Senior Director, IT Support Services

About KIPP Texas Public Schools 

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 54 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 30,000 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 fair world.

Founded in Houston in 1994 and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, we are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join a Team and Family with an unwavering commitment to creating classrooms, offices, and communities rooted in belongingness, academic success and joy. If you are passionate about joining a mission and values-driven community who wants every child to want to run to school, the KIPP Texas Team and Family is for you!

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 278 schools with nearly 16,500 educators and 190,000 students and alumni.

KIPP Texas seeks a dynamic Senior Director, IT Support Services who will report to the Deputy Chief of Information Technology and lead our critical IT support services (help desk) function. This is an exciting opportunity to drive innovation in service delivery, focusing on continuously improving the quality, efficiency, and overall user experience of our technology support. The Senior Director will partner with senior and functional business leaders to align IT service delivery with the district's strategic direction. This role demands a strategic executor who can leverage technology solutions to provide optimal support levels, manage resources effectively, and minimize operational risks while ensuring our services scale to meet the evolving needs of our educational community.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Direction Setting

• Develops and leads strategic IT service delivery and support functions, ensuring the effective operation and maintenance of educational technologies to advance KIPP Texas' mission and student success.

• Proactively keeps abreast of emerging technology and service delivery trends relevant to K-12 education, and strategically develops and implements service delivery models that leverage these innovations.

• Strategically ensures that IT service delivery systems, tools, and processes possess the functionality and scalability necessary to support and accelerate the continued growth and evolving needs of KIPP Texas.

• Develops well-articulated business cases for investments in hardware, software, and cloud capabilities.

• Fosters a culture of continuous improvement and actively identifies and implements innovative ways to streamline IT service delivery operations and enhance the user experience for KIPP Texas stakeholders.

• Collaborates strategically with the Deputy Chief of Information Technology to ensure business and technological synergies are leveraged effectively across all IT functions to best serve the needs of KIPP Texas.

Service Delivery

• Oversees the management of KIPP Texas' IT Service Management (ITSM) framework and the daily operations of service delivery and customer interaction services, including the help desk and desktop support, ensuring efficient and effective support for the educational community.

• Develops and implements clear IT service delivery standards, incorporating relevant metrics (educational SLAs/KPIs), comprehensive documentation, and effective user communication and training strategies.

• Implements service improvements based on incident analysis and root cause, focused on preventing recurrence and enhancing user experience.

• Develops a strategic framework for the effective integration of new technologies within IT service delivery functions to improve educational support and user experience.

• Conducts regular stakeholder meetings for continuous service improvement, aiming to empower teaching and learning with excellent tech support.

Functional Management

• Holds responsibility for strategic financial planning, prudent expense management, and effective staff management within the IT service delivery functional area, aligning resource allocation with the educational priorities of KIPP Texas.

• Analyzes the evolving technology needs of KIPP Texas and evaluates and recommends technical solutions for IT Support Services that directly support and enhance teaching, learning, and administrative functions.

• Directly manages customer service delivery processes, the support services ticketing system, relevant analytics and service dashboards, the knowledge base for educational technology support, and the customer portal.

• Establishes and manages clear procedures to ensure effective support coordination and seamless escalation between IT functions and resources across IT teams, minimizing disruption to educational activities.

• Provides tailored training for new employees on KIPP Texas' technology and devices, as well as ongoing customer training for educators and staff on IT systems and promoting effective self-service resources.

Staff and Leadership Development

• Develop and implement workforce plans optimizing current and future IT support effectiveness for KIPP Texas' educational priorities.

• Manage SMART goals and performance reviews for IT support staff, directly supporting student achievement and operational efficiency.

• Provide leadership, targeted training, and ongoing development opportunities to cultivate a team with specialized skills in supporting technology for teaching, learning, and administration.

• Contributes to organization-level goals for talent development and growth.

• Work within KIPP Texas policies and adhere to relevant educational data privacy and technology use regulations and policies.

Skills

• Ability to effectively communicate with, influence, and manage diverse stakeholders within the educational ecosystem, including senior administrators, school principals, teachers, staff, and potentially parents. This includes the capacity to build consensus and navigate differing perspectives to achieve common goals.

• Extensive experience with technical troubleshooting processes, Microsoft Office 365 (including its educational features), Cisco network and wireless environments commonly deployed in schools, and familiarity with student information systems (SIS) and learning management systems (LMS).

• Experience with ITIL framework for service management and familiarity with customer service software/customer interaction support platforms like Zendesk, ideally with experience tailoring these tools for the unique support needs of an educational institution.

• Strong team-oriented mindset with a demonstrated commitment to collaboration, knowledge sharing, and a service-oriented approach to supporting the educational mission of the agency.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a closely related field, OR a minimum of 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in IT leadership, including significant experience within an educational environment.

• Demonstrated experience (5+ years preferred) in a leadership role managing and developing high-performing information technology support teams within a complex organization, ideally within K-12 education.

• Proven success leading and implementing large-scale technology transformation initiatives and major IT projects within an educational context, with a focus on enhancing teaching, learning, and administrative efficiency.

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

• Project Management Professional (PMP) or other relevant project management certification is a strong plus.

• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification or demonstrated experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices in an educational setting is a plus.

What We Bring to the Table

• The starting point for the salary range for this position is $110,000 - $115,000 commensurate upon experience and internal-equity.

• Competitive vacation and flexible paid time off (PTO) policies.

• Paid family leave.

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans with varying coverage for employees and their families, inclusive of virtual physician visits. High deductible health plan with HSA also offered.

• Employee assistance programs. 

• Participates in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS).

• 457 Roth retirement plan option with KIPP matching contribution up to $1,200 a year.  403b plans also supported.

• KIPP also offers the following employee-paid benefits: legal plans, LifeLock identity protection, life insurance and disability insurance.

• Flexible spending account or high-yield HSA.

Physical Requirements

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Considerable time spent at a desk using a computer/laptop.

• Attending conferences or training sessions. 

Work Environment

• Reports to school site and/or regional central office Monday-Friday.

• Typical school environment with frequent interruptions.

Travel Requirements

• Regular travel across KIPP Texas regions for school visits, in person meetings, trainings, and conferences.

KIPP provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability.