Lead Platform Engineer (IT Manager I)

The mission of the South Carolina Department of Education is to serve students support teachers empower parents and engage the community so that every student graduates prepared to reach their full potential.

PURPOSE OF POSITION

The Lead Platform Engineer serves as the senior hands-on technical leader and engineering manager within Enterprise Applications & Architecture responsible for designing building and modernizing mission-critical applications that power K-12 education across South Carolina. This role combines production software engineering with technical architecture leadership team mentorship and strategic direction. The position mentors and provides technical guidance to developers owns the quality and direction of application delivery drives modernization of legacy systems and works closely with the Director and Infrastructure & Cloud Operations group on the long-term platform roadmap. The position balances delivery across current operational needs (maintaining the portfolio) and strategic modernization (building the future).

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Technical Leadership and Development (40%)

• Provide day-to-day technical direction and remove blockers for the development team. Mentor and coach developers through pairing code review and architectural guidance; support their technical growth and career development.
• Design build test deploy and maintain production applications across the full stack: React and React Native on the frontend Python and C# on the backend Azure SQL for data and Microsoft Azure for hosting.
• Own delivery of complex features end to end from requirements and design through implementation testing deployment and production support shipping high-quality code that other developers learn from.
• Contribute to sprint planning backlog refinement and estimation. Participate in hiring decisions technical interviews and onboarding of new team members.

Architecture and Modernization (30%)

• Lead technical design for new applications and significant enhancements; produce architecture decisions design documentation and integration specifications that guide the team and outlast individual projects.
• Own the application modernization roadmap: plan and execute migrations from ColdFusion classic ASP and onto modern frameworks and Azure de-risking large platform changes through structured phasing and rigorous testing.
• Make and document framework pattern and tooling decisions in coordination with the Director and Infrastructure & Cloud Operations; evaluate new technologies and prototype them against agency needs.

Engineering Standards and Quality (20%)

• Establish and enforce code review discipline coding standards automated testing practices and CI/CD workflows (GitLab GitHub Actions Azure DevOps) that enable safe frequent deployments.
• Drive reduction of technical debt vulnerability remediation and production defect burn-down so the team spends more time building and less time firefighting.
• Diagnose and resolve production issues end to end including performance bottlenecks reliability defects and security vulnerabilities; establish patterns for logging monitoring and incident response.

Strategic Coordination (10%)

• Participate in project planning capacity planning and strategic roadmap discussions with the Director and Platform Management Group. Support long-term team growth and organizational planning.

A bachelors degree in communications business administration information technology mathematics statistics management information science or a related field and experience in telecommunications data processing and/or information technology. Relevant experience may substitute for the bachelors degree on a year-for-year basis.

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Software Engineering Information Technology or a related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Six (6) years of professional full-stack software development experience with at least two (2) years in a technical leadership mentorship or lead engineer capacity.
• Demonstrated ability to design and deliver complex user-facing applications across the full stack.
• Proficiency in modern frontend and backend development (React or comparable UI framework; Python C# or comparable backend language).
• Experience with version control and CI/CD tooling (GitLab GitHub Actions Azure DevOps or comparable).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Track record leading the technical design and delivery of complex applications with high uptime and quality requirements.
• Experience designing and delivering applications on Microsoft Azure (App Service Azure SQL Entra ID) using infrastructure-as-code (Bicep).
• Hands-on experience modernizing legacy applications (ColdFusion classic ASP ) onto modern frameworks and cloud platforms.
• Experience establishing engineering standards component architectures shared libraries and development best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of developers and drive alignment through influence.
• Familiarity with Agile delivery practices sprint planning and backlog management.
• Experience in state government K-12 education or similarly regulated environments.

• Primary location: Columbia SC.
• On-call availability may be required for mission-critical system incidents.
• Background check required.

As a part of a generous compensation package we offer comprehensive benefits that include generous paid time off preeminent health care benefits professional development opportunities pension a 401(k) and a hybrid work schedule with opportunity for remote work.

The South Carolina Department of Education offers an exceptional benefits package that includes:

• Health Dental Vision Long Term Disability and Life Insurance for Employee Spouse and Children.
• 15 days annual (vacation) leave per year.
• 15 days sick leave per year.
• 13 paid holidays.
• State Retirement Plan and Deferred Compensation Programs.

ONLY THOSE APPLICANTS CHOSEN FOR AN INTERVIEW WILL BE NOTIFIED BY LETTER THAT THE POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.

Experience:

Manager