicants who submit a complete application package will be considered but may not necessarily receive notification or an interview. The job posting may be subject to being closed at any time without notice. Only those qualified candidates who are selected for an interview shall receive notification upon the filling of this vacancy.

Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is an equal opportunity employer.