Chief Technology Officer

Aspire Public Schools • Oakland, CA

2d • $235,000 - $275,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief Technology Officer leads the technology, data and AI work at the heart of Aspire NorCal's plan to modernize how its support office serves 22 schools and approximately 10,000 scholars across the Bay Area, Sacramento and Central Valley. Reporting to the President, who sets the direction for this work, and serving on the Executive team, this leader owns Aspire NorCal's data, systems, technology vendors, data security, internet connectivity infrastructure, teammate and scholar devices and software, and the policy and training that make AI and our systems useful and appropriately safe.
At its core, this role is about redesigning how Aspire NorCal works, using technology to do it. As Aspire NorCal brings two regions and a support office together as one organization, this leader will make every teammate's work easier and more effective through data and systems that work. That means listening to schools and teammates to understand the current state, fixing the data and architecture, modernizing core systems, and redesigning the work, using AI throughout to speed up the work and help teammates do it better. It also means deciding what belongs with teammates and what belongs with vendors.
The foundation is already in place. Aspire NorCal has rebuilt its data warehouse and reporting layer, bringing together scholar, assessment, staffing and enrollment data, and is piloting self-service dashboards and plain-language AI questions with a small group of teammates. This leader will take that work from pilot to the way Aspire NorCal works every day.
Success is measured by the teammate's experience: a principal gets a trusted answer in minutes, a new hire is entered once, and no one navigates five systems to do one job. As technology continues to evolve, this leader will ensure Aspire NorCal adopts new tools thoughtfully, builds internal capability, and uses technology to create meaningful value for schools and the broader organization.
In the first year, this leader will:
Draft Aspire NorCal's AI policy for Board adoption and start the security assessment, with the highest-risk gaps prioritized.
Put self-service data in the hands of every principal, and name and assign the top teammate pain points.
Agree a separation plan with Aspire Los Angeles by March 31, 2027, covering the data inventory, cutover approach and responsibilities.
Deliver the data and systems separation from Aspire Los Angeles by July 1, 2027, with no lost history and no gap in service, and complete the security baseline with a remediation plan and an owner for each gap.
Launch the IT service model and a new HRIS connected to payroll and finance.
Show measurable reductions in manual work and rising teammate satisfaction with IT, data and systems.

Requirements

• 10+ years leading data and technology, including at least 5 years as the senior technology leader in a national or multi-site organization.
• Built or rebuilt a modern data platform (warehouse, reporting layer, governed self-service) and drove real adoption by non-technical users.
• Led AI adoption beyond pilots: wrote the policy, trained the people, and put audited automation into daily work.
• Ran a security and privacy program covering sensitive personal data. Experience with K–12 scholar data is strongly preferred.
• Managed outsourced IT and major vendors against service levels, including at least one make-or-buy decision carried through to results.
• Led technology through restructuring, rapid growth or a separation, designing systems while the organization changed around them.
• Sees technology as an enabler, not a gadget, and measures success by whether people's jobs got easier.
• Service-minded, treating principals, teachers and support teammates as customers.
• A teacher and manager at heart: explains clearly, builds others' capability, and makes the team less dependent on any one person.
• Disciplined about economics: knows automation and outsourcing are not automatically savings.
• Attracts strong talent and holds people and vendors to a high standard.
• Bachelor's degree required.

Nice To Haves

• An advanced degree in technology, business, education or a related field is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Leads the technology, data and AI work at the heart of Aspire NorCal's plan to modernize how its support office serves 22 schools and approximately 10,000 scholars across the Bay Area, Sacramento and Central Valley.
• Owns Aspire NorCal's data, systems, technology vendors, data security, internet connectivity infrastructure, teammate and scholar devices and software, and the policy and training that make AI and our systems useful and appropriately safe.
• Redesigns how Aspire NorCal works, using technology to do it.
• Makes every teammate's work easier and more effective through data and systems that work.
• Fixes the data and architecture, modernizes core systems, and redesigns the work, using AI throughout to speed up the work and help teammates do it better.
• Decides what technology belongs with teammates and what belongs with vendors.
• Takes the data warehouse and self-service dashboards from pilot to daily use, starting with designated data leads, then principals and their managers, then every teammate.
• Finds and removes daily pain points such as duplicate entry, manual reconciliation and workarounds.
• Builds a feedback loop that continuously improves systems and data for teammates.
• Ensures the systems, data and tools that schools use every day support strong teaching, learning and scholar outcomes, directly in classrooms and through everyone who supports them.
• Partners with the Chief Schools Officer to give teachers and school leaders timely, actionable data on scholar progress, and to evaluate and scale instructional technology that improves results.
• Partners with academic leaders to help educators decide where and how AI can support scholar learning: vet tools for safety, privacy and accessibility, make approved options available, and build educator feedback into the training.
• Writes and maintains Aspire NorCal's AI policy for Board adoption, covering approved tools, permitted uses, what data may enter which tools, required human review, and disclosure.
• Extends the AI policy to scholar use, covering approved tools, age-appropriate uses and data protections, developed with academic leaders for Board adoption.
• Sets data access rules so that AI answers about Aspire NorCal data come only from governed sources, under the same access rights as the person asking.
• Builds a tiered training system: safe use for every teammate, hands-on fluency for power users, and build skills for those designing automations. Tracks actual use, and retires tools that aren't helping.
• Runs a disciplined pipeline of AI use cases, each naming the work it changes, who audits it, the cost of an undetected error, and how success is measured, including the use of AI agents where appropriate.
• Owns the security program, including identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, device management, backups, vendor risk review, and a tested incident-response plan.
• Protects scholar and teammate data under FERPA, California student-privacy law and employment-records law, and makes sure every vendor handling scholar data has compliant contract terms.
• Protects sensitive data such as HR, finance and teammate surveys, with access reviewed on a fixed schedule and whenever people change roles or leave.
• Runs security awareness training alongside AI training, and reports security posture, incidents and open risks to the President and the Board.
• Owns the enterprise systems roadmap so student information, HRIS, payroll, finance and recruiting systems are connected and data is entered once.
• Partners with the CFO and People team on the new HRIS and the payroll and finance modernization, so the solutions are designed together.
• Delivers the data and systems separation from Aspire Los Angeles by July 1, 2027, with a clean cutover, no lost history and no gap in service to either organization.
• Manages all outside technology vendors and holds them accountable to appropriate service levels.
• Manages the technology budget against cost per scholar and published benchmarks.
• Builds and leads a small, senior, well-managed team, extended by tools and vendors.
• Holds every manager to Aspire's "excellent management" standard: managers set the conditions for success and hold teammates accountable for results.
• Serves as a strategic advisor to the President, the CEO and the Executive team, and leads technology change with clear communication and attention to the experience of schools and teammates.
• Identifies and interrupts inequitable practices in the work they lead and influence.

Benefits

• Eligible for Aspire health benefits
• Retirement through CalSTRS or CalPERS, depending on the role's credential requirements, with a 403(b) option
• Paid time off
• Additional teammate benefits to be determined in accordance with updated employee value proposition to be shared prior to offer.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive