Global IT Director

Define and steward IT strategy and governance
• Develop and maintain our IT strategy, ensuring it adjusts to organizational priorities, resource constraints, compliance obligations and operational realities across a distributed, multi-country environment.
• Own our IT governance framework — policies, standards, and controls covering security, access management, data governance, acceptable use, vendor management, and emerging technologies.
• Ensure governance is practical, compliant with regulatory and donor requirements, and proportionate to organizational risk and operational realities. Policies should be enforceable and understood across country offices, not just documented.
• Advise senior leadership on technology risks, investment decisions, and compliance obligations in clear, non-technical terms.
• Evaluate emerging technologies — including AI and automation — and recommend responsible, mission-aligned adoption pathways.
Lead the IT function and its people
• Manage, develop, and retain a team of six IT professionals, including systems administrators, data engineers, and support staff, providing clear direction, regular feedback, and opportunities for growth.
• Recruit for capability gaps and build toward a team structure where technical domains have clear ownership and accountability, while ensuring there are always enough redundancies on all tasks.
• Foster a culture of documentation, service orientation, and accountability — where good work is visible and standards are consistently upheld.
• Set team priorities in coordination with the Senior Director, Operations & Systems, and communicate clearly about trade-offs and capacity.
• Ensure that IT operates as a service-oriented function, prioritizing responsiveness, clarity, and alignment with operational and research needs.
Ensure security, compliance, and risk management
• Lead our information security direction, ensuring controls are proportionate to organizational risk and resourced appropriately.
• Ensure compliance with donor, contractual, and regulatory requirements related to data protection and information security.
• Oversee audit readiness and coordinate responses to security or data incidents, including engagement with legal and senior leadership.
Drive organizational alignment
• Lead change management for significant technology transitions, ensuring staff across country offices understand and adopt new systems and practices.
• Oversee IT budget planning and financial reporting, ensuring transparency of total cost of ownership and value for money.
Qualifications
Required
• 7+ years in a senior IT leadership role with accountability for the reliability, security, and availability of enterprise systems in production environments.
• 5+ years managing IT teams, including direct oversight of senior technical staff (engineers, architects, system admins) — with a demonstrated track record of developing people and building team capability.
• 5+ years overseeing enterprise system integrations, SaaS platforms and cloud environments (ERP, CRM, data warehouse, or comparable).
• 5+ years as a senior escalation authority for technical or security incidents.
• 3+ years developing or managing IT governance frameworks, policies, and internal controls.
• 3+ years in environments with regulatory, donor, or audit compliance requirements related to data protection or information security.
• 3+ years overseeing IT budgeting, vendor management, and SLA accountability.
• 3+ years leading change management for enterprise technology implementations.
• Experience communicating technology risks and decisions to non-technical senior stakeholders.
• Familiarity with enterprise business intelligence environments (e.g., Power BI).
Preferred
• Experience leading IT in multi-country or distributed organizations, particularly in low-bandwidth or resource-constrained contexts.
• Background in international development, nonprofit, or donor-funded environments.
• Experience overseeing AI or automation initiatives in operational settings.
• Experience leading knowledge management or collaboration platform transformations.