Vice President of Technology

WQED Multimedia•Pittsburgh, PA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

WQED Multimedia is seeking a Vice President of Technology to guide its transition beyond traditional broadcasting into digital products, enhanced audience relationships, community engagement, and a future office move. This executive team member will be responsible for WQED's digital product and technology strategy, managing the outsourced IT managed service provider, supervising the Director of Broadcast Engineering, and integrating various systems, vendors, and platforms. The ideal candidate is a systems thinker, product-minded leader, and practical integrator with a solid understanding of media technology to lead teams and partners in maintaining reliable broadcast, radio, streaming, production, and business systems.

Requirements

10+ years' experience leading digital product and technology strategy in complex environments.
Strong product thinking, digital transformation experience, and sound judgment about when to build, buy, partner, or simplify.
Ability to connect strategy and operations: seeing the big picture while building the systems, processes, and relationships to get there.
Experience managing vendors, outsourced technology partners, consultants, or MSP relationships.
Working knowledge of cybersecurity, business continuity, disaster recovery, and technology risk management.
Strong project leadership skills, including prioritization, budgeting, vendor selection, implementation, change management, and communication.
Comfort leading through ambiguity, creating clarity, and working well with both technical and non-technical colleagues.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience in public media or nonprofits is NOT required.

Responsibilities

Lead WQED's technology strategy, serving as the senior technology leader and strategic thought partner to the executive team.
Build and lead a practical technology roadmap supporting WQED's mission, audience growth, digital engagement, operational resilience, and community presence.
Facilitate WQED's transition from legacy systems and workflows to more flexible, integrated, cloud-based, and audience-centered approaches.
Apply product thinking to organizational technology decisions, focusing on user needs, problem-solving, and success metrics.
Own digital product strategy for public-facing digital products and platforms, including WQED.org, streaming, apps, newsletters, event technology, and digital membership journeys.
Identify, test, improve, and retire digital products and tools based on usefulness, audience behavior, cost, sustainability, and mission impact.
Oversee systems supporting audience relationships, donor/member engagement, content distribution, digital measurement, CRM, data platforms, and integrations.
Manage WQED's relationship with its outsourced IT managed service provider, overseeing help desk, networking, endpoints, cloud infrastructure, Microsoft administration, phones, printers, Wi-Fi, cybersecurity, backups, and related systems.
Lead cybersecurity, disaster recovery, business continuity, and technology risk planning in partnership with the MSP and other vendors.
Supervise the Director of Broadcast Engineering, who is responsible for FCC technical compliance and the production air chain.
Understand broadcast, production, streaming, and media systems to evaluate needs, support the Director, and make sound organizational decisions.
Assist WQED in evaluating the future of broadcast and production infrastructure, including cloud-based master control, IP-based workflows, remote production, and desktop editing.
Ensure broadcast, digital, IT, production, and business systems are integrated as a cohesive organizational technology environment.
Over time, help recruit and manage future digital/product staff.
Build strong relationships with vendors, consultants, contractors, and technology partners.
Determine when to build internally, outsource, or bring in specialized expertise.
Establish clear processes, documentation, ownership, and accountability for technology-related work.
Foster a culture where technical teams are trusted partners.