Director, Educational Technology

Position Summary:

The Director, Educational Technology, will lead the vision, coordination, and advancement of school-wide e-learning and educational technology initiatives at the UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry, working within a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment. This role partners closely with faculty, staff, and students to enhance teaching and learning through innovative, user-focused technology solutions, driving continuous improvement in the educational experience.

Position Key Accountabilities:

• Learning platforms and operations: Manage school-wide e-learning platforms and learning management systems (LMS), including core components, integrations, access, and routine administration, to ensure reliable and effective instructional delivery.
• Project and portfolio management: Lead and coordinate e-learning projects with administration, user groups, faculty, and staff; facilitate intake, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment. Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, and budgets; monitor scope, risks, dependencies, and resource needs to align with school and curriculum priorities. Provide routine project and status reporting (e.g., milestones, risks/issues, project delays, financial projections, and cost-related concerns) and recommend corrective actions as needed. Work with vendors and internal teams to plan, test, deploy, and support platform upgrades, new initiatives, and ongoing lifecycle management.
• Curriculum and faculty partnership: Partner with academic leadership in curriculum design, redesign, implementation, and assessment, ensuring educational technology supports learning objectives and assessment strategies. Identify and recommend opportunities to leverage new and existing technologies to advance curriculum and support faculty development. Consult with and advise faculty on effective use of educational technologies, including web-based presentation tools, content development, and digital assessment practices. Evaluate and recommend academic development tools while balancing project requirements, user needs, timelines, and technical considerations.
• Platform configuration and standards: Identify, evaluate, plan, and implement platform configuration and customizations to meet curriculum and educational objectives, including change control and documentation. Implement industry standards and e-learning best practices related to content management, interoperability/portability, accessibility, and metadata tagging.
• Content development and instructional tools: Direct and coordinate with developers to design, create, and implement innovative teaching tools and digital learning resources.
• Budget, people leadership, and controls: Contribute to the preparation and management of departmental budgets, including forecasting and resource planning.
• Manages Human Resources activities for direct reports regarding: recruiting and selection; hiring and termination, training, development, mentoring, counseling, performance evaluations, and salary planning.
• Responsible for the design, execution, and effectiveness of a system of internal controls which provides reasonable assurance that operations are effective and efficient, assets are safeguarded, and financial information is reliable and compliant with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Certification/Skills:

• None

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's Degree in Instructional Technology, Education, or related field required with a minimum of seven years of experience, or a Master's Degree with a minimum of five years of experience

Minimum Experience:

Years of experience varies based on education level.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities/Licenses and Certifications:

• Broad knowledge of current and emerging e-learning technologies.
• Understanding of development tools used to build e-learning applications.
• Understand technology development, electronic content development, and management practices.
• Familiar with copyright, intellectual property, and licensing

Physical Requirements:

Exerts up to 50 pounds of force occasionally and/or up to 20 pounds frequently and/or up to 10 pounds constantly to move objects.

Security Sensitive:

This position is a security-sensitive position pursuant to Texas Education Code §51.215 and Texas Government Code §411.094. To the extent that a position requires the holder to research, work on, or have access to critical infrastructure as defined in Texas Business and Commerce Code §117.001(2), the ability to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure is a minimum qualification to be hired for and to continue to be employed in that position. Personnel in such positions, and similarly situated state contractors, will be routinely reviewed to determine whether things such as criminal history or continuous connections to the government or political apparatus of a foreign adversary might prevent the applicant, employee, or contractor from being able to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure. A foreign adversary is a nation listed in 15 C.F.R. §791.4.

Residency Requirement:

Employees must permanently reside and work in the State of Texas.