Director of Information Technology

Job title

Director of Information Technology

Department

Donor Relations

Reports to

Vice President, Donor Relations

Supervises

IT Coordinator

FLSA status

Exempt

Hours

Full time

Date

August 2024

Austin Community Foundation mobilizes ideas and resources to strengthen Central Texas. We envision a vibrant and equitable community where everyone can contribute and find opportunity. ACF is committed to closing the opportunity gap in Central Texas through targeted investments in housing affordability and economic mobility.

As a trusted local partner, ACF stewards approximately $540 million in assets in more than 1,300 charitable funds. Since its creation in 1977, the Foundation has granted more than $570 million to nonprofits across Central Texas and beyond.

Job summary

The Director of Information Technology provides strategic and operational leadership to the Foundation related to the organization's IT security, tools, and environment. This role maintains a deep understanding of the needs of each department and identifies and implements technological solutions that drive the Foundation’s work forward in an effective and innovative manner. The Director of Information Technology liaises with a third-party IT provider and leads a team that provides friendly, responsive IT service to internal and external customers and supports implementation and maintenance of the Foundation’s systems.

The Foundation’s operations and technology functions report to the Vice President, Donor Relations, who serves on the senior leadership team and supports organization-wide operations. While this role resides in the Donor Relations department, it provides IT strategy and support for the entire ACF team.

 Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Technology Strategy and Oversight

• Develop and implement the strategic direction for the Foundation’s IT infrastructure (Technology Roadmap) in alignment with organizational goals, needs, and resources.
• Consult stakeholders across the organization to identify business and technology needs and optimize the use of information technology while balancing security, efficiency and user-friendliness.
• Manage a technology budget and technology asset inventory that accounts for the Foundation’s strategic IT needs, growth plan, and a seamless technology experience for staff and other users.
• Engage with industry peers directly and via industry-specific professional development organizations to bring best practice and industry learnings to the Foundation’s work.
• Continuously evaluate existing technology systems against evolving business needs and monitor the market for potential product purchases, replacements, or upgrades.
• Oversee the development of effective systems that focus on consistent, scalable service to internal and external constituents. Ensure consistent application of systems that serve multiple departments or teams.
• Lead significant technology changes, communicate impact to staff, secure staff buy-in, and oversee rollout and staff training.

IT and Data Security

• Position the Foundation to address growing cybersecurity threats to the organization. Lead the Foundation’s efforts to create and maintain IT policies, security controls and procedures to protect Foundation-critical assets and operations. Oversee periodic testing and assessment of systems.
• Recommend and maintain security permissions and other measures to support the Foundation’s efforts to mitigate cybersecurity risks.
• Identify needs and oversee implementation of staff training related to cyber security.
• Develop and maintain business continuity protocols and system recovery plans to minimize disruption to business operations in emergencies or data loss events.

Technology Operations

• Oversee the Foundation's suite of database solutions (CommunitySuite, Grant Lifecycle Manager, and Scholarship Lifecycle Management) to ensure all constituent, transactional, and financial data is accurate and current. Work with internal staff to build efficient and cohesive systems for donor tracking and data entry. Enforce protocols for data entry and appropriate use of all database systems.
• Ensure all donor-facing technology systems operate in a manner that meets the service and accessibility standards of the Foundation’s service model.
• Support business continuity of the Foundation through policy creation, documentation, and system maintenance. Collaborate with vendors to ensure data integrity, best practices, and effective policies and procedures.
• Oversee staff training, regular maintenance, and continued implementation of new features to maintain effective use of all technology platforms.
• Support auxiliary technology solutions that support the work of Foundation including virtual receptionist, project management, service ticketing, wealth screening, and other identified solutions to enhance the Foundation work or customer experience.
• Plan and oversee technology projects, ensuring they are completed on time and within budget, including coordination with internal cross-functional teams and external vendors.
• Routinely gather organizational feedback to ensure that the Foundation’s technology environment is meeting team needs.
• Manage technology vendor relationships to maintain good rapport and promote the prioritization of ACF requests and feedback.
• Ensure that technology vendors are managed in accordance with industry standards, including managing routine RFP and vendor selection processes where appropriate.

Data, Reports, and Key Indicators

• In partnership with other team leads, identify key performance metrics and develop a strategy for long-term tracking and reporting.
• Develop dashboard reports on organizational KPIs relating to fund and donor development.
• Oversee the generation of complex reports and communications lists.
• Support staff in identifying and creating user-friendly custom reports to suit their individual needs.
• Develop and guide the implementation of tracking systems that support internal communication, moves management strategies, streamlined external communications functions, effective campaigns, and reportable tracking of donor and fundholder opportunities.

Team Supervision

• Manage and grow a highly effective information technology team. Provide support and feedback on an individual and team basis to ensure that the team’s work is aligned with the strategic initiatives of the Foundation and industry best practices.
• Hire, train, and manage resources related to the IT Coordinator role.
• Identify training needs and growth opportunities.
• Develop and oversee a cross-training and resource development plan to ensure coverage during busy periods or staff transitions.

Other duties as assigned.

This job description is intended to be general, is expected to evolve over time, and will be reviewed periodically and updated as needed.

Job requirements and qualifications

Note: this is not a remote position. Austin Community Foundation expects its employees to live in teh Austin MSA and to work in the office part of each week.

Experience

Required

• A minimum of 10 years’ professional experience in computer network and application management or related field. Must have a high-level understanding of networking infrastructure, servers, data backup, telephone systems, office user applications, and security systems.
• Expert knowledge in cloud-based infrastructure, systems, and services.
• A minimum of 5 years in a leadership capacity.
• Experience managing and planning an organization’s IT budget.
• Advanced knowledge of network security.
• Vendor management experience: strong communication, contract review and negotiation experience.
• Experience developing and leading technology teams.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing IT strategies and managing large-scale technology projects and software conversions.
• Extensive project management experience working on complex projects with cross-functional teams and multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent and well-practiced communication (spoken, written, listening), interpersonal and influencing skills with the ability to communicate through user-friendly language.
• Sound judgement and ability to manage competing priorities.
• Excellent cross-departmental collaboration skills.
• Strong organizational skills with particular emphasis on attention to detail.
• Understanding and adherence to high standards of ethics and confidentiality.
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from individuals or groups (both internal and external).

Preferred

• Community foundation, philanthropic, or related private sector experience.
• Deep understanding of the IT infrastructure and integration of tools that we use: Foundant CommunitySuite, GLM, and SLM, Windows 11, Microsoft 365, Sharepoint, Teams, Teams Phone, Zoom, Asana, and Zendesk.
• Experience working with CRM software, preferably in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.
• Experience with reporting and data visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Google Data Studio, etc.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, information systems, or a related field from an accredited college or university required. Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
• Master’s degree in applicable field preferred.

Training requirements (licenses, programs, or certificates)

None required

Other knowledge, skills, and abilities

• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral; ability to influence and engage a wide range of donors and build long-term relationships.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Flexible and adaptable style; a leader who can positively impact both strategic and tactical fundraising initiatives.
• Ability to work independently without close oversight, but also a team player who will productively engage with others at varying levels of seniority within and outside the organization.
• Superb interpersonal skills; ease in communicating and interacting with a wide variety of constituent groups. Successful use of internal and external consensus-building.
• Customer focus.
• Authentic participation in diversity, equity and inclusion education and training; commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and to the organization’s ongoing work to eliminate the opportunity gap in Central Texas.

Work environment and other information

Austin Community Foundation offers a hybrid work environment. As a place-based organization, we expect our employees to reside locally and be available for in-office meetings and tasks. Employees work with their supervisors to draft their hybrid work plan.

• Work in clean, pleasant, comfortable office setting.
• Minimal travel required.
• Attendance required at occasional after-hours or evening events.

Salary: $110,000 per year

To apply for this position, please submit your resume and cover letter to Kim McCrary at apply@austincf.org. No phone calls, please. Position will remain open until filled.

Austin Community Foundation is committed to equal-employment principles, and we recognize the value of committed employees who feel they are being treated in an equitable and professional manner. We strive to find ways to attract, develop, and retain the talent needed to meet business objectives, and to recruit and employ highly qualified individuals representing the diverse communities in which we live.