Director of Technical Operations

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director of Technical Operations leads the infrastructure, systems, and operational practices that keep GreatSchools’ digital platform and internal technology secure, reliable, and efficient. This hands-on role leads production infrastructure, release operations, enterprise systems, and technical security implementation. This role reports to the VP of Engineering, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Chief Operating Officer for enterprise systems, internal IT, and related security and governance initiatives.

The Director works across our technical and operations teams to turn organizational priorities into practical plans and deliver improvements that reduce risk, strengthen services, and simplify work.

The VP of Engineering oversees production infrastructure, release operations, and platform security. The COO provides functional oversight for enterprise systems, employee technology, and implementation of approved security and data governance policies, including setting business priorities, reviewing delivery, and contributing to performance evaluation. The VP of Engineering and COO jointly establish priorities and capacity allocation across these responsibilities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Technology Operations (Under the oversight of the VP, Engineering)

Infrastructure and reliability

• Operate and improve AWS infrastructure supporting the company’s website, applications, APIs, and data systems to support high availability, security, and scalability.
• Manage servers, operating systems, networking, DNS, certificates, content delivery, and secure connectivity.
• Maintain monitoring, alerting, capacity planning, backup, and disaster recovery practices; regularly test restoration  procedures.
• Plan and execute upgrades, migrations and retirement of aging infrastructure, with appropriate  testing, communication, and rollback plans.
• Support the infrastructure, reliability, and deployment for emerging AI workloads, automated workflows, and agentic processes.

Release and data operations

• Coordinate and execute production code and data releases with Engineering and Data Engineering, including readiness checks, scheduling, validation, and rollback procedures.
• Maintain deployment tooling, configuration management, scheduled jobs, and operational automation to improve consistency and reduce manual effort.
• Support the infrastructure behind data ingestion, warehouse processing, and publication; troubleshoot failures with the teams responsible for application code and data quality.
• Maintain clear ownership, escalation paths, and documentation for recurring operational workflows.

Security and incident response

• Implement and maintain technical security controls, including patching, secure configuration, privileged access, credential management, logging, and vulnerability remediation.
• Coordinate incident response across infrastructure and internal systems: assess impact, restore service, communicate status, and track corrective actions.
• Partner with Operations and legal/compliance leads to implement approved access, retention, and deletion policies and provide technical evidence for reviews.
• Identify material technical risks and communicate remediation priorities, dependencies, and resource needs to leadership.

Internal Technology Operations (Under functional oversight of COO)

Enterprise systems and technology support

• Lead technical administration of Google Workspace, identity and single sign-on services, device management, and other shared business systems, 
• Implement consistent onboarding, role-change, and offboarding workflows, including access provisioning, removal, and periodic permission reviews.
• Maintain an inventory of systems, devices, licenses, administrative access, and service owners.
• Implement and maintain tools such as JumpCloud and Growrk in coordination with Operations.
• Provide or coordinate staff technical support with clear intake, prioritization, and escalation practices.
• Support secure adoption of internal AI tools and workflow automation.

Internal security and data governance

• Implement and maintain security controls for internal systems, employee devices, and enterprise applications.
• Translate approved access, retention, and deletion policies into technical configurations and repeatable workflows, coordinating with Engineering where policies affect production systems.
• Verify implementation and maintain evidence for security and compliance reviews.
• Coordinate technical response to internal security incidents, including containment, recovery, communication, and corrective actions.

Planning and Accountability Across Both Areas

• Maintain a shared roadmap with the VP of Engineering and COO that identifies priorities, milestones, capacity needs, and tradeoffs.
• Maintain a prioritized record of technical risks, remediation owners, deadlines, and dependencies; escalate significant incidents and unresolved risks to both leaders.
• Manage technical vendors and contractors, coordinate delivery, and monitor service quality.
• Track infrastructure and software spending, identify unused resources and licenses, and recommend cost improvements.
• Report progress, service performance, and decisions requiring leadership action.
• Document critical systems and cross-train colleagues to support continuity.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 10+ years of progressive experience in technical operations, systems administration, infrastructure engineering, or a related field, including ownership of business-critical production systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with AWS core services and cloud architecture, Unix/Linux or FreeBSD administration, networking, DNS, TLS certificates, and troubleshooting distributed systems.
• Experience with deployment automation, configuration management, scripting, source control, monitoring, backups, and incident response.
• Working knowledge of identity and access management, Google Workspace administration, endpoint management, and practical security controls.
• Ability to manage legacy systems while planning sustainable upgrades and migrations.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize competing needs, coordinate vendors and cross-functional partners, and communicate technical risks and decisions clearly.
• Commitment to documentation, knowledge sharing, responsive service, and GreatSchools’ mission. Equivalent practical experience is valued; a specific degree is not required.

LOCATION

• Remote (U.S.-based) 
• GreatSchools is a remote-first organization. While this position is fully remote, we are currently only able to hire candidates who reside in the following U.S. states: California, Oregon, Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, Texas, Louisiana, Idaho, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York
• Travel up to 2 to 3 times annually to the San Francisco Bay Area may be required

SALARY & BENEFITS

• Base compensation for this role ranges from $160,200-$193,500; salaries are dependent upon candidate location and experience. This is an exempt role. 
• Our wide-ranging benefits are some of the best you’ll find out there. They include:
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits with range of PPO, HMO, HSA-eligible accounts
  • Retirement plan with employer match
  • 15 days of vacation (up to 20 after five years of service), up to 9 days of sick leave, and 12 paid holidays annually
  • A paid four-week sabbatical offered every five years, so employees can rest and recharge