Head of Technology

Pedestal Health • Research Triangle Park, NC

10h • Hybrid

About The Position

Pedestal Health is hiring a Head of Technology to build and lead the technology foundation that makes clinical and real-world data trustworthy. The role owns two interconnected areas: the data engineering, platforms, and user-facing applications that turn health-system clinical data into products for clients; and the IT and security programs that support employees, protect systems, and maintain the confidence of partners. The position leads data engineering, cloud infrastructure, internal data and application platforms, corporate IT, and security through a team of engineering and IT leaders.

This leader sets architecture, standards, priorities, and operating practices; develops engineering and IT leaders; and maintains enough technical depth to evaluate designs and make major technology decisions. The role works closely with Product, Quantitative Sciences, Health Systems, Commercial, Medical, and Clinical Operations to shape roadmaps, partner onboarding, and organizational priorities. The position is accountable for clinical data acquisition and quality, privacy and contractual commitments, platform strategy and cloud costs, security and compliance, enterprise IT, team development, and the engineering and IT budget.

Requirements

• 12+ years of engineering experience, including 5+ years leading multi-team organizations through engineering managers.
• Experience working with healthcare organizations and healthcare data.
• Experience overseeing corporate IT, directly or through an IT leader.
• Deep technical grounding in AWS data architecture, including S3, Glue, Athena, EMR, Lake Formation, and IAM, and infrastructure as code, with the ability to set direction and pressure-test designs.
• Experience with a cloud data warehouse such as Snowflake.
• Working knowledge of HIPAA and security frameworks such as HITRUST or SOC 2.
• A track record of hiring and developing engineering leaders and scaling teams and platforms from early stage to growth.
• Experience owning an engineering budget, including cloud spending and vendor contracts.
• Clear written and verbal communication and sound judgment in balancing speed, cost, and rigor.
• Experience supporting ML and LLM workloads in production.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with FHIR, OMOP, or other clinical data standards.
• Experience with tokenization and privacy-preserving record linkage, such as Datavant.

Responsibilities

• Work with Product to set strategy and architecture for acquiring clinical data from health-system partners using Epic, Cerner, and other EHRs.
• Own the approach to de-identification and tokenization, including vendor partnerships, while balancing accuracy, speed, cost, and privacy.
• Set standards for data reliability, completeness, and quality, and make data quality measurable and visible with Quantitative Sciences.
• Ensure datasets meet BAA and DUA commitments throughout retention and destruction.
• Shape the data expansion roadmap with Product and Commercial, including claims linkage and new third-party sources.
• Own the technology vision for the data platform and products built on it.
• Make major architecture and build-versus-buy decisions and establish engineering standards.
• Ensure the platform can scale to meet demand from AI/ML, Quantitative Sciences, and Product.
• Manage cloud cost efficiency as data volume and partner sites grow.
• Own the company's security and compliance posture, including HIPAA, HITRUST, and SOC 2, and report risk to leadership.
• Serve as the accountable executive in health-system and sponsor security reviews and audits.
• Set enterprise IT strategy, delivered through the IT leader, to provide secure and reliable tools that scale with the company.
• Partner with the Head of AI/ML to make AI governance enforceable through technical controls.
• Lead and develop engineering and IT leaders and hold them accountable for delivery, quality, and team health.
• Design the growing engineering and IT organization, including team structure, hiring plans, career paths, and decisions about building, buying, or outsourcing.
• Set the operating rhythm for planning, delivery metrics, on-call, and incident review.
• Own the engineering and IT budget, including cloud spending and vendor contracts.
• Serve as the executive counterpart to health-system IT leaders during partner onboarding.
• Partner with Product, Quantitative Sciences, Medical, Commercial, and Clinical Operations on roadmaps and priorities.
• Translate technical tradeoffs into clear business terms for the leadership team.

Benefits

• Hybrid work with three days per week in the company's new office.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their families.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Generous paid time off and company holidays.
• Paid parental leave.

What This Job Offers

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