The IT Director is responsible for maintaining a reliable, secure, well-governed, and business-aligned technology environment for Lightbridge Academy while selectively advancing approved technology, automation, analytics, and AI initiatives. This role is intentionally focused on must-continue former-CIO responsibilities: operational IT leadership, security and risk oversight, vendor/MSP governance, budget discipline, team leadership, stakeholder communication, franchise-system support, and structured execution through providing clear priorities, commitments, and follow-through.

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The essential functions include, but are not limited to, the following must-continue responsibilities:

IT Strategy, Governance, and Prioritization

·        Maintain the operating technology strategy necessary to support company priorities, center operations, franchise needs, and core business objectives.

·        Meet regularly with the CEO and peer executives to understand business needs, resolve exceptions, and prioritize technology work appropriately.

·        Own the recurring IT prioritization process, including initiative intake, project sequencing, resource planning, and practical tradeoff recommendations.

·        Use structured tools and processes, including Asana or comparable systems, to document work, commitments, due dates, action items, and accountability.

·        Serve as the technology quality gate for major IT, vendor, or cross-functional deliverables before they are accepted as complete.

IT Team Leadership and Operating Cadence

·        Lead the IT team through clear priorities, recurring 1:1s, resource planning, performance management, obstacle removal, and escalation support.

·        Maintain an operating rhythm for IT work, including sprint or rocks (goals) review, capacity planning, coverage planning, and accountability for committed dates.

·        Support flexible, outcome-based work practices where coverage, productivity, responsiveness, and committed deliverables remain strong.

·        Make or escalate go/no-go, priority, staffing, vendor, and resourcing decisions when blockers prevent the IT team from moving forward.

·        Manage IT hiring, contractor and consultant engagement, annual performance review input, and development of IT team members.

Security, Risk, Compliance, and Resilience

·        Own executive oversight of information security, cybersecurity awareness, incident management, access governance, and technology risk reduction.

·        Coordinate with the organization’s vCISO, MSP, and other security partners on security assessments, policy updates, risk reviews, patch compliance, user-account governance, and incident response.

·        Oversee information security policy, AI and application access guardrails, privacy/data-security due diligence responses, and business continuity expectations.

·        Ensure critical systems are monitored, reliable, recoverable, and supported by appropriate escalation and communication procedures.

·        Lead or participate in security incident response as the management-level technology representative.

Vendor, MSP, Contract, and Budget Governance

·        Manage strategic technology vendor relationships, including MSP accountability, service quality, commitments, billing/SOW discipline, and escalation of unresolved issues.

·        Maintain a structured approach to vendor follow-up, open commitments, service quality indicators, billing disputes, and contractual follow-through.

·        Develop and manage the IT operating and capital budget in coordination with Finance and executive leadership.

·        Review software licensing, vendor pricing, contract renewals, and technology-cost changes; negotiate or escalate when needed to protect Lightbridge interests.

·        Balance internal IT capacity with outside vendor, consultant, and specialist support.

Stakeholder, Franchisee, and Cross-Functional Communication

·        Serve as a trusted technology partner to the CEO, senior leaders, IT team, franchise-facing teams, and center-support stakeholders.

·        Listen to franchisee and field concerns, translate concerns into practical plans, and communicate progress, decisions, and constraints clearly.

·        Support IT Committee, Technology Power Hour, franchisee-facing technology communications, and system-wide announcements as assigned or appropriate.

·        Collaborate with Operations, Marketing, Franchise Development, Education/Training, Finance, Compliance, and other departments to resolve technology issues and support business priorities.

·        Represent Lightbridge technology standards, systems, security posture, and technology direction in internal, franchise, and diligence-related contexts as needed.

Center Technology, Platforms, Data, AI, and Automation Oversight

·        Provide executive oversight for core platforms, center technology standards, franchise systems, identity/access management, cloud systems, data architecture, reporting, and business-critical applications.

·        Delegate day-to-day platform, center technology, analytics, automation, and technical execution to appropriate IT team leads where practical while maintaining accountability for outcomes and escalations.

·        Evaluate and prioritize AI, automation, analytics, security, and platform opportunities based on business value, operational impact, risk, cost, and available capacity.

·        Maintain sufficient AI literacy to assess opportunities, ask informed questions, apply appropriate governance, and support proactive technology planning.

·        Ensure technology decisions consider operational usefulness, franchisee impact, data/privacy risk, supportability, cost, and long-term scalability.

Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

·        Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, or a related field required; master’s degree, MBA, or relevant advanced training preferred.

·        10+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, preferably including multi-location, franchise, education, childcare, hospitality, retail, healthcare, or other service-oriented operating environments.

·        Demonstrated experience leading IT operations, infrastructure, identity/access, SaaS platforms, cloud services, endpoint environments, support functions, or comparable enterprise technology operations.

·        Credible experience with cybersecurity, information security governance, privacy/data protection, risk management, incident response, vendor security reviews, or vCISO/MSP coordination.

·        Experience managing vendors, MSPs, contracts, service levels, software licensing, renewals, project commitments, and technology-cost accountability.

·        Experience developing or managing IT budgets, reviewing technology spend, and partnering with Finance or executive leadership on resource allocation.

·        Proven ability to lead a small technology team through structure, priorities, commitments, coaching, accountability, and obstacle removal.

·        Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technology issues, plans, risks, and tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.

·        Demonstrated ability to listen to stakeholder concerns, create actionable plans, communicate progress, and build trust through follow-through.

·        Working knowledge of AI, automation, analytics, and emerging technology sufficient to evaluate opportunities, set guardrails, prioritize responsibly, and ask informed questions.

·        Strong judgment, discretion, ethics, and confidentiality when handling family, child, employee, franchisee, business, and security-related information.

·        Willingness and ability to travel periodically for key meetings, stakeholder engagement, center/franchise support, or company events as needed.

·        Promote the positive image of Lightbridge Academy and maintain the vision, mission, core values, and operating policies and procedures at all times.

Preferred Qualifications

·        Experience in franchising, multi-unit operations, childcare, education, hospitality, healthcare, retail, or another distributed service environment.

·        Experience in a private-equity-backed or investor-facing company environment.

·        Experience with Microsoft 365, Entra ID, endpoint management, cloud analytics, Power Platform, AI governance, business intelligence, or similar technologies.

·        Experience leading technology communications, committee updates, system-wide announcements, or executive/franchisee-facing presentations.

·        Experience improving service delivery, support workflows, identity lifecycle, automation, security posture, or vendor accountability in a lean IT environment.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

This role is primarily performed in an office, remote-office, or meeting environment using standard computer and communications equipment. The employee must be able to communicate effectively in person, by phone, and through video and written communication; operate a computer and standard office equipment; and participate in meetings for extended periods. The employee may occasionally travel to company locations, franchise-related meetings, vendor meetings, or company events. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.