Job Class: 0994 Executive Director
Salary Range: $164,038 - $213,383/annually
Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt (what does this mean?)
Calendar: Full Time / Full Year
SFUSD seeks an experienced and strategic technology leader to serve as the Executive Director of Infrastructure Engineering. Reporting to the Chief Information and Technology Officer, the Executive Director will provide leadership, strategy, architecture, and operational oversight for the District's enterprise technology infrastructure.
The Executive Director will lead the
District's Network, Computer & Storage, Telecommunications, and Cybersecurity functions, which are specifically identified under Infrastructure Engineering in the proposed Technology organization.
The successful candidate will combine strong technical expertise with executive leadership, operational discipline, strategic planning, project management, and a commitment to customer service. This individual will ensure that the District's infrastructure is highly available, secure, resilient, scalable, and aligned with instructional and operational priorities.
Essential Duties:
The duties specified below are representative of the range of duties assigned to the job code/class and are not intended to be an inclusive or exhaustive list.
As the
Executive Director of Infrastructure Engineering, you will:
- Provide strategic and operational leadership for enterprise infrastructure services, including network engineering, wireless infrastructure, internet connectivity, computer, servers, storage, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, telecommunications, and cybersecurity.
- Develop and execute a multi-year infrastructure strategy and technology roadmap aligned with the District's strategic priorities and technology vision.
- Establish enterprise architecture, engineering, configuration, documentation, lifecycle, and operational standards across infrastructure platforms.
- Ensure the availability, reliability, performance, scalability, and security of technology infrastructure supporting schools, classrooms, administrative offices, and District operations.
- Lead modernization of aging infrastructure and reduce technical debt through structured lifecycle planning and strategic investments.
- Establish and monitor infrastructure service-level objectives and key performance indicators, including availability, capacity, performance, incident response, and system reliability.
- Provide leadership for the District's network environment, including LAN/WAN, wireless, internet connectivity, routing, switching, firewalls, DNS/DHCP, network access, and related services.
- Oversee enterprise compute and storage platforms, including physical and virtual servers, cloud infrastructure, backup, storage, operating systems, and data center technologies.
- Provide strategic oversight for telecommunications services and associated infrastructure.
- Lead cybersecurity engineering in collaboration with District leadership, including security architecture, network security, vulnerability management, endpoint protection, identity and access controls, monitoring, incident response, and security risk mitigation.
- Establish infrastructure monitoring, alerting, capacity planning, configuration management, and preventative maintenance practices.
- Develop and maintain disaster recovery, business continuity, backup, and infrastructure resilience strategies for critical District technology services.
- Lead major infrastructure projects from architecture and planning through implementation, testing, transition to operations, and post-implementation review.
- Establish formal change, configuration, release, and problem-management practices to reduce operational risk.
- Partner with Technology leadership, Business Applications, Digital Services, Project Management, school administrators, Facilities, and other District departments to ensure infrastructure requirements are incorporated into projects during architecture and design.
- Collaborate with instructional and administrative stakeholders to ensure infrastructure investments effectively support teaching, learning, safety, and District operations.
- Manage infrastructure vendors, service providers, consultants, contracts, licensing, warranties, and professional services.
- Participate in technology procurement, budgeting, forecasting, capital planning, and evaluation of technology investments.
- Develop technical standards and evaluate emerging technologies to determine their applicability and value to the District.
- Recruit, develop, mentor, and lead a high-performing infrastructure engineering organization.
- Establish clear roles, responsibilities, operating procedures, documentation standards, and accountability across infrastructure teams.
- Develop succession planning and cross-training strategies to reduce reliance on individual staff members and strengthen organizational resilience.
- Communicate infrastructure strategy, risks, investments, performance, and major initiatives to executive leadership and other stakeholders in clear business terms.
- Serve as an escalation point for significant infrastructure incidents and coordinate technical resources during critical service disruptions.
- Ensure compliance with applicable District policies, cybersecurity standards, data privacy requirements, and local, state, and federal requirements.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Key Areas of Responsibility:
Network Engineering: Enterprise LAN/WAN, wireless infrastructure, internet connectivity, routing and switching, network access, firewalls, network monitoring, capacity management, and network architecture.
Compute & Storage: Enterprise servers, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, storage, backup and recovery, operating systems, data center infrastructure, capacity planning, and platform lifecycle management.
Telecommunications: District telecommunications infrastructure, voice services, connectivity, cabling coordination, telecommunications standards, and related services.
Cybersecurity: Security architecture and engineering, vulnerability management, network and endpoint security, identity and access controls, security monitoring, incident response, risk mitigation, and infrastructure security standards.
These four functional areas directly reflect the proposed organizational structure.
The Strongest Candidates Will Have:
- Extensive knowledge of enterprise infrastructure architecture, engineering, operations, and cybersecurity.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex, highly available technology environments across multiple physical locations.
- Strong knowledge of enterprise networking, wireless technologies, compute, storage, virtualization, cloud platforms, telecommunications, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
- Experience developing multi-year technology roadmaps and infrastructure lifecycle strategies.
- Proven ability to lead technical teams and develop engineering talent.
- Demonstrated success managing major infrastructure modernization initiatives.
- Strong knowledge of IT service management, change management, incident management, problem management, configuration management, and operational governance.
- Experience managing technology budgets, contracts, vendors, licensing, and professional services.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and systems-thinking capabilities.
- Ability to translate complex technical issues into clear business, operational, and educational impacts for executive and nontechnical audiences.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate across multiple departments and functions within a large, complex organization.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present to executive leadership and other District stakeholders.
- Experience managing organizational change and introducing new technologies, processes, and operational practices.
- Knowledge of K-12 education technology environments, student data privacy, cybersecurity, and the operational requirements of large urban school districts.
- Experience in a large K-12 school district, public-sector organization, higher education institution, or similarly complex multi-site enterprise is highly desirable.
- Advanced degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Business Administration, Education Leadership, or a related discipline is desirable.
- Professional certifications such as CISSP, CCNP/CCIE, AWS/Azure architecture certifications, ITIL, PMP, or equivalent infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud, or project-management credentials are desirable but not required.
This aligns with the leadership profile in the existing Technology Services Officer description, which calls for deep K-12 technology knowledge, effective resource planning, team leadership, cross-functional collaboration, strong communication, change management, and analytical/system thinking.
Minimum Qualifications:
Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Cybersecurity, Business Administration, or a closely related field.
Experience: Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in information technology, infrastructure engineering, technology operations, cybersecurity, or a related field, including at least four (4) years in a technology management or senior leadership capacity.
Substitution: Up to 4 years of education requirement may be substituted for additional experience on a year-for-year basis.
What We Offer:
SFUSD offers a competitive salary of
$164,038 - $213,383/annually annually, commensurate with experience in a similar position. We offer a comprehensive benefits plan including dental and vision plans, a defined benefit pension plan, disability, life insurance, flexible spending account options and vacation time. We also offer an inclusive and equity-centered environment where we encourage staff to bring their whole selves to work.
How to Apply:
- Visit www.jobs.sfusd.edu and create a new account to begin your application.
- You will be prompted to electronically attach a letter of interest, resume, list of professional references
and any applicable credentials or licenses
- Our Human Resources team will then review your entire application to determine your eligibility status
and contact you directly should you move forward in the process
Verification:
Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at http://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements.
Note: Falsifying one's education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification from this and future job opportunities with the San Francisco Unified School District.
