EF Education First / Hult
Director of Engineering & Technology
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Director of Engineering & Technology EF English Live
Reports to: CEO, EF English Live
Location: Budapest, London, or Barcelona (some travel between EF locations may be required)
About EF English Live
EF English Live is the world’s first and largest online English school, founded in 1996 and part of EF (Education First). With over 20 million learners taught, 2 million classes delivered each year, and a 4.9/5 teacher rating, we help working professionals find their voice in English. Our school combines certified teachers and AI technology to deliver a flexible, research-backed learning experience trusted globally.
The Opportunity
EF English Live is embarking on an ambitious transformation, building capabilities to embed AI across its product, marketing, and operations—while sustaining and growing its established lead generation and telesales business and expanding into e-commerce. This role offers a rare chance to owner the full technology agenda of a global EdTech business at a pivotal moment.
Role Overview
The Director of Engineering & Technology owns the technology direction, architecture, and delivery for EF English Live, providing senior leadership across the function. Reporting directly to the CEO, the role interfaces with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Responsibilities include translating business priorities into technology roadmaps, ensuring delivery of initiatives with measurable impact.
Key Scope:
- Owns technology systems, integrations, and operations supporting e-commerce, Salesforce, sales tech, marketing platforms, and customer-facing business systems.
- Responsibility for AI adoption, CRM, data platform, and cisco-integration of the Efekta platform for EF English Live customers.
What Success Looks Like (12-18 Months)
- A clear, executing technology roadmap aligned to business priorities, understood across the SLT.
- A functioning e-commerce capability in priority markets, integrated with Salesforce, payments, and customer operations, while preserving telesales performance.
- AI-enabled capabilities deployed for conversion, revenue, or cost reduction improvements.
- A stable, high-performing technology team with eng foraging standards, reliable delivery practices, and strong cross-team alignment.
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Main Responsibilities
1. Technology Strategy and Planning
- Translate business priorities into technical roadmaps, delivery plans, and investments, with visibility into feasibility, risks, and trade-offs.
- Partner with stakeholders to identify and deliver AI-driven capabilities across marketing, sales, customer experience, and operations.
- Leading technology portfolio evaluations, assessing technical, operational, cost, and maintainability impacts.
2. Architecture & Engineering
- Own global technology architecture for scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness, aligned with AI transformation.
- Drive Salesforce architecture, data engine development, and operational integration for customer-centric business needs.
- Ensure data governance, compliance (GDPR), and security requirements are embedded across systems.
3. Delivery Operating Model & CI/CD
- Establish delivery standards, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release processes for fast, safe deployment.
- Mature engineering quality, security, and technical risk standards for teams.
- Monitor portfolio-level delivery health, making high-level trade-offs and escalation decisions.
4. Business Partnership & Delivery Planning
- Build relationships with Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and Operations, aligning technology initiatives with business goals.
- Stewardship of requirements assessment, feasibility guidelines, and risk communication to stakeholders.
- Senior escalation point for delivery decisions, architectural trade-offs, and execution risks.
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5. Executive Stakeholder Alignment
- Advise leadership on feasibility, cost, and risks for technology opportunities and contraints.
- Partner with Head of Data to ensure data-driven, analytics-rich architecture supports business decisions.
- Manage strategic vendor relationships and platform implementation, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
6. People Leadership
- Lead a team of ~15+ across Web Engineering, Data Engineering, Salesforce Development, Marketing Tech, and Product Ownership.
- Identify and develop team capabilities, adapting structure to meet evolving business needs.
Technical Requirements
Architecture and transformation execution are the core focus. The ideal output has: • Technical depth to guide engineers, challenge decisions, and strategize AI, data, and emerging tech. • Business acumen to understand end-to-end ecosystems across customer journeys. • Proven experience in digital, e-commerce, or EdTech organizations with consulting experience.
Required Expertise
✅ Lean into enterprise architecture, integrations (APIs, salesforce), e-commerce, payments systems, and analytic ecosystems.
✅ Demonstrable Salesforce expertise, including governance, security, omnichannel platforms, and CRM optimizations.
✅ Leadership in data and AI – leveraging LLMs or subtle AI integration across orgs.
✅ Vendor management – ROI, risk assessments, implementation oversight, and platform sustainability.
✅ System migrate, DevOps, CI/CD, and technical training teams culture. Security/compliance expert.
Leadership Essentials
Lead digital transformation in fast-paced SaaS/EdTech, scaling through operational excellence and delegation. Distributed leadership model.
More detail at efenglishlive.com – apply for roles at EF Career Hub
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