Director Product Software Engineering

Director of Product Software Engineering at Wolters Kluwer

The Director of Product Software Engineering will lead the full discovery, design, development, delivery, deployment, ongoing maintenance/upgrades, and operations of Twinfield Accounting, a Tax and Accounting business asset, part of the Digital eXperience Group (*/dxg) IP Development TechBV portfolio.

The IP Development TechBV team is an international team and part of the larger Digital eXperience Group (*/dxg) in Wolters Kluwer.

The role is responsible for developing and managing Twinfield Accounting, which carries €33m annual revenue mainly in The Netherlands. The main development teams are a mix of about 90 staff and vendors located in The Netherlands, Belgium, The United Kingdom, Germany, and India. The total budget under management is about €10 million annually.

The role leads and develops a highly technical staff, manages processes, and procures the financial resources necessary to support the development and delivery of technical product solutions to drive revenue generation for the business, ensuring product strategies from TAA are translated into successful technology solutions delivered by the Digital eXperience Group (*/dxg). The Director, Product Software Engineering needs to understand and interpret both the customer and market needs from the TAA business and translate this into the service strategy, product roadmap, and the technical development plans for delivery. This requires strong partnership and stakeholder management with the TAA Product Management owners and business leaders across Europe as well as close collaboration with *dxg / TechBV internal teams and outsourced contract R&D partners.

This role coordinates and oversees all global activity across the asset in scope, ensuring technology solutions are delivered while managing and controlling departmental expenditures within agreed budgets; developing an optimal organizational structure; managing and motivating a team of highly technical professionals and participating in organizational activities to meet or exceed company objectives. This includes representing the asset development activities and progress to the executive management of IP Dev TechBV, to the TAA Europe business leaders, and to the broader Digital eXperience Group, also covering recommendations in case of escalations.

Essential duties and responsibilities:

• Develops and maintains a deep understanding of the TAA Division’s and Wolters Kluwer’s product offerings within the industry. Mastering product, technical, and executive information provided in a timely manner; learning how TAA’s products and platforms fit into client processes and contribute to their business performance; assessing product strengths and weaknesses relative to the competition and industry benchmarks; obtaining and maintaining a deep understanding of vendor platforms, products and product strategies; obtaining and mastering strategic information critical to the market (e.g., interests, priorities, financial requirements).

• Provides full oversight over the IP Dev TechBV Twinfield Accounting asset & product development program with overall responsibility for managing this program, including outsourced R&D work and collaboration with Global Business Services. Ensures that program is aligned with corporate, business unit stakeholder, and strategic objectives and that deliverables are well formed and actionable. Conducts status and closure reviews and ensures proper reporting and communication of results.

• Drives the adoption of key programs and initiatives to support portfolio activities within the */dxg group, including Center of Excellence patterns & practices within the product and team.

• Partnership/Relationships: Leads the communication and decision making between Product Management and Technical Management. Accountable for the translation of customer and product release requirements into technical release requirements.

• IP Ownership for the Twinfield Accounting asset and member of the management team of IP Dev TechBV.

• Drive and deliver the adoption of new/best in class technologies and methodologies into Twinfield Accounting by leveraging subject matter expertise and leadership ability to obtain buy-in and final approval from key stakeholders; communicating all goals, objectives and milestones to staff and associates; working with the senior executive team to initiate project plans; facilitating communication between teams to ensure a cohesive execution of technology initiatives; removing obstacles and resolving escalated issues in a timely manner to reduce impact on project plans; and assuming final accountability for the success of technology solutions.

• Leads and oversees the annual strategic planning and budget processes for IP Dev Tech BV’s technology assets and solutions. Manages efficiently the control of departmental expenditures within agreed budgets by compiling financial resources required to support the activities and tools of the department; capturing and iterating budgets in standard templates; securing budget approvals; authorizing, tracking and reconciling spending against a budget throughout the year; justifying and securing unplanned resources as necessary to maintain operations; and ensuring the consistent, accurate, and timely development and communication of all financial data.

• Develops an optimal organizational structure by recruiting, developing, motivating and retaining a high performance team; providing training and work opportunities to resolve issues and develop talent; mentoring and coaching staff and associates on all levels; evolving the organizational structure to meet business needs (e.g., staffing, allocating resources, delegating); and integrating organizational design and development practices to ensure appropriate partnerships and skill sets are leveraged to achieve business results.

• Lead and manage a team of highly technical and highly educated professionals by monitoring key performance indicators and team member activity; analyzing data for patterns and indicators of performance slippage; documenting and discussing performance issues with underperformers; working with the HR Business Partner to establish Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) and proactive hiring plans; working with staffing team to fill open positions (e.g., providing information on candidate requirements, being available for interviews, making decisions quickly); making staff changes and additions with speed and quality; and facilitating the on-boarding/training of new team members to shorten learning curves.

• Manages time and company resources appropriately.

• Performs other duties as assigned by leadership.

Experience, knowledge and skills

Education:

• Minimum: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related discipline OR equivalent experience.

• Preferred: Master’s Degree in Information Science, Computer Science, or Information Technology.

Required:

• 10+ years demonstrated experience developing customer facing technical solutions, with an understanding of SDLC and iterative software development processes and practices including Agile and LEAN.

• 6+ years increasing responsibility leading and managing a team of highly technical professionals, preferably with international, culturally diverse organizations and across geographically dispersed teams. Experience in managing outsourced/3rd party development teams, particularly in Eastern Europe and India.

• Experience in leading efforts to build and deliver complex technology systems (involving interaction of major subsystems) using multiple project teams for construction, with a minimum budget of $5 million.

• Experience with cloud hosting and use of native cloud services (Azure and/or AWS).

• Understanding of major technology areas (Infrastructure and Operations, Quality Assurance, SW Development, Databases, etc.).

• Understanding of and ability to developing Project Plans.

• Experience leading and influencing business decisions in cross functional, matrixed global technology teams, including external resource management and planning.

• Maintaining strong vendor relationships.

• Experience managing and planning a complex, multi-million dollar operating budget.

• Demonstrating strong written and verbal communication, fluent in English.

• Utilizing the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).

Preferred:

• Experience with organizational transformation, including the development and implementation of effective operating models and organizational structure in global, large-scale, complex organizations.

• Prior experience with customer facing product development is preferred.

• Fluency in Dutch is a plus.

Competencies:

• Strong leadership and influencing skills, in addition to excellent verbal and written communication skills required.

• A relationship builder and connector at the executive level, someone willing to reach across teams, work collaboratively, and build proxy teams cross-Wolters Kluwer.

• Cross-functional understanding and ability to achieve business results through strategic involvement of marketing, product development, finance, operations, customer service, HR and vendor partners.

• Business analysis and planning expertise including sound judgment and decision-making.

• Exceptional analytical thinking skills, including the ability to see trends, identify implications, and use depth and breadth of experience to focus on what’s important.

• Excellent technical skills in software architecture, design and development.

• Ability to effectively manage software development projects and deliver applications on time, on quality and on budget.

• Structured approach, eye for detail, flexible, fast-paced / sense of urgency, and a high level of multitasking ability.

Travel:

• Position requires travel, predominately international, on an ongoing basis approximately 10%-25% of work time each year.

Applicants may be required to appear onsite at a Wolters Kluwer office as part of the recruitment process.

Be the Difference

If making a difference matters to you, then you matter to us.

Join us, at Wolters Kluwer, and be part of a dynamic global technology company that makes a difference every day.

We’re innovators with impact. We provide expert software and information solutions that the world’s leading professionals rely on, in the moments that matter most. You’ll make a real difference in the lives of millions of people. Together with our customers, we help to advance sustainability, health, justice, prosperity, and commerce around the world.

You can thrive at Wolters Kluwer, where diversity is core to our collective strength and high performance. Be your unique self, share your creative ideas, do your best work, and take time to grow in our caring and inclusive culture where you can belong.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer reported 2023 annual revenues of €5.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,400 people worldwide.

Our customers work in industries which impact the lives of millions of people every single day. Our mission is to empower our professional customers with the information, software solutions, and services they need to make critical decisions, achieve successful outcomes, and save time.

Our expert solutions combine deep domain knowledge with technology to deliver both content and workflow automation to drive improved outcomes and productivity for our customers.

We are committed to helping professionals improve the way they do business and solve complex problems with our range of digital solutions and services, which we continuously evolve to meet their changing needs. Our 188-year legacy and portfolio represent thousands of customers worldwide.

Building Diverse Teams

As a global organization, we recognize that solving a wide range of complex problems requires diverse perspectives and innovative thinking. We know that bringing our best to our customers, communities, and other key stakeholders requires a highly engaged and talented workforce – one that represents the diversity of those we serve and the communities where we live and work.

We aim to provide a welcoming environment and equitable opportunities for all employees regardless of background, nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or religion.

This principle is ingrained in our company values and articulated in our Code of Business Ethics.

Our Global Well-being Program

At Wolters Kluwer, you’ll feel valued for your contributions, and you’ll know that your health, safety, and well-being are important to us. Our well-being benefits provide tools, programs, and resources to help our diverse employees feel healthy, happy, safe, and prosperous.

In 2024 we were awarded Ragan’s Top Places to Work for Employee Wellbeing: Large Organization, in recognition of our commitment to maintaining and enhancing the well-being of our colleagues through our ‘Together we thrive’ well-being program.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To ensure we continue to drive innovation that enables us to develop products and services to best serve our customers, we cultivate a workplace culture rooted in mutual respect, bringing forward insights from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. We are also committed to complying with laws requiring equal opportunity in hiring, promotion, and other employment decisions.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, transgender status, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, and we do not tolerate discrimination on any of these bases.