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

Who We Are:

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is the seventh largest school district in California, serving more than 55,000 students who speak more than 44 documented languages across 132 schools in the city of San Francisco every year. WBe aim for every student who attends SFUSD schools to discover his or her spark, along with a strong sense of self and purpose, and that all students graduate from high school ready for college and career, and equipped with the skills, capacities and dispositions outlined in SFUSD’s Graduate Profile. Every day in our quest to achieve this mission we provide each and every student the quality instruction and equitable support required to thrive in the 21^st century.

What It Means to Work Here:

The SFUSD community is unified by our Core Values:

Student-centered: We put students’ needs first
Fearless: We persist through challenges
United: We celebrate and build on each other’s strengths
Social Justice: We stand with those most vulnerable in our community
Diversity-driven: We respect and seek to understand each person

We are also inspired by Vision, Values and Guardrails which captures our aspirations and vision for the future of public education in San Francisco. Alongside the District’s strategic plan. SFUSD is reimagining how public education will change over the next decade to meet the dynamic future of San Francisco. As a CORE district, SFUSD is also a leader in critical systems change for more comprehensive school accountability and innovations that help strengthen the instructional core, which is the foundation of our strategic plan and goals.

Who We Want:

We want talented people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, who are committed to and will champion our Core Values, are inspired by our mission steeped in equity, and who are motivated to unleash our children’s potential. We want people who are strong collaborators, skilled communicators, problem solvers and who are comfortable in a community of continuous learning.

SFUSD seeks an experienced and strategic technology leader to serve as the Executive Director of Business Applications. Reporting to the Chief Information and Technology Officer, the Executive Director will provide strategic leadership, governance, and operational oversight for the District's enterprise business and student information systems.

The Executive Director will lead the BASIC, Student Systems, and Systems Solutions portfolios identified within the proposed DIT organizational structure.

The successful candidate will combine strong application and data management experience with executive leadership, strategic planning, business process improvement, project governance, and customer service. The Executive Director will partner closely with academic and operational departments to ensure that District applications effectively support teaching and learning, student services, human resources, finance, business operations, compliance, and data-informed decision-making.

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 Business Applications, you will:

Provide strategic and operational leadership for the District's enterprise business applications, student information systems, administrative systems, integrations, and related application services.
Develop and execute a multi-year business applications strategy and roadmap aligned with District priorities and the overall DIT strategic plan.
Provide executive oversight for the ERP Systems including HR, Payroll, Finance modules, Student Systems, Integrations and Systems Solutions functions.
Establish application governance, standards, policies, procedures, and lifecycle management practices across the District's enterprise application portfolio.
Ensure enterprise applications are reliable, secure, scalable, accessible, properly supported, and aligned with District business and instructional requirements.
Partner with academic and operational departments to understand business requirements and translate them into effective technology solutions.
Provide strategic leadership for student information systems and associated platforms supporting enrollment, scheduling, attendance, grades, student records, reporting, and other student-related business processes.
Provide leadership for enterprise administrative and business systems supporting areas such as Human Resources, Finance, Payroll, Procurement, Operations, and other District functions.
Establish a structured application lifecycle management process covering requirements, selection, architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance, upgrades, and retirement.
Lead modernization of legacy applications and reduce application-related technical debt through strategic planning and investment.
Establish standards and governance for application integrations, APIs, interfaces, data exchanges, and system interoperability.
Partner with Infrastructure Engineering and Cybersecurity to ensure applications meet District architecture, security, identity management, data protection, and availability requirements.
Establish and maintain appropriate application access controls and role-based access practices in collaboration with application owners and cybersecurity staff.
Partner with District departments to improve business processes and identify opportunities for automation, standardization, and operational efficiency.
Establish application service-level objectives and performance measures, including availability, incident resolution, customer satisfaction, application performance, and project delivery.
Provide leadership for application incidents and major system issues and coordinate technical and business resources through resolution.
Establish change management, release management, testing, documentation, and production support standards for enterprise applications.
Develop application business continuity and disaster recovery requirements in partnership with Infrastructure Engineering and business owners.
Establish application documentation and knowledge-management standards to reduce organizational risk and dependency on individual staff members.
Lead enterprise application implementations, upgrades, migrations, integrations, and modernization initiatives.
Partner with the Project Management function to establish project scope, requirements, schedules, resources, risks, dependencies, and implementation plans.
Manage application vendors, consultants, software licensing, maintenance agreements, contracts, and professional services.
Participate in technology budgeting, forecasting, procurement, contract negotiations, and evaluation of technology investments.
Recruit, develop, mentor, and lead high-performing application and business systems teams.
Establish clear roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and accountability across application teams.
Develop cross-training, succession planning, and knowledge-transfer strategies to improve organizational resilience.
Communicate application strategy, project status, risks, investments, and performance to the CITO, executive leadership, business owners, and other stakeholders.
Evaluate emerging technologies, including cloud platforms, automation, data integration, and artificial intelligence, for their potential to improve District services.
Perform other related duties as assigned.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

ERP Systems: Provide strategic leadership and governance for the District's BASIC application portfolio and associated business processes. Ensure applications are effectively managed, maintained, integrated, documented, and aligned with District operational requirements. The proposed organization currently places a Director and multiple senior/business analysts within this function.

Student Systems: Provide executive oversight of student information systems and related applications supporting student records and District academic and administrative processes. Responsibilities include application governance, data quality, system integration, access management, regulatory reporting support, lifecycle planning, vendor management, and coordination with District departments. The proposed structure includes a Director of Student Systems and multiple senior business analyst positions supporting this portfolio.

Systems Solutions Provide leadership for enterprise systems solutions, application development/configuration, integrations, automation, and technology solutions addressing District business requirements. The proposed organization places Systems Solutions, including its Manager II and Program Administrator functions, within the Business Applications organization.

Leadership and Governance: The Executive Director will establish a business applications governance model that creates clear accountability between DIT and District business owners.

Establish application ownership and decision-making responsibilities.
Develop standards for application intake, evaluation, prioritization, acquisition, implementation, and retirement.
Establish application portfolio management and lifecycle review processes.
Improve visibility into application costs, licensing, utilization, risks, dependencies, and business value.
Establish standards for business requirements and functional documentation.
Promote standardization and reduce unnecessary application duplication.
Ensure appropriate stakeholder participation in application decisions.
Establish escalation and decision-making processes for critical application issues.
Develop application performance metrics and provide regular reporting to DIT leadership.
Ensure major application investments align with District strategic and operational priorities.

Data, Integration, Privacy, and Security: The Executive Director will work collaboratively with District technology and business leaders to ensure enterprise applications appropriately protect District information.

Establishing appropriate application access and authorization practices.
Supporting role-based access control and least-privilege principles.
Ensuring application vendors comply with District security and privacy requirements.
Coordinating application security reviews with Cybersecurity.
Establishing standards for application integrations and data exchanges.
Supporting data quality, integrity, retention, and governance practices.
Ensuring application changes are appropriately tested before production implementation.
Supporting compliance with applicable student and employee data privacy requirements.

The Strongest Candidates Will Have:

Deep knowledge of enterprise applications and information systems in a large, complex organization.
Strong understanding of K–12 student information systems and administrative technology environments.
Demonstrated experience leading enterprise application portfolios and application modernization initiatives.
Experience with ERP, HR, finance, payroll, student information, data integration, workflow, and related enterprise platforms.
Strong understanding of application architecture, system integrations, APIs, data exchanges, cloud/SaaS applications, and identity management.
Experience establishing application governance and lifecycle management practices.
Demonstrated success improving business processes through technology, automation, and standardization.
Experience managing large-scale application implementations, upgrades, migrations, and integrations.
Proven ability to develop and lead high-performing technical and business analyst teams.
Experience managing vendors, consultants, contracts, software licensing, and technology budgets.
Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills with the ability to use data to inform priorities and decisions.
Ability to work effectively across academic, administrative, technical, and executive functions within a complex organization.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical issues into understandable business impacts.
Demonstrated experience leading organizational change and technology transformation.
Experience supporting enterprise applications within a large K–12 school district, public-sector organization, higher education institution, or similarly complex multi-site organization is highly desirable.

These leadership characteristics closely align with the existing SFUSD Technology Services Officer description, which emphasizes K–12 technology knowledge, resource planning, team leadership, cross-functional collaboration, communication, organizational change, and systems thinking.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, or a closely related field.’

Experience: Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in information technology, enterprise applications, business systems, application development, systems analysis, or a related field, including at least four (4) years of management or senior technology leadership experience.

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.

Nondiscrimination Statement and Grievance Procedures:

San Francisco Unified School District prohibits discrimination, harassment, intimidation, sexual harassment and bullying based on actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, nationality, national origin, immigration status, ethnic group identification, ethnicity, age, religion, pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy or lactation, including medical conditions or recovery, parental, marital, and family status, reproductive health decision making, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military or veteran status, or genetic information, or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics, or any other basis protected by law or regulation, in its educational program(s) or employment.

Any person may report discrimination, including sex discrimination, sexual harassment, or discrimination on the basis of a physical or mental disability (whether or not the reporting person is alleged to be the victim of the discriminatory conduct) in person, by mail, by telephone, or by email, using the contact information for the District's Title IX Coordinator.

District Title IX Coordinator:

Eva Kellogg

Office of Equity

555 Franklin Street, 3rd Floor

San Francisco, CA, 94102

415-355-7334 or equity@sfusd.edu

For more information and the District's nondiscrimination policy, please review Board Policy 4030. For more information about the District's Sexual Harassment policy, please review Board Policy 4034.

Executive Director of Business Applications (0994)