Director, IT Security

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

The Opportunity

The KIPP Texas (KTX) Director, IT Security reports to the KTX Managing Director of Information Technology. The KTX Director, IT Security is responsible for establishing and leading the organization’s Information Technology Security function and ensuring a continuous and strengthening security posture against potential internal and external cybersecurity threats. The Director collaborates with IT leadership to recommend and drive the IT security vision and strategy and is responsible for the design, implementation and operation of the security architecture.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Direction Setting

• Manages a broad array of IT Security projects designed to meet one or more organizational strategic goals.

• Develops IT security vision and strategy and recommends the direction for the organization’s cybersecurity protection.

• Establishes, publishes and monitors compliance with IT security standards, policies and procedures.

• Keeps abreast of current cybersecurity landscape and emerging threats; develops and implements IT Security projects to reduce cybersecurity risk.

• Prepares annual cybersecurity briefings for executive leaders & board members.

• Ensures that IT security systems and tools have the functionality and scalability necessary to enable and accelerate the continued growth of the organization.

• Develops business cases for investment in hardware, software and/or cloud services to strengthen and support security operations.

• Promotes continuous improvement and innovation to streamline security operations.

• Collaborates with the Managing Director of Information Technology to ensure business and technological synergies are taken advantage of in the best possible manner.

Service Delivery

• Oversees the management of IT Security services including continuous monitoring, threat response and investigations, security awareness, security audits and security systems updates and maintenance.

• Develops and implements IT Security standards, metrics, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), documentation, communications, and training.

• Develops and implements security improvement plans based on the outcomes of incident investigations, reports and root cause analyses.

• Creates the foundation for embedding new technologies into security functions.

• Conducts meetings on security improvement with key stakeholders with the goal of providing a secure customer computing experience.

Functional Management

• Direct responsibility for financial planning, expense management, and staff management within the IT Security functional area.

• Analyzes business needs, evaluates and recommends technical solutions, overseas sourcing decisions and scalable vendor management process to align IT Security with business needs.

• Directly manages IT Security operations, security analytics and dashboards and security awareness knowledge base and portal.

• Develops, implements and manages IT Security processes for security related hardware, software and services.

• Establishes and manages procedures to ensure effective coordination between IT Security and other IT teams.

• Provides training for new employees on security awareness and best practices for working with KIPP Texas technology, information and data.

Staff and Leadership Development

• Oversees strategic workforce plan development and implementation to maximize the current and future workforce effectiveness considering strategic business priorities.

• Manages the development of SMART goals for the IT Security function and the annual performance review process for staff.

• Leads, trains and develops staff for maximum effectiveness.

• Contributes to organization-level goals for talent development, diversity, and inclusion.

• Works in accordance with KIPP Texas corporate policies and regulations.

Skills

• Ability to establish and build an information technology security practice from the ground up.

• Ability and confidence to take calculated risks in uncertain or ambiguous situations.

• Ability to develop strategic initiatives and oversee the development of long-term plans and proposals to support business objectives.

• Ability to challenge, convince and manage multiple business stakeholders.

• Ability to effectively drive business, culture, and technology change in a dynamic and complex operating environment.

• Strong business acumen; understands key financial drivers and dynamics related to growth and financial goals.

• Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to manage multiple competing priorities and assignments.

• Excellent interpersonal skills and customer focused approach.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Education/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business Administration or a related field, plus a minimum of 10 years of professional work experience, including business and leadership management experience.

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in IT security management at a senior level, with at least 3 years of recent experience as an lT Director.

• Experience leading large transformational initiatives and major IT Security projects.

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Business Administration or related field preferred.

• CompTIA Security certification required.

• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification required.

• Alignment with KIPP Texas’ mission and core values.

• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certification is a plus.

• Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) certification is a plus.

• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification is a plus.

• Experience working in a school district, CMO, non-profit or government agency is a plus.

Compensation and Benefits:

In addition to a competitive salary scale, a part of KIPP Texas’ competitive benefits options, KIPP offers all employees an $0 HMO plan for the employee only. In addition to our $0 plan, KIPP provides a $600 employer contribution towards a Health Savings Account and a variety of other supplemental benefits such as Dental, Vision, Short and Long-Term Disability, Pet Insurance, Life, etc.