Vice President of Research and Development

Vice President, Research & Development – Harris School Solutions, FINS

This is a unique opportunity to own and drive all facets of Research & Development for Harris School Solutions' FINS expanding growth products, at a moment when AI is reshaping both how software is built and what K12 customers expect from it. This is a technical leadership position that requires a strong blend of people management and hands-on software development experience, product vision, deep knowledge of Microsoft technologies and the multi-tooled AI ecosystem, fluency with modern AI-assisted development practices, and a working command of the agile scrum process.

The Vice President of Research & Development is responsible for a continuous flow of product research and development that improves our existing products, brings more capability to the web and the cloud on a consistent, standard technical platform, and embeds AI into both our products and our engineering practice. You will lead the shift from AI experimentation to AI at scale: raising developer productivity through AI-assisted coding and testing, shipping intelligent features that save school business offices real time, and doing it responsibly with the data governance that public sector customers demand.

As the Senior Leader of R&D, you will inspire and collaborate with a diverse team of developers and managers located in multiple offices and a remote workforce throughout the US, across multiple products. You are a highly motivated self-starter and team player, focused on team success, operational efficiency, and execution, and you lead by example in adopting new tools yourself. You will manage and inspire a team of 40+ people.

This position reports to the Executive Vice President, Harris School Solutions, FINS Enterprise Solutions.

What your impact will be:

• Translate business goals and product requirements into actionable development plans, including a clear, prioritized AI roadmap for each product.
• Ensure development projects are delivered on time and within budget, using AI-assisted development, testing, and documentation to compress cycle times and raise quality.
• Provide strategic planning, direction, and control of product development activities, and contribute technical input into the overall business unit strategy, including where AI creates differentiation and where it creates risk.
• Drive adoption of AI developer tooling (for example GitHub Copilot and agentic coding assistants) across the team, set the standards for how it is used, and measure the productivity and quality results.
• Lead the delivery of AI-enabled product capabilities for K12 finance, HR, and administrative workflows, such as intelligent automation, natural-language reporting, anomaly detection, and assistive experiences that reduce manual effort for district staff.
• Establish responsible AI practices for the business unit: data privacy and student-data protections (FERPA and state requirements), model governance, human-in-the-loop controls, and transparent communication with customers about how AI is used.
• Communicate strategy developments, provide ongoing executive updates, prioritize initiatives, and escalate roadblocks to executive leadership.
• Communicate development progress and issues to senior management and across the organization.
• Manage both onsite and offshore development teams.
• Proactively foster and build channels of communication across business units to ensure collaboration and achievement of organizational objectives, and share AI learnings and reusable components across Harris.
• Provide technical direction and guidance for all product development and support services needs throughout the organization.
• Continually evaluate the organizational structure, current technology, and engineering practices as a means to enhance productivity, and implement appropriate changes.
• Track and communicate industry trends and emerging technologies, with particular attention to AI, that can provide the organization with a competitive advantage.
• Perform a full range of leadership responsibilities, which may include but are not limited to: interviewing, hiring, coaching and developing employees, assigning and directing work, driving performance management, and managing department budgets.
• Display a consistent desire to learn and seek professional growth opportunities, and build the same learning culture in the team as AI capabilities evolve.
• Attend training and develop relevant knowledge, techniques, and skills.

What we are looking for:

A Technical Visionary

• Provide an overall vision for the product and technical roadmap, with AI as a core pillar rather than a side project.
• Drive best practices for all R&D processes including product delivery, rollout, feedback, and internal and external communication.
• Set the engineering standards for AI-assisted development, secure coding, and cloud-native architecture on the Microsoft stack.
• Drive initiatives and solutions for the product and technical teams, and know when to build, buy, or partner for AI capability.

A Business Visionary

• Be financially savvy, including understanding the cost model of AI services and how to price and position AI features.
• Innovate and evolve the business.
• Integrate customers into the overall strategy, using their real workflows and data challenges to decide where AI earns its place.

A People Visionary

• Build effective teams and develop team members for an AI-augmented engineering world.
• Work with existing teams and structure, and bring people along through change with clarity and empathy.
• Build, listen to, and develop effective teams and team members.
• Bring departments together.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of management experience leading software development teams.
• P&L experience.
• Portfolio management of multiple products and tech stacks.
• Hands-on familiarity with AI-assisted development tools and demonstrated experience delivering AI or machine-learning capabilities into production software.

What will make you stand out:

• Agile expert.
• Experience in public sector or K12 solutions.
• SaaS deployments and infrastructure.
• Experience with the AI platforms, LLM integration, or building agentic and copilot-style experiences into enterprise applications.
• A track record of establishing responsible AI or data governance practices in a regulated environment.
• Innovative examples of driving measurable value in products.

What we offer:

• Culture for growth
• Top notch employee health and wellbeing benefits
• Every voice matters
• Global reach
• Careers with purpose
• World class career development programs

About us:

Harris School Solutions is dedicated to using innovative technology, increasingly powered by AI, to bridge gaps in communication, workflows, connectivity, safety, and efficiency within school districts, county offices of education, and related organizations. We consistently strive to help K12 teams optimize their time so they can focus on what's most important: teaching and learning.

Salary range: $120,000 - $130,000 USD per year.