Application Management Lead – Learning Management Platform

Job Highlight

This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to a global initiative aimed at enhancing access to lifelong learning for millions of health workers worldwide. The position offers exposure to cutting-edge learning technologies, collaboration with international organizations, and the chance to make a significant impact on global health education.

Role Purpose

The Application Management Lead will originate and develop new policies, techniques, or standards for the Learning Experience Platform (LXP), innovate and create novel approaches to solve complex or systemic problems, and provide expert advice on the development and implementation of new programs or initiatives. The role will also involve leading and directing substantive teams and junior managers, advocating for new ideas, and driving improvements and transformative change within the learning technology field.

Functions / Key Results Expected

• Application Development & Delivery
• Coordinate the activities of internal team members and Managed Service Providers to deliver application-layer features that support business needs and enhance the learner experience.
• Manage the full lifecycle of application development for the Open edX platform, including custom XBlocks/plugins development and platform enhancements.
• Enforce application-level coding standards using Python (Django), Node.js, and modern JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js, including performing code reviews and auditing deliverables to ensure compliance with WHO requirements.
• Ensure compliance with DevOps practices, including image management, secrets handling, automated testing, and adherence to WHO standards and policies.
• Develop and enforce runbooks, SOPs, and documentation standards.
• Manage software development processes from requirements gathering through service transition.
• Design and maintain integration patterns for APIs, identity systems, credentialing standards (LTI, SCORM, xAPI), and downstream WHO systems.
• Define and maintain data architecture, including conceptual, logical, and physical data models for Open edX and related services.
• Implement reliability engineering practices, including SLOs, SLIs, capacity thresholds, and error budgets.
• Oversee observability across all LXP layers, including APM, metrics, logs, traces, and microservices monitoring.
• Define and enforce both application-level and infrastructure-level security practices, including penetration testing follow-ups, secret management, and hardened images.
• Application Operations
• Define and manage operational processes for services, including incident management, request fulfillment, and access management.
• Interface with Academy product leads and business owners to ensure user support and event management align with business needs.
• Oversee the reliability of the application layer to support high availability (≥99.95%) for up to 10 million users.
• Community & Capability Building
• Lead the design and operation of open-source learning products based on Open edX, while contributing back to the open-source community.
• Collaborate with external providers, UN agencies, and academic institutions to advocate for and mobilize resources in learning technology initiatives.
• Stay updated on emerging e-learning trends, including the integration of AI/ML technologies (CNNs, RNNs) and data analytics within learning platforms.
  
  

Education Requirements

Required

• Masters degree or equivalent, in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field relevant to the position with 7 years of relevant experience, OR
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent, in above- mentioned areas or related fields with 9 years of relevant experience
  
  

Desired

• Certifications in Agile Project Management and/or SCRUM
• Certification related to enterprise information technology architecture, such as TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework).
• Technical certifications related to Microsoft Azure, RedHat OpenShift, MongoDB
  
  

Required

Experience Requirements

• Relevant experience is work in software architecture and development.
• At least 3 years experience in large-scale, cloud-native OpenEdx platforms.
• Experience in microservices, containerization (Kubernetes/OpenShift), and CI/CD automation.
• Experience with Python (Django), Node.js, FastAPI, Celery, and modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue.js).
• Proven track record with relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB), search/analytics (Elasticsearch, ClickHouse), and caching (Redis).
• Familiarity with event streaming (Kafka), workflow orchestration (Airflow), and LTI/SCORM/xAPI standards.
• Experience in security, compliance, and data governance in enterprise environments.
  
  

Desired

• Experience in EdTech or large-scale learning platforms
• Certifications in Azure, Kubernetes/OpenShift, or TOGAF.