At TED, we seek to bridge, include, diversify because we truly believe ideas are for everyone. It is important to us to attract individuals from diverse backgrounds who are curious about the world and interested in helping us spread ideas far and wide.
We are in search of a Chief Technology Officer who will work closely with senior department leaders and play a critical role in the continued growth and success of the organization, providing oversight to the technology function--architecture of the technology solutions, continued innovation and assurance that the process for software development, infrastructure, configuration, and project management are in place to facilitate the organization’s growth.
What you will do as CTO:
Team Management
- Manage and inspire a multi-disciplinary team of approximately 50 technical professionals, largely distributed
- Forecast expenses and manage costs to a budget
Business Partnering
- Work with the senior management team to understand the business needs across the various functions in order to define and align the tech organization to meet those needs
- Explore evolving technology-centric lines of business or revenue opportunities for the company
Technology Assessment
- Conduct an initial review and continually assess the appropriate mix of internal development or outsourced technology solutions to meet technology needs
- Recommend and implement new solutions based on ROI to the company
- Direct the Technology team to scope, phase, and timeline projects, allowing for effective overall planning of resources
Leadership
In collaboration with senior tech leaders, set strategy for the tech organization:
- Provide leadership in the design, definition, planning, and deployment of the tech organization and implement appropriate enhancements as needed
- Help guide the organization through challenges that arise from its wide remit--scalability, security, and speed are critical variables
Continuous Improvement
- Review existing governance, then establish, enforce, and improve IT policies and procedures to meet the requirements of the organization for short and long term success
- Willingness to contribute however possible to ensure overall effectiveness of position
About you…. the applicant:
- Degree in computer science or design, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience overseeing complex technology teams in collaborative environments;highly effective at engaging and motivating a distributed workforce;proven track record of building/scaling a team effectively, exhibiting an appropriate management style to suit each stage of an organization’s growth
- Have effective organizational and leadership skills including people management, organizational design, and resource allocation
- Effective communication skills;Experience developing lasting relationships with both internal and external customers
- Grounded and able to manage and collaborate effectively;high level of emotional intelligence
- Demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion;seek to broaden representation across tech in support of innovation
- Experience with roles of increasing responsibility, having served in a start-up setting, a plus
- Experience working in a privately-owned non-profit organization, a plus
- Experience working in an open source/media product environment, emphasis on game-changing consumer experiences, a plus as is B2B partnerships experience
- Have key knowledge of software architecture processes, with a proven track record of architecting for robust, scalable, high performance systems
- Have the ability to scale complex architectures incorporating third-party SaaS elements as well as bespoke, proprietary elements. Track record successfully integrating built &bought modules into a coherent whole
- Have experience making successful decisions on new software products and services, negotiating contracts, and engaging vendors through the lifecycle of the product or service’s use
- Experience managing complex trade-offs in a fast-moving space Ideally, some combination of experience in building products and systems across several areas of consumer demand--video delivery, registration systems, content management, community and social media platforms, web services, etc.
- Exposure to localization and translation activities, a plus
- Experience with cybersecurity tools and incident response practices, a plus
- Adept at evaluating key technology partners
- Believe in the power of open source and have contributed back to the community
- Enjoy entrepreneurial, collaborative settings;able to handle a multitude of activities at the same time;- - Accustomed to a fast-paced environment able to operate with a sense of urgency when executing tasks
- Enthusiastic, resilient with determination to ensure that commitments and objectives are achieved;
- Committed to pursuing positive results;Show initiative and passion about technology in addition to showing a vested interest in moving the business forward
We are looking for applicants with a mix of these attributes rather than checking every box. If you can deliver in the role of CTO at TED, we want to hear from you.
Position: Regular, Full Time (FTE)
Location: New York or Distributed
Reports to: Head of TED / Curator
Benefits: Full Benefits (medical, dental, vision);paid family leave;work-life balance encouraged (2-week summer break and 1-week winter break + additional paid time off)