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Teacher U is a New York-based social sector organization dedicated to bringing about transformational change in teacher preparation. In partnership with leading education reform organizations, they have created a rigorous curriculum designed to be completed in tandem with a full teaching workload. Their overall objective is to provide enrolled teachers with the support they need to succeed during their critical first years in practice.

Teacher U has an immediate opening in its Technology & Knowledge Management (TKM) Department for a Senior Technology Manager. The Senior Technology Manager will play a critical role in developing and managing the technology function within the organization. Reporting directly to the Director of Technology & Knowledge Management, the Senior Technology Manager will manage at least two full-time employees and will have responsibility both in the run-the-business technology functions and in developing new software to improve the product Teacher U aims to deliver.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Management:

• Manage members of the Technology & Knowledge Management Department in the successful implementation and up-keep of Teacher U’s daily technology functioning
• Oversee the short-term coaching and long-term professional development provided to members of the TKM team
• Develop project estimates and plans for both required and discretionary technology projects
• Source and project-manage third-party application development contractors and consultants
• Identify and drive improvement to processes and tools that improve efficiency for TKM and Teacher U as a whole, in conjunction with the Director of Technology & Knowledge Management

Infrastructure:

• Manage key technology functions, predominantly in technical infrastructure, the administration of Teacher U’s learning management system (LMS) and technology support
• Provide hands-on contributions to key technology functions as needed to run the business, predominantly in technical infrastructure, the administration of Teacher U’s LMS and technology support
• Assist the Application Developer and Director of Technology & Knowledge Management with ongoing data integration across the organization

Software Development:

• With the Director of Technology and Knowledge Management, plan and manage discretionary technology projects such as the following:
  • Enhancements to the learning management system, “Course Platform”
  • Enhancements to the public website
  • Configuration and customization of an administrative system (Salesforce)
  • New, custom software to support Teacher U’s academic goals and programs
  • Ongoing data integration

This is an outstanding opportunity to play an integral role in public education reform. Therefore, first and foremost, the Senior Technology Manager must share the team’s sense of urgency about the need to improve student achievement through phenomenal teacher training.

Candidates for the position must have the following qualifications:

• An ability to convey complex concepts through succinct written, visual and verbal communications and an ability to tailor all communications for specific audiences (e.g. engineers, teachers, executives)
• An ability to thrive in a fast-paced, unstructured, entrepreneurial environment without formal training or orientation
• A demonstrated ability to work with colleagues both at the adjacent desk and in geographically separated cities
• An impeccable attention to detail
• Excellent organization and project management skills
• A high level of professionalism, self-confidence, decisiveness and initiative

Candidates for the position must also have the following technical skills:

• Exposure to all layers of the LAMP stack
• Conversant familiarity with the “alphabet soup” of SDLC, LMS, SIS, CRM, AJAX, MVC, OOP, CMS, SQL, etc.
• Fluency with basic networking (e.g. switches, wireless networks), Microsoft Office and Windows XP workstations
• Experience with developing customer software from scratch and configuring/customizing existing applications

Desired Characteristics:

The ideal candidate for this position will also possess some combination of the following professional and personal characteristics:

• At least five years of relevant professional experience, with demonstrated results of on-time and on-budget performance
• Familiarity with several different project management methodologies and the ability to articulate an informed preference for at least one methodology
• A strong preference for open source technologies and the ability to articulate an associated rationale
• Fluency with many of the following technologies:
  • Web-related programming languages (PHP preferred)
  • Relational databases (MySQL preferred)
  • Windows 2003 Server
  • Moodle
  • Salesforce
  • Content management tools
  • Unix shells
  • Virtualization
  • Web Services (particularly Amazon Web Services)
  • Video streaming and codecs
  • Macintosh workstations
  • Final Cut Pro

Competitive compensation commensurate with experience.