Employment Opportunity: Chief Technology Officer

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) works through a robust network of staff, pro bono attorneys, and law students to fill a major gap in access to legal aid for refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people.

IRAP is leveraging its volunteers and resources to fight back and ensure that, as a society, we espouse the humanitarian tradition of welcoming those who need refuge. Since its founding in 2008, IRAP has used legal aid, litigation, and advocacy to protect and advance the rights of refugees, both domestically and internationally. IRAP is also committed to developing the next generation of human rights attorneys through its work with law students. The global turn against refugee resettlement coupled with IRAP’s highly effective model has led to a period of rapid expansion to meet new levels of demand. IRAP’s annual budget is $22 million, and its staff has grown to 125 people.

IRAP operates offices in the U.S. (New York, Washington DC), Jordan (Amman), Lebanon (Beirut), and Germany (Berlin).

Job Title: Chief Technology Officer

Organization Headquarters: New York City, NY (Position is hybrid, IRAP asks for the incumbent to be located within commuting distance of any of their five locations: Amman, Beirut, Berlin, DC, or NY) 

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer

Peers To This Role: Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Director of Organizational Culture, Legal Services Director

Team Composition: Director of Technical Services, Two Technology Systems Managers, one of which is the Data Protection Officer (DPO), Two IT Coordinators and the Salesforce Project Manager

Position Summary:

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a key member of the senior management team and partners with senior leaders to design and implement a technology vision that is aligned with the interests of the organization and ensures full support for all operations at IRAP.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the CTO is an entrepreneurial individual who provides strategic, collaborative, and tactical leadership for IRAP’s digital media and information technology, engineering, and infrastructure services.

The mandate for this leader will be to ensure that the design, development, and implementation of infrastructure services, enterprise IT, digital media management, engineering, and content distribution requirements are fulfilled while developing and maintaining the IT budget.

Key Selection Criteria:

  • Experience developing and operationalizing a global technology strategy, vision, and executable roadmap.
  • Experience enabling a rapidly growing mission-driven organization or an organization of similar values through technology. 
  • Executive level management of a technology program, to include hands-on project and product management, of systems design and integration experience and management of consulting and vendor relationships.
  • Experience with Salesforce integrations is required. Design, implementation, and successful rollout a global Salesforce ecosystem is preferred.  
  • Expertise managing security and privacy compliance and risk to include GDPR.

Specific Responsibilities:

Technology Strategy:

  • Collaborate with senior management, global leaders, and both internal and external users in developing and evolving IRAP’s overall technology prioritization and path forward.
  • Gather details about current operational requirements of constituents throughout the organization.  Gain an understanding of current tech stack and the desired business purpose technology will serve. Articulate the “Art of the Possible” by providing expertise and counsel regarding technology infrastructure.
  • Develop and implement both a short and long-term technology roadmap whilst defining technology governance standards, create best-in-class production and distribution capabilities, and managing internal and external technology partnerships.
  • Participate in collaborative budgeting for software applications, enterprise information technology, information security and engineering.
  • Oversee the IT infrastructure, hosting, and applications while providing thought leadership in innovation and strategy regarding future anticipated technological developments to support and enable IRAP’s growth as an organization. 
  • Propel current technological platform (Salesforce) throughout the organization to create integration of as many as possible systems on one global platform. 
  • Communicate frequently and consistently the strategic long-term vision of the technology department across IRAP. Ensure the entire organization understands the “why” behind the “what and when”.

Collaborative Leadership:

  • Advocate for technology across the organization and provide org-wide education on the department’s goals.
  • Collaboratively work across the organization to ensure a high level of communication, understanding, and customer satisfaction for technology projects. 
  • Serve as an advisor to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) which is the organization’s senior decision-making body.
  • Strategize and participate in communication sessions across IRAP that focus on the strategy, roadmap, and timeline for technology projects as well as cross-functional collaboration.
  • Develop and maintain an understanding of all areas of the organization and each department’s current and future technology needs. 
  • Manage relationships with external partners, vendors, and contractors to ensure timely response and service delivery. 
  • Provide counsel to senior leadership and other departmental heads across the organization in all technology-related matters.
  • Ability to dilute complex technological information into digestible language to ensure clear communication and expectations across the organization in an inclusive and respectful manner.

Operations and Engineering:

  • Oversee the advancement of the software, security, and infrastructure architecture that supports and enhances the IRAP mission both internally and externally.
  • Establish and oversee IT goals and timelines for project integration, upgrades, and new systems.  
  • Lead a systems and technology team that operates at the highest level to support the infrastructure of the organization, fostering sound organizational practices, cost-effectiveness, and accountability.
    • Manage cross-functional global teams to ensure that the IT operational requirements are fulfilled to include fully integrated systems and data reporting.
    • Lead a global technology team to ensure IRAP’s organization-wide daily operational requirements are fulfilled including IT network security and integrity, and digital media operations—among others.
  • Establish and drive all global cybersecurity and technology governance practices, processes, and controls in accordance with relevant privacy and security regulations including GDPR.
  • Establish, communicate, and maintain all technology best practices and standards, including those related to software, hardware, cloud services, data collection/retention, and data privacy management to internal management as well as to all internal teams as well as outside consultants.
  • Develop standards and practices while overseeing business continuity and recovery systems for natural disasters, political uncertainty, and any other unforeseen events that could affect operations.
  • Build and maintain the operational tools, resources, and processes needed to provide appropriate availability, scalability, and service levels across all technology services and infrastructure.

Management:

  • Ability to collaborate on the formation of a technology budget to support the growing needs of IRAP as a global organization.
  • Prior leadership experience managing and developing a technology team of 6-10 staff.
  • Provide direction, give guidance, and hold people accountable throughout the department.
  • Develop and maintain qualified, diverse talent through appropriate hiring, staff development and training, and timely performance feedback.
  • Foster a creative and productive work environment; attract and retain talent, motivate the team, delegate effectively, celebrate diversity within the team, and manage performance; be widely viewed as a strong developer of others.
  • Identify and implement processes and systems to facilitate the effective workflow of projects amongst various internal departments.
  • Actively participate in the audit process both for technology and the enterprise.
  • Solid understanding of current application development tools, practices, and operating systems.
  • Proven experience in managing information technology and operations functions from a financial and managerial point of view.
  • Ability to implement excellent customer service-based processes.
  • Negotiation experience with clients, vendors, and technology business partners.
  • Executive presence and communication practiced with donors and fundraising organizations to bring in additional funds for the technology department.

Qualifications:

  • BA/BS or equivalent work experience; candidates with a technical, IT, and/or Business Postgraduate degree are preferred.
  • MBA with focus on technical and/or IT Management is a plus.
  • A minimum of 10+ years of work experience, with 3+ years in an executive-level technology leadership position.
  • A minimum of 5 years of leadership and supervisory experience.
  • Experience with Salesforce integrations.  Global Salesforce design, implementation and successful rollout and maintenance is highly preferable. 
  • Previous technology, legal, and/or cybersecurity experience within a non-profit is strongly preferred.
  • At least 3 years’ experience with security and privacy systems.
  • Previous utilization of philanthropic fundraising and/or experience working with technology pro-bono organizations is preferred.
  • Experience with leading multiple projects from end to end, being accountable throughout lifecycle.
  • Cross-cultural and departmental collaboration on projects to assess and address technological needs.
  • International technological experience providing a global lens on technology services.
  • Previous experience building out the infrastructure of a department and restructuring as needed to support the needs of the organization/business is needed. 

Personal Characteristics Desired:

  • Knowledge of or experience/interest in refugee safety, having been impacted by dislocation in an international capacity a plus.
  • Superior interpersonal skills and the ability to gain consensus with internal and external individuals and stakeholders at all levels with diplomacy and integrity.
  • Deals professionally and courteously with contentious issues in a high-volume, fast-paced, high-pressure environment. Neutralizes operational tensions with a “do it right the first time” attitude. Sees resistance to change as an opportunity to innovate and implement practical solutions. 
  • Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills; leads with strong diplomatic attention to detail.
  • Ability to juggle a variety of tasks and multiple projects and to adjust priorities on short notice, while consistently meeting production and/or transmission deadlines.
  • Ability to manage internal and external stakeholders’ expectations on projects.
  • Self-motivated with the ability to work both independently and within a team.
  • Creativity and flexibility are key.
  • Be a transparent and patient leader that can implement accountability and skill learning to streamline all projects.
  • Ability to synthetize information quickly and use an iterative approach.
  • Solution-oriented mindset.

Compensation:

The Salary for this role in each location can be found below.

US: $200,000

Amman: $167,492.57

Beirut: $220,019.82

Berlin: €167,779.98

IRAP offers a generous benefits package including 100% of all premiums for medical insurance, 401k employer match, parental leave, generous paid time off and a wellness reimbursement (additional detail at https://refugeerights.org/get-involved/careers)

IRAP staff come from very diverse backgrounds, but all have one thing in common; they believe in their mission and the service they provide to displaced refugees.

IRAP believes that diversity is critical to fostering a strong workplace and serving their clients well. They strongly encourage applications from people with lived experiences in the communities that they serve, members of other marginalized communities, and individuals whose identities are underrepresented in the legal profession.

If Interested & Qualified, Contact: Stanton Chase Director Talent Acquisition 

Tracy Ferry

Cell: (724) 728-6134

Email: t.ferry@stantonchase.com

Abbey Corona

Cell: (443) 686-2713

Email: a.corona@stantonchase.com