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Job Description
Position Summary:
This role will be managing a complex, 24/7 boarding school with an elite athletic program that requires more than a SIS administrator or a helpdesk manager. This role will own the full ecosystem of platforms that run our campus and make them work better together for staff and kids on campus every day.
This is a hybrid role:
part systems administrator, part product owner, part team lead. This role will require enough technical depth to own and configure the platforms in our ecosystem, the judgment to know when something needs to go to an engineering team or to the vendor, and the communication skills to translate between departments who have needs and the people who can address them. This role won't be building software, but you'll need to understand the systems well enough to articulate how things should work and why. Especially when factors are needed for software engineers to build integrations, ETL pipelines or harness applications to glue things together or provide a control surface across SaaS applications. Our core platforms include Blackbaud (SIS), Teamworks (athlete management), Reach (residential and campus management), and supporting tools covering document management, dorm planning, paperwork workflows, and more. Experience in a boarding or residential school environment is strongly preferred, but any academic, campus or hospitality experience is helpful.
Position Responsibilities:
Platform Ownership & Product Thinking Become the go-to person and develop ownership of our core platforms - understanding not just how they work, but how they serve our school, campers, parents, and staff. Continuously assess platform capabilities against operational needs; identify gaps, redundancies, and opportunities for improvement across the ecosystem. Translate requirements from Academic, Athletic & Personal Development (APD), Student Life, Campus Operations, and other functions into actionable system enhancements, workflow improvements, or integration projects. Maintain a roadmap for the ecosystem, balancing near-term operational needs with longer-term strategic improvements. Evaluate new tools and platforms as the school's needs evolve; lead or support technology selection processes with a clear-eyed view of fit-for-purpose, cost, and integration complexity. Vendor Ownership & Partnership Own the primary vendor relationships across the ecosystem (including Blackbaud, Teamworks, Reach) and all supporting platforms. Serve as the school's advocate in vendor conversations: escalating issues, negotiating roadmap influence, participating in product feedback programs, and ensuring the school gets maximum value from its contracts. Stay ahead of platform updates, new features, deprecations, and integration opportunities; communicate relevant changes proactively to internal stakeholders. Coordinate contract renewals, licensing reviews, and vendor performance evaluations in partnership with IT leadership and Finance. Integration & Technical Strategy Identify where integrations are needed and translate those needs into clear requirements for a software team or vendor. Own data integrity and basic governance standards across managed platforms. Keep documentation current on system configurations and platform connections. Working with Campus application development team to maintain technical architecture, tool choice and platform coherence alignment. Team Leadership Lead, mentor, and develop a small team of systems and support specialists who serve as the front line for campus platform support. Manage ticket queues, workload distribution, and escalation paths; serve as the senior escalation point for complex or high-priority issues. Set team priorities and support standards; build a culture of ownership, continuous improvement, and excellent service. Conduct regular one-on-ones, performance check-ins, and professional development conversations with team members.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Education Technology, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. 5+ years of experience in a systems administration, technology management, or related role within a K-12 or higher education environment. Prior experience at a school with a student population of approximately 1,000 or more is required; boarding or residential school experience is strongly preferred. Hands-on experience with Blackbaud (SIS) is strongly preferred; Blackbaud certification or equivalent training is a plus. Familiarity with other campus platforms - athlete management, residential management, document workflows - is a meaningful advantage. Can sit with a stakeholder, understand what they actually need, and figure out the right path to get there. Know how to manage vendor relationships and hold partners accountable. Are technically comfortable owning platform configurations and speaking credibly with software teams about integration needs. Can communicate clearly with both technical teammates and non-technical staff. Are comfortable picking up an unfamiliar system, learning it well, and making it better for the people using it. Understand that this role has no established playbook - no one has done this job before, and success here means being someone who can chart their own course, not follow someone else's.
