Chief Technology Officer

Position Summary

MoveOn is the largest independent progressive advocacy group in the United States. MoveOn is where millions mobilize for a better society—one in which everyone can thrive. Whether it’s supporting a candidate, passing legislation, or changing our national culture, MoveOn members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future. We envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, and justice. And we mobilize together to achieve it.

Role Overview:

After nearly 6 years, our first CTO is leaving, having built our tech team and all of its functions. We have a great team that is in good standing, so we are looking to bring on a CTO to take the helm and lead us in the next phase of innovation in the progressive tech space.

The CTO reports to the Executive Director and sits on the Senior Management team. The CTO at MoveOn is responsible for driving tech, infrastructure, and data strategy at MoveOn, as well as managing multiple budgets that collectively equal small digit millions. Several technical teams report up to the CTO, and the CTO works closely with other team leads to develop, lead, and scale programs that power MoveOn’s political and advocacy work,

Tech has been a part of MoveOn’s DNA since our founding in 1998. MoveOn pioneered some of the first online tactics for progressive collective action — from online petitions to distributed event organizing tools to one of the earliest video-sharing tools. Over the last 6 years, technology, data, infrastructure, and analytics have powered MoveOn’s election program tactics, rapid response mobilization tactics, and played an outsized role in MoveOn’s recent growth. MoveOn has invested deeply in data warehousing and infrastructure, in analytics-driven modeling and targeting, and integrating the political tech ecosystem. MoveOn is an advisor to many political tech think tanks and companies, and an advocate of political tech collective bargaining. MoveOn has also pioneered open source software development, with its flagship peer-to-peer text banking system Spoke.

Role Location:

100% Remote, anywhere in the contiguous US.

You could say that MoveOn has offices all across the US. That’s because MoveOn staff live all across the country. No two people work in the same place. This is not an accident. It started as an experiment in the “virtual office,” and it has proven an important part of our success.

We don’t care where in the country you work; we care about the work you’re doing. We equip you with everything you need for your home office or coworking space, while also empowering you to take time away from the office to find a coffee shop or other location for your work to thrive from.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the tech and analytics teams
• Advise the senior management team and executive director on tech related issues
• Work closely with product and design on tool development, member experience, and optimization work
• Work closely with the COO on operations and data-driven finance projects
• Own cyber security policy, processes, and incident response for the organization
• Develop and drive strategic vision for tech, tools, data, and infrastructure
• Develop and drive strategy for how tech intersects campaigns, organizing, and other front-line programs
• Tech project management, prioritization, and execution across the organization
• Own cyber security policies, processes, tools, incident response
• Manage core tech infrastructure, contracts, vendor, and consultant relationships.
• Manage a portfolio of technical budget items and contracts
• Technical thought leadership in political tech, at MoveOn, with allies, and in the broader progressive organizing ecosystem.

Required experience and skills:

• Competent manager of technical teams; able to manage both individuals and managers.
• Experience dealing with internal and external stakeholders. Able to explain technical tradeoffs, timelines, decisions, implications to senior management team and other team members. Ability to convey complex ideas briefly and simply.
• Comfortable making major system architecture decisions
• Ability to define and drive technical processes and policies
• Ability to set and stick to budgets and priorities; understanding when to say ‘no’ to a request and when to change course to meet an urgent need
• Experience recruiting and hiring technical staff
• Ability to center equity in decision making, process development, and collaboration style
• Vision for future: strong interest in the new technologies being developed today and how they affect the progressive nonprofit ecosystem
• Ability to research and make intelligent decisions about emerging tools
• Deep understanding of web architecture and system architectures
• Experience defining and managing software processes, including technical project management, testing and deployment systems
• Ability to quickly get up to speed on the political tech ecosystem, including political CRMs like ActionKit, organizing tools, and key datasets.
• Ability to quickly get up to speed on organizational risk areas that intersect with tech, like email deliverability, cybersecurity
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Ability to be effective in an organization whose staff works remotely.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Competitive Salary: We offer our staff a solid wage that allows them to pay their bills and provide for their families.
• 401K Retirement Savings: MoveOn offers 401(k) retirement benefits with employer contribution, for when you’re done changing the world (for a living, at least).
• Vacation: We want you to take time off! We work hard and fight for important causes, but we also realize the need to take time to recharge. That’s why we offer four weeks of paid vacation per year, 10 sick days, 6 flexible holidays, and 4 all-staff holidays, on top of the flexible schedule that comes with working in a virtual office.
• Parental Leave: As a vocal supporter of paid family leave MoveOn recognizes the importance of family bonding and offers generous paid time off for parents as their families expand. We want you to take the time you need to be a parent and offer 18 weeks paid full-time off (for birth, adoption, and foster care placement) plus 4 weeks of 4-day weeks upon return. We also offer paid family medical leave.
• Home Office Benefits: We provide cell phone and internet stipend, a monthly home office subsidy, and everything you need to set up your home office.
• Health & Wellness: We want our staff to be happy and healthy. We provide all our staff with paid health and wellness benefits and encourage them to take time away from their desks to stay healthy.