Director of Information Technology

Founded in 1981 in partnership with whistleblowers the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that works to expose waste corruption abuse of power and other instances where the government fails to serve the public. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective ethical and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles. POGO has an over $7 million annual budget that supports a staff of over 50 employees.

POGO is looking for a talented Director of Information Technology to play a crucial role in advancing POGOs mission by providing strategic leadership on IT and oversight of our IT systems and infrastructure. You will help POGO better leverage technology by being responsible for: developing and implementing IT strategies to support the organizations goals; ensuring the security compliance and integrity of our systems and data; and optimizing technology resources to enhance not only operational efficiency but also the impact of our work. This position reports directly to the Vice President (VP) of Finance and Administration.

We encourage potential applicants to apply even if they only have experience or familiarity in some of the areas described below. We fully recognize that many great candidates will not have experience in all of the areas we list or may have relevant experiences and skills that we have not listed or considered.

Responsibilities include:

• Set POGOs multi-year technology strategy and roadmap in alignment with the strategic plan and translate it into annual priorities investments and measurable outcomes.

• Advise the executive leadership team on the organizations technology posture including the tradeoffs among operational stability speed of adoption cost compliance obligations and organizational capacity and bring recommendations with clear options and costs.

• Own the organizations cybersecurity program: set the risk posture and security roadmap direct the virtual CISO engagement oversee risk assessment and penetration testing maintain cyber insurance readiness and report on risk to executive leadership.

• Author and maintain the organizations technology data governance cybersecurity and acceptable use policies and lead their adoption across the organization in coordination with Legal and Human Resources.

• Define POGOs compliance posture for data protection and privacy accessibility PCI DSS and related obligations and serve as the organizations internal advisor on technology-related legal and regulatory questions in partnership with Legal.

• Identify where technology can materially increase the impact of POGOs investigative policy and advocacy work and scope source or build solutions including data collection pipelines automation and analysis tooling in partnership with program leadership.

• Set the organizational framework for information architecture records and data management and lead cross-departmental adoption of technology standards with teams owning their own structures within it.

• Lead the IT team: supervise and develop the IT team set priorities and service standards for the function and ensure they have the capacity skills and succession depth to meet organizational needs.

Qualifications include:

• Minimum of 8 years of progressive IT experience including at least 3 years in a leadership role with responsibility for technology strategy budget and staff preferably at a nonprofit law firm or other organization with comparable sensitivity around data.

• Demonstrated experience setting and executing technology strategy aligned to organizational goals and presenting options and recommendations to executive leadership.

• Demonstrated experience owning a cybersecurity program including risk assessment policy development incident response planning and directing external security advisors.

• Demonstrated experience with technology governance and compliance including data protection and privacy PCI and accessibility obligations and working in partnership with legal counsel.

• Demonstrated experience owning a technology budget leading vendor selection and contract negotiation and making build buy and sourcing decisions.

• Strong working knowledge of modern cloud-first enterprise environments including Microsoft 365 and Entra sufficient to direct evaluate and hold accountable technical work performed by others.

• Demonstrated experience supervising and developing technical staff.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to translate technical matters for non-technical executives and staff and to build consensus across departments.

• Commitment to creating maintaining and otherwise fostering an inclusive work environment.

• Commitment to justice equity diversity and inclusion.

• () Legal compliance or privacy background or credential (e.g. CIPP) or experience serving as a technology advisor to legal teams preferred but not required

• () Experience identifying and delivering technology solutions that increase program impact in research policy advocacy or investigative settings including data pipelines automation and analysis tooling preferred but not required.

Compensation benefits and other information:

This position is eligible for remote work from anywhere within the United States provided you are available during POGOs work hours of 9AM-6PM in the Eastern Time the position and POGO are based in Washington DC.

This is a full-time position and includes the listed benefits:

• Competitive nonprofit salary in the range of $128K - $140K

• Health dental and vision insurance

• 403(b) employee investment plan available with employer retirement contribution once eligible

• Life insurance short-term and long-term disability coverage

• Paid holiday vacation and sick leave

To Apply: Resume required cover letter welcomed but not required. If youd like to share context on transferable experience or your interest in POGOs mission wed love to read it. No phone calls please.

Application Deadline: October 20 2026

POGO is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin age disability or genetics. We encourage all interested and qualified individuals to apply.