Vice President of Information Technology

Multi-site special education network

Reports to: CEO

Function: Enterprise IT, Data & Security

Who we are:

We are a network of ten special education schools and programs operating under several established brands, including Hubbard, Emerald Learning Center, Nova Day, Foundry, and RISE NYC. Each school delivers specialized programs to students with unique needs.

Our goal is a unified technology foundation that gives leadership a clear, real-time view of financial and operational performance across every school, while preserving what makes each campus effective. This is a build-from-the-ground-up mandate with executive sponsorship and the backing of our investors.

Why us:

This is a rare chance to define the technology backbone of a growing organization rather than maintain someone else’s. You’ll have executive sponsorship and the autonomy to make a measurable difference — for the business and, ultimately, for the students our schools serve.

The Role:

As the technology leader for the enterprise, you will bridge strategic vision and operational execution, owning all aspects of the organization’s technology infrastructure, data, systems, and compliance posture. You will be the person who turns ten disconnected schools into one connected, data-driven organization.

Your first mandate is consolidation and visibility: replacing fragmented, site-by-site systems with common platforms, and architecting an enterprise data platform that aggregates financial and operational data from every school into clear dashboards and KPIs for school leaders and the executive team. In parallel, you will take full ownership of cybersecurity and data privacy across highly regulated environments handling sensitive student records.

This is a high-visibility role with real value-creation impact. The systems and data foundation you build will directly support smarter operating decisions, scalable growth, and the integration of future acquisitions.

What You’ll do:

Enterprise data & business intelligence

• Architect and stand up an enterprise data platform / warehouse that aggregates data from disparate, school-level source systems (student information, billing, HR, finance, and operations).
• Build and maintain executive and operational dashboards that track financial and operational KPIs across schools, giving leadership a single, trusted view of enterprise performance.
• Partner with Finance and operations leaders to define metrics, standardize definitions, and make reporting consistent and comparable across every brand and campus.

Systems consolidation & modernization

• Assess the current state of technology at each school and design a roadmap to standardize fragmented systems onto common, supportable platforms.
• Lead IT modernization initiatives end to end — from selection through migration and adoption — minimizing disruption to schools and staff.
• Streamline workflows with the appropriate, pragmatic use of technology, automation, and AI tooling.

Infrastructure, security & compliance

• Take full ownership of the organization’s risk posture across multiple sites, including networks, endpoints, and cloud environments.
• Establish and enforce cybersecurity baselines aligned with recognized frameworks (e.g., NIST, CIS Benchmarks), and lead data governance across environments handling sensitive student records.
• Ensure compliance with FERPA and applicable student-data-privacy regulations (and HIPAA where student health information is involved), including audit readiness and incident response.

Leadership & value creation

• Serve as the technology partner to the executive team, translating business goals into a technology roadmap and reporting on progress and impact.
• Manage vendor selection, RFPs, evaluation, and contract negotiation for enterprise software, hardware, and service partners.
• Build and lead a small IT team and support function over time, and lay the technology groundwork for integrating future acquisitions.
• other tasks as assigned.

What You Bring:

• 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including 5+ years in a senior IT leadership role overseeing infrastructure, operations, security, or systems teams. Comfort operating in a lean, fast-moving, build-it-from-scratch environment.
• Proven success consolidating disparate systems across multiple sites or business units into common, supportable platforms — ideally within a multi-location or portfolio-company setting.
• Demonstrated ability to architect and leverage an enterprise data warehouse to aggregate data from disparate, cross-departmental sources, and to build BI dashboards that report KPIs and operational metrics across the enterprise (Power BI experience preferred).
• Prior experience managing IT within education (or a comparably regulated sector such as healthcare), with working knowledge of FERPA — and HIPAA where applicable — and the operational realities of those environments.
• Track record of implementing strong security controls, managing independent audits, and maintaining data governance over sensitive records, with baselines aligned to NIST and/or CIS Benchmarks.
• Hands-on experience designing and managing complex configurations within the Microsoft 365 and Azure ecosystem.
• Expertise in modern identity governance, zero-trust principles, MFA, and conditional access (e.g., Microsoft Entra ID), plus proficiency with PowerShell for configuration, bulk administration, and automation.
• Pragmatic understanding of how to integrate AI into corporate workflows responsibly, with data privacy and regulatory compliance front of mind.
• Strong partnership skills — able to work with department heads, school leaders, and executives to identify, analyze, and document evolving technology requirements and translate them into action.
• Experience running vendor identification, evaluation matrices, RFP cycles, and contract negotiation for enterprise software, hardware, and services.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field; advanced degree or relevant industry certifications preferred.

Preferred:

• Familiarity with the special education or K–12 sector and student information systems (SIS).
• Experience standing up an IT function and small team from an early stage.

The Foundry Learning Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to any protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.

Pay: $125,000.00 - $200,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Work Location: Remote