Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) - Aequitas Solutions

Banyan Software

19d • $200,000 - $250,000 • Remote

About The Position

Aequitas Solutions is a mission-critical Student Information System (SIS) provider serving K–12 public school districts, with its primary markets in California and Michigan. Its platform, Q, supports the core administrative operations districts rely on every day: enrollment, attendance, compliance reporting, and data governance. Aequitas competes on trust, customer responsiveness, and deployment flexibility. Unlike larger SIS vendors pushing districts toward centralized cloud hosting, Aequitas intentionally supports cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments, giving districts genuine control over their data and infrastructure. That flexibility is a deliberate competitive differentiator in a market where data locality and procurement caution are facts of life. Aequitas was acquired by Banyan Software in 2022 and is actively expanding its product capabilities and customer footprint.

The Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) is the executive hire that activates Aequitas's mandate to grow. This role takes full ownership of the product vision, technical strategy, and engineering execution, driving the platform forward. The CPTO will establish AI-first development as the operating standard, define the modernization roadmap for a platform with a significant legacy technology footprint, and build the team structure and discipline needed to deliver on a multi-year product vision. The CEO operates as a genuine partner, not a day-to-day manager, expecting the CPTO to own the function completely. This is an environment that rewards entrepreneurial ownership and initiative, suitable for someone who thrives with autonomy and wants to build something. The CPTO reports directly to the CEO and sits on the Aequitas leadership team.

Requirements

• Genuine AI-first development capability: an active practitioner who can lead a team through an AI development transformation.
• Strong technical foundation: infrastructure, architecture, and platform operations depth that earns the trust of a seasoned development team and holds up through a legacy modernization program.
• Hybrid, on-premise, or district-managed deployment experience: Aequitas’s multi-deployment model is a strategic asset, and prior experience in this environment accelerates impact.
• Real product instincts: the ability to think beyond the existing customer base, define a roadmap with commercial logic, and own the product function with genuine conviction.
• Team-building experience in small, complex environments: a track record of creating structure, accountability, and team cohesion where it did not previously exist.
• Change management maturity: the ability to move a long-tenured team toward new ways of working without damaging the culture or losing the people worth keeping.
• US work authorization.
• Ability to work in Pacific Time; based out of Southern California strongly preferred.
• Low-ego, high-accountability leadership approach: brings a steady hand, owns outcomes, and builds trust across teams through consistency and follow-through.
• Credibility across technical and business stakeholders: able to earn the respect of engineers, product leaders, and long-tenured employees while maintaining alignment with customer-facing priorities.
• Sound judgment in pacing change: understands how to introduce meaningful evolution within a mission-critical, relationship-driven environment without creating unnecessary disruption.

Nice To Haves

• K–12 software or EdTech experience, particularly familiarity with how public-school districts procure, fund, and implement technology. This is a meaningful differentiator.
• Legacy modernization experience: a track record of managing migration off an existing tech stack without disrupting a mission-critical customer base. VB.NET familiarity is a genuine plus.
• Background at companies under 200 employees: the culture is small, close-knit, and founder-adjacent. Experience at a comparable scale is a strong indicator of fit.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the multi-year product and technology roadmap, shifting Aequitas from a customer-reactive posture to a market-facing one.
• Establish a formal product management discipline, including roadmap ownership, prioritization frameworks, and release planning.
• Balance product investment and innovation against platform stability, particularly during California’s CALPADS and Michigan’s MiDataHub compliance reporting cycles.
• Partner with the Director of Customer Success and district stakeholders to ensure roadmap decisions reflect real operational workflows.
• Support Sales and executive leadership with credible, accurate product positioning as Aequitas pursues growth beyond its existing customer base.
• Lead the implementation of AI-first development practices across the engineering team, in alignment with Banyan’s AI mandate.
• Define and execute an AI product strategy focused on practical, explainable capabilities that improve district staff productivity, data quality, and compliance confidence.
• Ensure AI design respects district expectations around data locality, deployment boundaries, and the regulatory constraints of K–12 environments.
• Partner with Banyan’s AI team and the internal AI Council to evaluate tooling, establish standards, and drive adoption across the development organization.
• Lead a team of approximately eight direct reports across development and database administration.
• Build team structure, shared processes, and cross-functional visibility where the engineering organization currently operates in silos.
• Establish development standards, quality expectations, and a release cadence that supports both cloud and on-premise customers.
• Evaluate team capability honestly and make the personnel decisions the business requires, with the judgment to do so in a culture that values long tenure and personal relationships.
• Own platform architecture strategy across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise deployment models.
• Define and execute a modernization roadmap for a platform with a significant VB.NET legacy, without disrupting mission-critical operations or the customer experience.
• Ensure tenant isolation, security, and operational reliability across all deployment models.
• Develop the on-premise managed services opportunity as a strategic growth and retention lever.
• Serve as the primary executive authority for product and technology decisions.
• Build a strong working partnership with the Director of Customer Success on roadmap priorities, product-CS alignment, and development resource allocation.
• Engage the Michigan consortium as a key co-development partner, navigating shared roadmap influence with care.
• Keep the CEO informed on key decisions, customer-facing risks, and anything with strategic or reputational implications before they become surprises.

Benefits

• The expected base salary for this position is: USD $200,000-$250,000, excluding incentives (when applicable). Salary is based on a number of factors including market conditions, location, and may vary depending on job-related skills and experience.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed