Chief Information and Operations Officer

This is a remote position.

Location: Remote, U.S.-based. Washington, D.C. area strongly preferred, followed by other East Coast locations. Candidates outside the area may be considered selectively based on time-zone alignment and travel practicality. West Coast locations are not being considered. Approximately 20% travel.

Employment Type: Full-time, exempt

Work Authorization: Must meet applicable U.S. citizenship or permanent residency requirements for federal security and access

Role Focus: Technology strategy, secure data-enclave leadership, platform product-roadmap ownership, platform operations, secure cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and compliance, researcher services, business-development support, and hands-on operational leadership

Reporting: Reports to the CEO; serves on the senior leadership team and advises the Board of Directors and Technology Advisory Board

BizFirst is assisting our client with the search for a Chief Information & Operations Officer (CIOO) who will lead technology strategy, the secure data platform and its operations, and the continued evolution of its secure research and data environment.

The CIOO will oversee platform architecture and development, cloud and production operations, cybersecurity and compliance, data infrastructure, researcher services, internal systems, and technology support. The role also owns the platform product roadmap and development planning, connecting user needs, delivery costs, organizational capacity, and growth opportunities.

This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role. The CIOO sets long-term technology direction while ensuring that the platform and other critical systems operate securely, reliably, efficiently, and responsively. The role is accountable not only for the technology itself, but also for how successfully researchers, government agencies, and partners are able to use the platform.

A critical first-year priority will be leading the organization's progression toward FedRAMP High through strong technical and operational execution.

As a member of the senior leadership team, the CIOO advises the CEO, Board of Directors, and Technology Advisory Board on technology strategy, investment, cybersecurity, operational readiness, risk, and platform priorities. The organization is small and mission-driven, so this leader combines executive judgment with a readiness to work hands-on when the situation calls for it.

Our client is a nonprofit that helps government agencies use administrative data to make better-informed public decisions. It builds data infrastructure, analytical tools, and data skills across the public sector, and it operates a FedRAMP-authorized research platform in AWS GovCloud that lets agencies securely link longitudinal data with other states and agencies. The platform supports more than 20 state agencies, several federal agencies, and approved researchers, and the organization's work is backed by leading national foundations.

• Develop and execute a technology strategy aligned with the organization's mission, business strategy, growth priorities, contractual commitments, and risk profile.
  
• Own and maintain a multi-year platform product and technology roadmap shaped by partner, researcher, and customer needs.
  
• Build the business case for platform development priorities, including expected value, user impact, cost, staffing, capacity, and delivery timing.
  
• Set technology budgets, investment priorities, staffing models, capacity plans, and vendor strategies.
  
• Partner with the Leadership Team on business development and proposals by assessing technical feasibility, security, capacity, cost, staffing, timing, and delivery implications.
  
• Own the architecture, engineering, modernization, and technical direction of the platform and related secure data infrastructure.
  
• Lead development of secure researcher workspaces, data pipelines, analytical tools, platform services, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities.
  
• Translate government, researcher, program, and partner needs into platform priorities, technical requirements, and development plans.
  
• Ensure new capabilities move into secure, reliable, documented, maintainable, and supportable production.
  
• Own end-to-end platform operations and researcher services, including onboarding, access, workspace and data provisioning, technical support, offboarding, service levels, and escalation procedures.
  
• Improve help-desk processes, clarify service ownership, strengthen responsiveness, and proactively address recurring issues before they disrupt users.
  
• Lead the organization's progression toward FedRAMP High through technical and operational execution, including security controls, governance, documentation, resourcing, and cross-functional coordination.
  
• Work with the CEO, internal teams, government partners, assessors, and external specialists to establish FedRAMP priorities, address gaps, track progress, and sustain continuous monitoring.
  
• Own reliability, availability, performance, scalability, resilience, and cloud cost across production environments.
  
• Establish clear standards for release and change management, monitoring, incident response, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
  
• Bring discipline to operational decisions and change management, including communicating changes and their impact to users and stakeholders.
  
• Lead the secure ingestion, processing, provisioning, and governance of sensitive administrative data, with strong controls for data movement, segregation, access, retention, logging, and auditability.
  
• Oversee internal applications, identity and access management, collaboration tools, end-user technology, and service-management practices.
  
• Build and lead technology and platform operations teams that may include employees, contractors, consultants, and vendors.
  
• Position the platform's value and technical capabilities effectively with prospective partners, clients, Board members, and nontechnical stakeholders. Communicate technology priorities, risks, tradeoffs, and investment needs clearly and pragmatically.
  

The following qualifications are essential for this role:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
  
• At least 12 years of progressively responsible technology experience, including leadership in a CIOO, CTO, vice president, senior director, or comparable role.
  
• Significant experience leading and operating secure data environments where approved users access and analyze sensitive or regulated data under controlled conditions.
  
• Experience building and operating secure cloud platforms involving sensitive or regulated data, including FedRAMP-authorized or comparable NIST- or FISMA-aligned environments.
  
• Working knowledge of FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST, federal security requirements, and continuous-monitoring practices sufficient to lead internal technical and operational execution.
  
• Strong knowledge of cloud architecture, cybersecurity, software and platform development, data infrastructure, production operations, and disaster recovery.
  
• Product or platform experience that includes owning a roadmap, prioritizing user needs, building business cases, and planning the resources required to deliver improvements.
  
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams across engineering, cloud operations, cybersecurity, data engineering, product or platform delivery, platform or user operations, and internal IT.
  
• Strong executive communication skills and the ability to explain technology priorities, risks, options, and tradeoffs to leadership, Board members, partners, and staff.
  
• A strong business-partner orientation, with the ability to connect technology decisions to organizational goals, customer value, contractual commitments, and business-development opportunities.
  
• Pragmatic judgment that balances security, cost, usability, reliability, customer needs, and organizational capacity.
  
• Demonstrated ability to make day-to-day operational decisions, improve service delivery and change management, and hold teams accountable.
  
• Willingness to remain hands-on in a small, mission-driven organization.
  
• Experience working with or serving federal or state government agencies, with an understanding of their stakeholder needs and operating environments.
  
• Ability to meet applicable U.S. citizenship or permanent residency requirements for federal security and access and to travel approximately 20% of the time.
  

Any of the following would be helpful, but none is required:

• Direct experience with FedRAMP Moderate or High authorization efforts.
  
• Experience with System Security Plans, control implementation, POA&M remediation, continuous monitoring, government sponsors, or 3PAOs.
  
• Architecture, security, identity, and access-management experience in AWS GovCloud.
  
• Experience with secure research environments, data enclaves, or platforms that handle sensitive administrative or longitudinal data.
  
• An advanced degree in a technical or related field.
  

The strongest candidate combines secure data-enclave experience with strong business judgment, secure-platform product ownership, and hands-on operational leadership.

This person can point to specific examples of improving service, prioritizing a platform roadmap, making tradeoffs among security, cost, user experience, and contractual commitments, and helping leadership turn customer needs into practical development and investment decisions.

The ideal candidate has meaningful experience in FedRAMP or similarly regulated federal environments and can lead the technical and operational work required to support the organization's progression toward FedRAMP High.

This leader is equally comfortable in a Board discussion and in the details of a production issue. The CIOO will set multi-year direction with the CEO and Board while also guiding technical administration, troubleshooting, implementation, and service improvement.

The role suits a CIO, CTO, CISO, technology and operations leader, VP of Engineering, or senior technology director from a secure-data platform, FedRAMP-authorized software company, research environment, or government technology contractor. Relevant scope, judgment, and demonstrated results matter more than current title.

• Within 90 days, understand the platform architecture, authorization boundary, production operations, researcher services, team, vendor landscape, and highest-priority security, reliability, service, product, and capacity needs, including gaps in help-desk processes and change management.
  
• Within six months, establish a multi-year platform product and technology roadmap, budget, staffing plan, and business cases for priority development, with clear service levels, escalation procedures, production-readiness standards, and a coordinated FedRAMP High plan that identifies support needs.
  
• Within 12 months, demonstrate measurable improvements in platform service, help-desk responsiveness, change management, platform reliability, and delivery against the platform product roadmap while maintaining a secure, reliable, well-documented operation that meets contractual commitments and sustains FedRAMP continuous monitoring.
  
• Advance the FedRAMP High plan against milestones agreed with the CEO and Leadership Team.
  

• Medical plan options with employer contributions toward premiums, plus dental and vision insurance; HSA available with eligible plans.
  
• 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% employer match and an additional 3% employer contribution that does not require an employee contribution.
  
• 15 to 25 days of paid time off based on years of full-time professional experience, 14 paid holidays, and paid sick, family, and bereavement leave.
  
• Additional benefits include short- and long-term disability insurance and potential eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
  
• $1,500 annual professional development reimbursement and $100 monthly reimbursement for eligible remote-work expenses.