IT Director

Empowered is a community of social entrepreneur teachers, bringing the experiential, individualized, self-discovery teaching methodology to life in their classrooms. Their work leads to transformative learning experiences for their students. At scale, the Empowered community is a cultural movement driving bottom-up change throughout the key institution of education. 

Empowered is part of the Stand Together philanthropic community. 

Our community is growing and so is the impact of our work to move toward a society where everyone could live a life of meaning and succeed by benefiting others. At Empowered, we advance this work by partnering with educators who are empowering students to realize their potential. There are several ‘cool’ brands in the sector focusing on teachers. However, we believe there is a ton of opportunity for an exciting brand, who deeply believes in educators for the change agents they are and wants to authentically invest in teachers at all grade levels, to catalyze teacher joy at scale. Empowered is that brand and we are looking for an Information Technology (IT) Director to lead our technology efforts to capture these opportunities.

Empowered is excited to find an innovative, mission-driven IT Director ready to help reshape the future of education through technology specifically design for teachers. In this high-impact leadership role, you’ll craft, execute, and own the enterprise IT strategies that will allow Empowered to realize our bold vision of becoming THE platform of choice for educators across the country. You’ll be the lead steward of our technology portfolio and initiatives leveraging the latest product delivery methodologies to launch innovative solutions that meet educator community’s needs. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming nearly every industry, and the IT Director will look to drive how Empowered incorporates AI in how our instructional products serve our teachers individually and collectively as a community. This is a dream role for a proven, enterprise technology professional who desires to lead a team, through direct supervision and modeling principles, towards an organizational vision that promises significant scale in community growth.

This role reports to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

• Owning and driving enterprise technology vision, strategy, and operations
• Partnering with Education Operations and Data Analytics teams to deploy a comprehensive IT strategy
• Developing a vision and operating model for product and demand management capabilities
• Creating dependable, efficient, and innovate solutions related to systems optimization and data accessibility
• Developing IT standards that keep us competitive with market & industry practices while allow for rapid experimentation
• Partnering with innovative technology vendors to deliver both custom and SaaS applications that meet the needs of our teachers and what they value
• Helping scale the business through technology leading to a decreasing cost/educator KPI
• Directly supervising a team of business systems analysts, application managers, and developers
• Modeling principled entrepreneurship & problem-solving curiosity
• Setting expectations & accountability towards progress

• Bachelor's in IT or related area or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of supervisory experience in the IT field
• Demonstrated experience in implementing technology strategies
• Experience in optimizing enterprise systems for integration, business functionality, and reducing complexity in the environment
• Background in designing/developing IT systems, planning IT implementation, and maximizing user adoption
• Ability to vet plans and ideas for technical viability and requirements
• Core knowledge of information system vulnerabilities and risk management
• Knowledge of how to invest in IT talent for optimal development and retention: mentor, manage and grow the team while setting a culture of quality, agility, and high performance for the organization
• Strong economic and business thinking skills
• Analytical, data-driven, entrepreneurial mindset
• Enthusiasm to contribute to our vision and principled approach to solving problems, and a commitment to stewarding our culture, which champions values including transformation and innovation, entrepreneurialism, humility, and respect

• Experience in K-12 education field
• A love for translating vision into strategy — and strategy into technological solutions that deliver results
• An understanding of the power of AI and how the concepts create real value
• A passion to work cross-functionally and bring out the best in others

• Competitive benefits: Enjoy a 6% 401(k) match with immediate vesting, flexible time off, comprehensive health and dental plans, plus wellness and mental health support through Peloton and Talkspace.
• A meaningful career: Join a passionate community of over 1,300 employees dedicated to improving lives and driving innovative solutions to complex social challenges.
• Commitment to growth: Thrive in a non-hierarchical environment that empowers employees to discover, develop and apply their unique talents.
• Competitive compensation: Our approach rewards the value you create through competitive salaries and bonus opportunities, allowing you to share in the success you help drive.

Our Values: Working at Stand Together is different from many other organizations. Our culture is deeply rooted in Principle Based Management® (PBM®), a framework guided by the principles that drive human progress, such as dignity, openness, and bottom-up empowerment. PBM® empowers our employees to be entrepreneurial, to innovate, and to continually drive transformation.   

We believe diversity fuels creativity, broadens knowledge, and helps drive success, and that is why we’re proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and strive to treat all employees and applicants with honesty, dignity, respect and sensitivity.