Description
Vice President, Technology & Security | YMCA of the North Association
At a Glance:
We are seeking our next Vice President of Technology & Security to lead and strengthen the technology and security foundation of YMCA of the North. This is a senior IT operator and people leader who will take ownership of enterprise IT operations, infrastructure, service delivery, cybersecurity, physical security, resilience, vendors, and the teams responsible for keeping our organization connected, supported, and secure.
As a trusted executive partner, you will develop strong leaders and teams, improve service reliability and operational performance, and translate complex technology, risk, cost, and trade-offs into clear business decisions. You'll bring credible cybersecurity judgment while partnering closely with Digital, Data & Analytics, and Enterprise Architecture to make technology work better for our teams and the communities we serve.
Schedule: Full-Time | Local to the Greater Twin Cities Metro Area
Comprehensive benefits package | Free family YMCA membership + program discounts | Meaningful, mission-driven work with the opportunity to make an impact across our organization and the communities we serve.
The salary range for this position is at $150,000 - $200,000. We take into consideration an individual's background and experience in determining salary; therefore, base pay offered may vary considerably depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The compensation package includes a wide range of other benefits and earned time off that vary depending on part-time or full-time status.
1. Job Summary:
The Vice President, Information Technology (IT) and Security is the senior enterprise leader accountable for the reliable, secure, resilient, supportable, and cost-effective technology and physical security foundation of YMCA of the North. This leader is a broad enterprise technology operator and people leader who independently leads IT operations, infrastructure, service delivery, cybersecurity, physical security, resilience, vendors, and the IT and Security team; translates technology and risk into clear business decisions; and partners closely with Digital, Data and Analytics, and Enterprise Architecture.
The Vice President strengthens operational stability, reduces technology friction, improves service reliability and team member experience, develops leaders and teams, protects data and critical assets, and brings disciplined execution to the IT and Security portfolio. The role requires strong business judgment and credible cybersecurity and risk judgment without being limited to a security-only leadership profile. The Vice President is expected to lead through managers while remaining able to step into critical operational issues when needed without becoming the default bottleneck.
2. Essential Functions:
Enterprise IT Operations, Infrastructure, Service Delivery and Resilience
• Lead enterprise IT operations across infrastructure, networks, cloud services, endpoints and devices, collaboration technology, identity and access, service operations, and related technology services across branches, camps, program sites, and association functions.
• Ensure critical technology services are reliable, supportable, monitored, and aligned to business needs using measurable service levels, team member experience insights, root-cause analysis, recurring-issue reduction, and clear escalation paths.
• Establish and continuously improve standards for incident, problem, request, and change management; configuration and device lifecycle; system ownership; operational support; and capacity planning.
• Lead enterprise IT support, including intake, triage, end-user assistance, service communications, knowledge management, support ownership, and effective Level 2 and Level 3 handoffs across teams.
• Design practical support models for nontraditional and 24-hour operating environments, including remote and distributed locations.
• Own technology disaster recovery and resilience for critical infrastructure and services; ensure backup, recovery, restoration, failover, and contingency practices are documented, tested, and improved.
• Ensure technology readiness for registration, onboarding, program launches, camp seasons, enterprise system changes, and other moments that matter most to the Y.
• Reduce single-person and single-vendor dependencies through clear ownership, documentation, cross-training, backup coverage, and sustainable support models.
Cybersecurity, Physical Security, Risk and Controls
• Lead the Y's enterprise cybersecurity and physical security programs in partnership with Enterprise Risk, Legal, Operations, Facilities, People & Culture, Digital, and other business leaders.
• Establish, maintain, and improve security standards, policies, controls, monitoring, readiness, awareness, incident response, and remediation appropriate to the Y's mission, risk profile, and operating environment.
• Lead cybersecurity operations, including threat and vulnerability management, identity and access safeguards, privileged access, endpoint and email security, security monitoring, incident readiness and response, data protection, and third-party security risk.
• Lead physical security strategy and standards, including access control, surveillance and security technologies, site coordination, incident support, and vendor oversight.
• Apply enterprise security requirements across platforms regardless of platform owner; document exceptions, track remediation, and clearly frame residual risk and recommended decisions.
• Ensure appropriate compliance with contractual, regulatory, insurance, privacy, PCI, HIPAA, and other security-related requirements applicable to the Y.
• Proactively escalate material anomalies, emerging threats, control gaps, potential incidents, and significant unresolved risks based on the facts known at the time. Maintain direct escalation to the Chief Business Officer and appropriate enterprise governance leaders for material cybersecurity, physical security, resilience, or risk-acceptance matters.
Business Translation, Portfolio Leadership and Execution Discipline
• Translate technology and security work into practical business terms, including why it matters, who is affected, risk, cost, capacity, options, trade-offs, recommendation, and decision needed.
• Maintain a trusted management view of IT and Security priorities, owners, milestones, health, dependencies, capacity, financial commitments, risks, and decisions needed.
• Validate information used for executive and business decisions, reconciling conflicting information or clearly identifying uncertainty before recommendations are made.
• Establish disciplined intake, prioritization, sequencing, capacity assessment, and trade-off practices that align work with enterprise priorities and available resources.
• Surface slippage, capacity constraints, vendor issues, capability gaps, and prioritization conflicts early with decision-ready options, including delaying, resequencing, reducing scope, escalating, pausing, or stopping work when needed to protect reliability, security, and enterprise priorities.
• Ensure projects and operational commitments move from analysis to clear ownership, action, decision, and closure.
Team Leadership and Manager Accountability
•• Lead, develop, and hold accountable IT and Security managers, technical leaders, team members, contractors, and service partners.
• Set clear expectations for managers around priorities, ownership, timelines, risk, escalation, communication, quality, service, and outcomes.
• Lead through managers, inspect progress, address missed commitments, and build leadership capacity rather than relying on personal intervention as the default operating model.
• Build succession, cross-training, documentation, career development, and backup coverage to strengthen capability and reduce organizational dependency risk.
• Address performance, capacity, capability, structure, role clarity, and talent development needs early and directly, and recommend staffing, sourcing, managed-service, or organizational changes when needed.
Financial, Vendor and Asset Stewardship
• Manage IT and Security operating and capital budgets with clear visibility into spend, forecasts, commitments, renewals, trade-offs, and expected value.
• Lead vendor and managed-service performance, contracts, service expectations, renewals, risk, and accountability in partnership with Procurement, Finance, Legal, Enterprise Risk, and business owners.
• Maintain disciplined oversight of technology assets, licensing, telecommunications, cloud and managed services, lifecycle and refresh plans, and recurring technology commitments.
• Identify opportunities to simplify platforms, reduce duplication, retire low-value tools, improve vendor economics, and strengthen cost discipline without compromising reliability or security.
Enterprise Partnership, Architecture and Emerging Technology
• Partner as a peer with Digital, Data and Analytics, and Enterprise Architecture to align technology standards, architecture guardrails, integration patterns, platform direction, user experience, workflow enablement, adoption, and collaboration practices.
• Maintain clear IT and Security accountability for reliability, security, supportability, operational ownership, and escalation while respecting defined ownership for digital experience, enterprise architecture, data, and business processes.
• Ensure shared technology platforms have clear decision rights, operational ownership, support models, security accountability, and escalation paths regardless of where day-to-day administration is performed.
• Partner with the Chief Business Officer, Digital, Enterprise Architecture, People & Culture, Enterprise Risk, Legal, and business leaders to enable responsible and practical use of AI and emerging technologies, with proportionate security and operational guardrails.
3. Relationships:
This position reports to the Executive Vice President & Chief Business Officer and serves as the senior leader for Information Technology and Security. The Vice President leads IT and Security managers and team members and provides direction to vendors, contractors, managed-service providers, and other technology and security partners. The role works closely with Digital, Data and Analytics, Enterprise Architecture, Finance, Procurement, Enterprise Risk, Legal, People & Culture, Operations, Facilities, Advancement, Marketing, program leadership, and other enterprise leaders. The role serves as a senior escalation point for material technology, cybersecurity, physical security, resilience, service, vendor, and operational risk matters.
4. Qualifications:
Required
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Management Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Business, or a related field; demonstrated progressive professional experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Demonstrated progressive leadership of a broad, multi-function enterprise technology organization in a complex, multi-location environment, including leadership through managers.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise IT operations, infrastructure, networks/cloud, service delivery, end-user technology, identity and access, resilience, vendors, and cybersecurity or security operations.
• Strong technology and operational judgment with the ability to direct significant incidents, make trade-offs, and independently recommend a course of action.
• Demonstrated success building, developing, and holding accountable managers and high-performing technical teams, including making candid capability, staffing, and performance decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technology and security matters into clear business implications, recommendations, trade-offs, and decision points for technical and non-technical leaders.
• Experience improving service reliability and operational maturity through measurable standards, effective staffing, recurring-issue reduction, disciplined execution, and customer/team member experience insights.
• Experience managing technology budgets, vendor contracts, managed-service relationships, asset lifecycles, licensing, and renewals.
• Credible cybersecurity and risk leadership experience, including the ability to balance security, usability, cost, capacity, timing, and business impact.
• Experience leading or materially overseeing physical security strategy, security technologies, standards, or related enterprise security programs.
Preferred
• CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, or comparable cybersecurity/risk credential, or demonstrated equivalent depth of security leadership experience.
• Experience in a nonprofit, membership, community-service, education, healthcare, hospitality, or similarly distributed multi-site organization.
• Experience with enterprise transformation, platform simplification, cloud services, AI governance, data protection, and technology operating-model design.
• Relevant infrastructure, service management, cloud, or security certifications.
• Bi/multilingual.
5. Work Conditions:
• Ability to work on a computer for extended periods and travel locally among YMCA of the North facilities and other business locations as needed.
• Ability to respond, directly or through designated coverage, to critical technology, cybersecurity, physical security, or business continuity incidents outside regular business hours.
• Ability to participate in incident response, emergency coordination, and other time-sensitive leadership activities when required.
• Ability to perform the essential responsibilities of the position, with reasonable accommodations as applicable.
6. Additional Notes:
This job description represents the major functions of the position but is not intended to be all-inclusive. Additional duties may be assigned consistent with organization
