Senior Director

ABOUT BEZOS ACADEMY  

At Bezos Academy, we believe all children deserve the great start that excellent early education provides, including in under-resourced communities. Our mission is to nurture the potential in every child to become a creative leader, original thinker, and lifelong learner by inventing the solutions needed to scale early childhood education. We are a unique organization that operates a multi-state network of tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools in under-resourced communities while also investing in creating tools, products, technology, and other solutions designed to reach children well beyond the walls of our schools. We aspire for profound, large-scale impact on children ages zero to five.  

ABOUT THE POSITION 

As the Senior Director of Information Technology at Bezos Academy, you will lead the enterprise-wide design, delivery, and execution of the systems and services that power our mission—from IT operations and help desk to systems engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data privacy, hardware/software procurement, and cloud administration. You will oversee a cohesive, high-performing team and ensure our technology environment is secure, scalable, and built to support a multi-state network of schools with a distributed workforce. 

Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer and serving as a key member of their leadership team, you will be responsible for designing and evolving a secure, stable, and forward-looking technology environment across 40+ locations and 600+ employees nationwide.  You will play a pivotal role in advancing our organizational IT strategy while driving executional excellence across all technical operations. You will also be responsible for IT financial stewardship, including management of technology budgets, vendor relationships, and procurement processes—ensuring that infrastructure and systems investments are aligned with organizational priorities and deliver measurable value. 

You bring a deep commitment to technology as a force-multiplier for mission-driven work. You have led complex, multi-disciplinary teams in high-growth environments and understand how to manage both the urgent and the important—balancing operational excellence with long-term planning.  You are a strategic systems thinker, an experienced people leader, and a trusted advisor who thrives on user-centered service and cross-functional collaboration. You are equally comfortable shaping long-term strategy and jumping in alongside your team to solve problems. You build strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and move quickly to align on priorities and drive toward outcomes—especially when the path forward is unclear.  You can partner with software development teams to enable the architecture used in their platforms and the information security needed for their products.  

Above all, you are inspired by our mission to create bold new educational pathways for young children. You are ready to roll up your sleeves, build scalable systems, and help shape an organization that is reimagining early education from the ground up. 

LOCATION 

• Seattle, WA 
• Relocation support is available for those willing to relocate to Seattle, WA.  

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS  

• This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, exempt (salaried) position.  
• The full salary range for this position in Seattle, WA, is $232,000-$395,000 per year. The upper third of the salary range is typically reserved for employees who have been in the role for multiple years and have demonstrated strong performance over time. Starting salary will vary by qualifications and prior experience. 
• This role includes 15 paid days of vacation, 4 days of paid personal time off, 7 paid days of sick (care) time, 9 paid holidays, 5 paid days off for an organization-wide winter break, and additional time off if required by applicable law. Benefits for this role include medical, dental, and vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, a 401(k) plan with a 4% employer contribution match, paid parental leave, an employer-matched flexible spending account for dependent care, and more. Please see here for details.  

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience  
• Twelve or more years of relevant experience in information systems and technology, with eight or more years in interdisciplinary team management that includes hiring, managing, and developing staff  
• Experience leading IT with responsibility for both core infrastructure (help desk, systems engineering, cloud services) as well as security functions 
• Proficiency with the Microsoft 365 enterprise ecosystem (including Entra ID, SharePoint, and other Azure services) plus extensive experience with cloud infrastructure  
• Demonstrated success in high-growth or startup environments while overseeing both software and hardware for a nationally or internationally distributed organization    
• Superior communication and analytical skills, including the ability to identify and solve ambiguous and/or technical problems and then convey key info back to diverse technical and non-technical audiences 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Experience leading IT in the education, nonprofit, or early-stage product sectors 
• Strong grasp of AWS and cloud-first enterprise architectures  
• Skill in vendor management, contract negotiations, and IT budgeting 
• Experience with enterprise-wide adoption and governance of AI tools and technologies 
• Experience leading security teams to ensure organizational compliance with cybersecurity and data privacy requirements 
• Track record of using data and metrics to back up assumptions, recommendations, and drive actions, with strong analytic skills 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Strategic Leadership 

• Develop and lead the execution of an enterprise-wide IT strategy aligned with organizational growth and the CTO’s long-term technology vision 
• Serve as a core member of the Technology leadership team at Bezos Academy, contributing expertise and support cross-departmentally in furtherance of the organization’s broader mission and objectives 
• Build and evolve a secure, scalable IT ecosystem that supports more schools, more employees, and more complexity without sacrificing performance or reliability 
• Lead and develop a multi-functional, geographically distributed set of teams 

IT Operations & Systems Engineering 

• Lead operations of IT services, including help desk, systems engineering, endpoint management, infrastructure, and cloud platforms 
• Own the procurement, budgeting, and lifecycle management of all devices, enterprise software, and IT services—ensuring cost-effective investments, timely provisioning, and strong vendor relationships 
• Establish and refine IT policies, asset management practices, and service-level agreements to meet organizational needs 
• Oversee nationwide IT infrastructure for schools and offices, ensuring uptime, security, and performance 
• Roll out and maintain all hardware and software at our growing network of schools 

Cybersecurity & Data Privacy 

• Lead information security team to ensure robust implementation of security protocols, risk assessments, and compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST, ISO) 
• Drive policy enforcement and awareness training across all staff to reduce risk and uphold data privacy standards 
• Collaborate on incident response readiness and business continuity planning 

AI Enablement 

• Assess and evolve internal policies, guardrails and best practices for the responsible and secure use of AI tools and technologies 
• Guide cross-functional adoption of enterprise AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, SaaS applications with embedded AI features), ensuring they are deployed securely, align with organizational policies, and deliver measurable value for internal teams 
• Partner closely with Engineering and Data teams to ensure that AI initiatives are built on secure, scalable infrastructure and remain consistent with organizational product and compliance standards 
• Stay current on emerging enterprise AI trends and translate relevant opportunities into scalable internal solutions 

Please click here to view the full job description.

Bezos Academy participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employee Form I-9 Information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. Bezos Academy only uses E-Verify once a candidate has accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. If E-Verify cannot confirm that an employee is authorized to work, Bezos Academy will give the employee written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so the employee can begin to resolve the issue before any adverse employment action is taken. For more information about your right to work, please see the Notice of Right to Work.