Director of Technology & Data
About Cara Collective
Cara Collective seeks to fuel a courageous national movement to eradicate relational and financial poverty. Through our four entities – Cara, Cleanslate, Cara Connects, and Cara Plus – we engage job seekers, employers, and other organizations across the country to break the cycle of poverty through the power and purpose of employment.
At present, we produce 1,000 jobs each year; however, our results don’t just end with employment. Today, we take the insights gained over the past 30 years to equip other organizations and employers with practices to help build a more inclusive economy. Learn more at www.caracollective.org.
About the Role
The Director of Technology & Data leads a team of staff and managed service providers in overseeing all technology systems and technology projects for the enterprise. This role supports data analysis, business analysis, system implementation, system improvement efforts, and technology projects across Cara Collective. Cara Collective’s data ecosystem primarily revolves around a Salesforce environment utilized by Programmatic, Development, and Social Enterprise teams. Salesforce is Cara Collective’s primary database for all fundraising, programmatic, business, and financial data (integrated with FinancialForce).
The Director of Technology & Data will be responsible for maintaining a sophisticated Salesforce and Data/IT environment that supports the enterprise-wide, mission-driven work of Cara Collective, and for leading any continuous technology improvement efforts to ensure our environment adapts to meet the changing needs of our participants and staff.
Reports To
Chief Financial Officer
Direct Report(s)
The Director of Technology & Data directly supervises the Salesforce Support Specialist, IT Support Coordinator and IT Support Specialist. In addition, the position supervises two Managed Service Provider vendors.
The Responsibilities of the Director of Technology & Data:
The Director of Technology & Data is responsible for leadership of Cara Collective’s enterprise-wide use of Salesforce, FinancialForce, Data/IT systems and related tools (e.g., Conga), to the ongoing upkeep and efficiency of our Data/IT and Salesforce environment, and to other related technology projects from time to time.
Salesforce Development & Data Analysis (40%)
- Partner with (and overseeing the relationship with) retained 3rd party Managed Services provider in their supplemental support of Cara Collective’s Salesforce instance:
o Develop and deploy new objects that meet end user specifications.
o Build and maintain flow automation, process automation, and workflow rules.
o Select and implement new technology tools related to Cara Collective’s Salesforce environment.
o Install and configure third-party applications.
o Stay up-to-date on Salesforce system upgrades, changes, and enhancements.
- Partner across enterprise to define and clarify business and program strategy to best leverage data and systems.
- Lead data summarization and analysis for Cara promotional materials, funder proposals and reports, internal improvement efforts and strategy, and/or ad-hoc requests.
- Partner across enterprise to align data definitions and use of metrics.
- Acts as an advisor to all staff to interpret data.
- Assist and empower staff across the enterprise in the performance of their own independent data analyses.
Maintenance, Development & Help Desk (30%)
- Uphold system architecture and data integrity.
- Maintain system security, user profiles, and licensing.
- Maintain and implement Salesforce report management standards and organizational schema. Create, organize, and archive reports and dashboards.
- Oversee fielding of help desk requests related to data maintenance, data merges, data cleanup, and Salesforce reporting.
- Facilitate FinancialForce support by acting as liaison between Cara Collective’s Finance team and FinancialForce.
- Perform regular data cleanup within Salesforce, with particular attention to de-duplication of records.
- Perform regular data cleanup and migration between Salesforce and relevant systems, often including data manipulation and data transformation in Excel.
- Oversee regular Salesforce and Data/IT Team processes, such as new hire setups.
- Lead transition of Cara Collective to Salesforce’s updated products (e.g., non-profit cloud) as relevant
Vendor Relations (10%)
- Build and maintain positive and proactive service relationships with external technology vendors.
- Oversee I.T. enhancement projects, in partnership with Managed Service Providers.
Leadership & Enterprise Strategy (20%)
- Lead technology team and provide coaching, mentorship and growth opportunities.
- Serve as a member of Cara Collective’s Leadership Team, and a strategic thought leader.
- ·Collaborate with CFO, COO and the rest of Executive team on development and implementation of organizational strategic plans and programs.
- Responsible for the achievement of Technology KPIs and objectives. Ensure that evaluation systems are in place related to these goals and objectives and report progress to the Executive Team.
- Oversee technology initiatives and projects in the context of Cara Collective’s strategic priorities.
Qualifications
- A minimum of 7 years of data management experience, with Salesforce experience and ideally Salesforce Admin Certification.
- No degree requirement, but relevant education includes degree or coursework in Information Systems, Business, Computer Science, Library Science, or other relevant disciplines.
- Expertise and comfort in using Excel for data manipulation and data transformation, including use of advanced Excel formulas.
- Expertise in Microsoft environment and SharePoint.
- Professional experience or demonstrated interest in human services, workforce development, social entrepreneurship, or other content area relevant to Cara Collective’s mission.
- Strong analytical and abstraction skills, with the ability to understand the relationships between components and ask clarifying questions to investigate further.
- Excellent oral, written, and listening communication skills; cross-functional collaboration/teamwork skills; and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
- High accountability for strict deadlines; high attention to detail; ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Cara Collective is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Cara Collective does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please email us at kboelkens@carachicago.org if you require reasonable accommodation to complete this application.
