John Mathena

Judge
DISC Type : Dc

Director of Engineering at 2U

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Overview

John Mathena is the Director of Software Engineering at 2U, where he leads several teams of engineers, business analysts, and quality engineers. His career has progressed from data analytics to a leadership role in education technology, focusing on data processing tools and web applications. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland.

Outside of his technical work, John has a strong interest in linguistics and foreign cultures, having studied Arabic and Spanish. He spent time studying in Morocco at the Arab American Language Institute and documented his experiences on a personal travel blog, demonstrating a passion for immersive cultural experiences and travel.

He maintained a travel blog titled "Mo rockin with John Mathena" about his adventures in Morocco.

Personality Overview

Features Driven

Quality Focused

Fast But Wary

They prefer to be the ones controlling the conversation or defining the terms.  More than the product, they care about the impact of the product. They are not always relationship oriented.

Topics They Care About

EdTech Leadership
As a Director at 2U, he manages multiple teams responsible for software powering the company's Degrees line of business.
Data Engineering
His career path shows a progression from data analyst to data engineer, and his teams currently manage data transfer pipelines.
Team Management
He is responsible for managing two dozen direct reports across three distinct teams, including engineers, analysts, and quality assurance.

Media Appearances

John has no verified media appearances

Work History

7-2025
Director of Engineering at 2U
1-2025 - 7-2025
Software Engineer III at 2U
3-2023 - 1-2025
Software Engineer II, Legacy Systems and Manual Processing Track Lead at 2U
10-2022 - 2-2023
Software Engineer II at 2U
3-2021 - 10-2022
Data Manager at 2-1-1 Maryland

Education

6-2017 - 5-2018
Bachelor of Arts - BA from University of Maryland
6-2017 - 5-2018
Certificate from Arab American Language Institute in Morocco

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 10 Location : Baltimore, Maryland, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Director of Engineering at 2U
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To John

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Get to the point quickly instead of spending time doing small talk
  • Be respectful but crisp
  • Refer to testimonials from well-known industry leaders

DONT's

  • Avoid being a storyteller and don’t try to oversell
  • Avoid being too verbose
  • Do not back off when challenged, respond with a confident, objective answer instead

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with John is

  • Conviction around the impact matters the most to them, followed by a sense of achievement and ROI.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from John

  • If they are not convinced, they will say no without any hesitation.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will John move?

  • They can reach decisions fairly quickly if they are convinced.
  • Can John take some risk or not?

  • They don’t mind risks but can be quite binary about them.

You And John

Personality Compatibility


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