Founding Head of Technology

Job description

Role: Founding Head of Technology Reports to: CEO Salary: $200K Status: Full-time Location: Remote, U.S.-based (approximately 10-20% travel) Who We Are: National Math Stars ensures mathematically extraordinary students from all communities have the resources they need to reach the frontiers of math and science. Through our Awards Program, we collaborate with schools and districts to identify and recognize their highest-achieving 2% of 2nd- and 3rd-grade math students. Those students are invited to a competitive admissions process, which aims to select the top talent from all communities. (You could roughly think of this as “the best young mathematician in every ZIP code,” if the US didn’t have quite so many ZIP codes!) We admit those top students to our Stars Programs and work with them (and their families) over the course of a decade to support their journeys to the frontiers of STEM. All Stars receive access to advanced math opportunities, family guidance, and community gatherings. Within the Stars Program, we have two tracks: (1) our fully-funded Voyager Stars program, targeted at families with significant unmet need for guidance and financial support, and (2) our Pathfinder Stars program, which provides lighter-touch advising and access to partial funding for STEM opportunities. We currently serve over 900 Stars across ten states and are rapidly expanding our reach. Role Overview: As our Awards and Stars programs rapidly expand, we need to build and maintain digital infrastructure. As our first executive-level tech hire, the Founding Head of Technology will lead these efforts. You will be responsible for org-wide tech strategy. You will decide what digital tools we need and when/how to buy/build them. You will communicate our technical vision and roadmap to stakeholders including other executives, the NMS Board of Directors, and program participants and partners. Your team will own our databases, dashboards, application systems, parent portals/websites, and other custom software tools. Some of these are existing infrastructure that require monitoring and improvements; others must be (re-)built from scratch, from user needs exploration through testing, launch, and maintenance. The Head of Technology will also play a key role in supporting org-wide responsible AI adoption. You should build an AI-first software development process, as well as helping other departments find and deploy the highest-leverage use cases for technology and automation (including AI). Although it is executive-level, this is a hands-on role. The Head of Technology will design and build software themself, as well as potentially hiring/managing a small team. You will also help set organizational strategy, alongside the rest of National Math Stars’ executive team and Board. We pay well for a non-profit, but we know people with the skills we’re looking for have more lucrative options. We can’t give you equity in a unicorn. We can give you high learning, responsibility, and impact in a growing mission-driven organization Key Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership Set and communicate National Math Stars’ technical strategy and roadmap As the organization’s needs expand, lead and grow a small in-house end-to-end software design and development team As needed, select and manage contractors to support additional tech talent needs Support other teams in technical tool selection to ensure a coherent, integrated tech stack With the rest of the executive team and Board, help set broader NMS strategy Internal tools, databases and dashboards Collaborate closely with outreach and programs teams to understand their uses cases, workflows, and needs Maintain and improve our CRM systems for tracking outreach, applicants, and Stars program participants Work with team and data partners to ensure relevant data is logged and cleaned with minimum friction Build internal dashboards and tools to help teams understand and act on key information Family-facing tools Conduct user research with team and participant families to understand needs and pain points Design, build, and maintain family-facing tools such as applicant portals, parent portals, budget utilization trackers, STEM pathways/badging, and more Connect custom builds to off-the-shelf tools (e.g., CRM database, email managers) and (as relevant) partner tools for smooth data integration and user experience Automation and AI Build an AI-first software development process/system Help other departments identify and deploy high-leverage use cases for automation and AI Lead technology-related trainings, knowledge sharing, and change management As needed, build tools, wrappers, and custom connectors to support AI usage throughout the organization Skills and Experience: The right candidate for this role will have deep expertise building software end-to-end, from needfinding through deployed-in-production tools. You should be comfortable integrating AI into your development processes, in ways that preserve privacy and security. We expect you’ve managed people and/or agents before – and maybe even led a team or department. You might be a good fit if you are: Excited about supporting profoundly gifted young mathematicians A founder, or an engineering/product manager within a new org/team – you have created something new from the ground up A strategic leader who can set a long-term technical vision and communicate it clearly to executives and Board members Skilled at developing software solutions end-to-end, from user research through product design, development, testing, and launch An experienced, AI-native engineer who can build systems and harnesses to ensure high-quality code at high velocity A problem solver who constantly sees opportunities for process/systems improvement (and acts on those opportunities) An internal champion and educator for automation and AI – not for their own sake, but for cases where they can improve outputs, support scalability, and/or save time A skilled manager who holds a high bar for excellence in hiring and team performance (Preferred but not required:) Experienced with customizing and maintaining relational databases or data lakes (Preferred but not required:) Experienced with building software that prioritizes security and data privacy That’s a lot of criteria! Please feel free to apply even if you don’t meet all of them; we care more about aptitude than about credentials. We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. U.S. work authorization is required; National Math Stars is not currently able to support visa applications. All full-time roles at National Math Stars include a competitive benefits package: Fully paid health, vision, and dental coverage for employees, plus partially paid coverage for dependents 401K plan with automatic company contributions Work-from-home stipend for purchase of a laptop and/or home office supplies Generous paid time off from day one, including parental leave Free pie every Pi Day