Director of Information Technology

Full-Time, 12 Month, Role Level 5

Reports To: Chief of Staff and Strategy

Supervisor: Yes

Who We Are: 

YouthBuild Philadelphia (YBP) Charter School is a tuition-free, public charter high school, with a singular focus on supporting youth aged 17-20 who have been pushed out of traditional schools. During our 1-year alternative program,  Youthbuild facilitates a warm, loving culture that uses a variety of structures to build community, such as a restorative-justice approach to discipline, weekly community meetings, and school-wide service projects. Students are empowered to attain their high school diploma and vocational certifications, while receiving unconditional support by the staff around them. At YouthBuild, we work intentionally to disrupt the cycle of poverty and support our students to achieve post-secondary success (4-year college, 2-year college, vocational training program, or liveable wage job). Visit https://www.youthbuildphilly.org/ to learn more.

The Opportunity: 

The YouthBuild Director of Information Technology will be responsible for providing leadership, guidance, management, and support relating to Information Technology (IT) and Information Security (IS), and Data Systems. The successful candidate will be a hands-on manager responsible for day-to-day IT operations and should have excellent people-management and technical skills, and a strong track record of managing and delivering challenging projects in the IT/IS and Data Systems spaces.

In order to assist YBP's growth, the candidate must be able to define, design, and implement a 3-5 year IT/IS modernization and maturity strategy. They must also plan, budget, and align IT/IS goals with a risk-based strategy in line with YBP’s goals.  The candidate will be responsible for adhering to industry guidelines, standards, and/or frameworks while taking the organization's legal and compliance responsibilities into account. They will ensure program initiatives and deliverables are developing as anticipated (during the design, construct, and run stages).  They will also develop and deliver a measurements/metrics/KPI program and expand our organization’s capacity to effectively gather, organize, and analyze data to best support students.

Who You Are: 

  You are/have…

• Invested in our core values - Respect, Excellence and Perseverance.
• Equity-focused and believe that all students can achieve. 
• Passionate about community service and civic engagement.
• Excited to mentor students and support them throughout their time at YouthBuild and beyond.
• Collaborative and dedicated to personal and professional development.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (Master’s preferred)
• CCNP, MCSE, AWS, ITIL, PMP certifications, etc. preferred
• Minimum of 5 - 7  years’ experience in IT and/or IS, with at least 3 years in a management role
• Demonstrate a hands on manager approach that helps support the day-to-day IT operations
• Thorough understanding and experience with cloud architecture, operations, and security. 
• Experience working with school information systems preferred (i.e., PowerSchool)
• Extensive knowledge and experience with a broad range of infrastructure, virtualization, storage, disaster recovery and datacenter systems, networking, security policies, database systems, etc.
• A proven track record and experience in developing information security programs, policies and procedures, including successful implementations in small business & enterprise environments
• Pursuing professional certification in security management certification, such as Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), or similar credentials are preferred 
• Strong leadership, project management, and written & verbal communication skills
• Resourceful and able to find creative solutions, thinking beyond current systems and approaches toward continual improvement;
• Desire to be part of a hardworking, collaborative, fun and values-driven team.
• Strong commitment to educational equity and social justice for low-income communities of color. Demonstrated commitment to progressive social change and ability to engage in strategic and analytical thinking around issues of social justice.

What You’ll Do: 

• Create, execute, monitor, and revise systems that ensure all IT hardware, software, and network systems are consistently up and running, meeting staff and student needs, and ensuring that support tickets are resolved efficiently and effectively
• Support and growth of YBP’s hybrid infrastructure (on-prem/cloud)
• Lead the development and documentation of robust policies and procedures for managing the datacenter and infrastructure, including backup and disaster-recovery planning, outage management, etc.
• Work closely with leadership  to develop and manage the IT/IS budget to plan ahead for future hardware, software, network, and information security needs to ensure that the organizations IT, security, and data needs continue to be met in the future
• Serve as administrator for all YB systems and platforms (Google, network, Powerschool, Tableau, IEP Writer etc.), delegating to the IT specialist where appropriate and providing training and support to ensure staff can maximize use of those platforms
• Manage, revise, and improve data dashboards in Tableau, google sheets, and other systems to ensure all staff members have access to the data they need, including managing scripts, syncing, importing/exporting etc.
• Compile and manage data reports for submission to the school district and state
• Establish and deploy metrics and reporting framework to measure the performance, integrity, and reliability of the datacenter and infrastructure
• Work closely with YBP’s leadership to develop and execute a security, cloud, and network infrastructure modernization strategy to address the evolving needs of the organization
• Provide leadership, develop, and maintain information security policies, standards, and guidelines; oversee the dissemination and awareness of security policies and best practices
• Identify knowledge gaps to increase organization-wide awareness of relevant information security practices
• Monitor external threat environment for emerging threats and advise relevant stakeholders on courses of action, including conducting gap analysis and other comprehensive internal assessments of existing systems to improve the security infrastructure and mitigate risks
• Lead investigations of any actual or potential information security violations and manage escalation of security events/incidents; assist with related legal matters associated with such events as needed and make recommendations to correct or prevent future incidents
• Manage IT/IS vendor relationships and contracts as needed
• Other duties as assigned by the Chief of Staff and Strategy

What We Offer You: 

• Generous time off
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance 
• Flexible spending accounts
• 401(k) savings plan with an employer match
• Employer paid parental leave, life insurance, short-term disability and long-term disability 
• Educational assistance and professional development opportunities to enhance skills and career growth
• Supportive and collaborative work environment
• Strong community support and involvement

Salary Range:

New YouthBuild staff can expect a starting salary of between $80,000-$100,000 based on years of experience, education, and certifications, if applicable.

During the application process, applicants will have the opportunity to discuss our employee total rewards package and additional benefits.

Apply Here

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by this employee. 

All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, medical condition, veteran status, or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.