Director, Salesforce Platform

How You’ll Contribute

The Technology Division creates digital experiences for and delivers information technology services to the National Geographic Society. From our staff to our constituents, Technology provides the power to amplify National Geographic’s impact through value-based product delivery, transformational data services, and world-class support and infrastructure services. These services include employee training and technical support, audio/visual production, device management, enterprise architecture, network management, on-premise and cloud computing, information security, identity management, data management and integration, product management, user experience design, software development, systems engineering, and systems administration. Technology is comprised of five teams: Business Products, Constituent Products, Data Products, Infrastructure & Security, and Technology Support Services.

Your Impact

How You’ll Contribute

The Director, Salesforce Platform will strategically lead the evolution and maximize the business value of the Society’s Salesforce platform. With a recently modernized environment, this role focuses on unlocking greater organizational impact and advancing maturity. You will champion innovative uses of Salesforce to deliver scalable, secure, and user-centric solutions aligned with the Society's mission and evolving objectives, guiding the platform's ongoing development, maintenance, testing, and operations.

The Director is a coach, communicator, expectation manager, facilitator, and diplomat. As a strong team player, you will work effectively across a matrixed Technology organization and collaborate with all levels. You report to the Sr. Director, Data Products.

Your Impact & Responsibilities

Product Strategy and Delivery (40%)

• Define and champion the Salesforce platform roadmap, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities and business value.

• Translate complex business requirements into scalable, sustainable Salesforce solutions, applying product thinking and human-centered design.

• Oversee the product lifecycle for Salesforce initiatives: ideation, requirements, deployment, adoption, and optimization.

• Drive continuous improvement in platform performance, data quality, and user experience.

• Collaborate with Technology and business stakeholders to prioritize features, manage backlogs, and ensure successful Salesforce project delivery.

Platform Architecture and Ecosystem Management (40%)

• Drive strategic architectural decisions within the Salesforce ecosystem, making effective trade-offs aligned with NGS goals, scalability, and long-term sustainability.

• Establish and enforce architectural standards, best practices, and governance policies for Salesforce, ensuring security, performance, and data integrity.

• Ensure robust security measures and compliance with data protection regulations within the Salesforce platform and its ecosystem.

• Manage and optimize NGS's ecosystem of third-party Salesforce applications and vendors for best business value and seamless integration.

Leadership and People Management (20%)

• Lead staff personnel management and professional development to ensure skills meet service levels and customer standards.

• Empower technical teams with autonomy, authority and accountability, including subordinate supervisor(s).

• Manage key vendor contracts.

• Estimate costs and manage spending within budget.

• Manage risks and navigate organizational processes to remove obstacles.

• Maintain an environment of psychological safety for team members to thrive.

Minimum Years and Type of Experience

10+ years in application development or IT service management, with at least 5 years direct, recent experience with the Salesforce platform. 3+ years supervisory experience.

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to define, champion, and deliver against a platform roadmap aligned with strategic priorities and delivering measurable business value across multiple stakeholders.

• Experience with large-scale Salesforce implementations and complex integrations across various Salesforce offerings (e.g., Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Tableau) and thir