Head of Data & Technology

The Organization:  Merit America

The American economy is broken. Today, 53 million working adults–nearly half of the U.S. workforce–do not earn a living wage. These talented workers have few options to advance: college is too long and expensive, full-time boot camp programs don’t offer enough flexibility, and online courses don’t have the structure or support to translate learning into a new career. The result? Talented workers, disproportionately people of color and women, get stuck in low-wage roles with no way to build a better life for themselves and their families.

Merit America is a national nonprofit that creates pathways to family-sustaining careers for Americans stuck in low-wage work. Our fast, flexible solutions are built for working adults: We start by analyzing tens of millions of job postings to identify in-demand, high-paying tech careers and then work with industry-recognized partners to train for these roles with part-time programs that combine flexible online learning with best-in-class coaching. Finally, we support our learners in their job search, helping them connect with a broad constellation of local and national employers such as JPMorgan Chase and Infosys to land higher-earning, family-sustaining jobs, driving an average wage gain of $24k three months or more after completing the program. Merit America is on a mission to build a scalable pathway for workers to join the middle class through merit, not money. Since our founding in 2018, we’ve generated a projected $1 billion in near-term wage gains for our learners. 

Role Overview

The Head of Data & Technology is a pivotal leadership role responsible for creating and driving the vision for leveraging data, building structures and processes, and product development for the betterment of all involved at Merit America. This leader will craft and influence data culture and practices while overseeing the technical infrastructure and product development that enables us to scale our programs and impact. We seek an empathetic leader who is comfortable with ambiguity, is service-oriented, and is a collaborative and unifying leader.

The Head of Data & Technology will lead our 6-person team of senior data scientists and engineers, focused on delivering insights through systems and processes, while maintaining and enhancing products that strengthen learner experiences and demonstrate organizational impact. This leader will create and implement a comprehensive data vision, including planning and supporting the deployment of data and technical projects (including applicant portal, LMS, internal coach tools), and guiding initiatives focused on responsible data use, scalability, and data-driven decision-making.

This role will provide both high-level strategic direction and dive into tactical execution details, including day-to-day mentoring with senior individual contributors, recommending and rolling out new tools, and coordinating across teams to build and refine systems and processes.

This is an exempt position reporting directly to the Managing Partner (similar role to a President) and collaborating closely with the Growth, Program, and Sustainability teams throughout Merit America.

Interested in learning more?  We will be hosting an info session on Wednesday, June 18th at 4:30pm EST. Click here to RSVP.

Responsibilities

Strategic Vision & Leadership

• Develop, champion, and deliver a comprehensive vision for data, engineering, and product that aligns with Merit America's mission and enables scalable impact for learners
• Drive technical strategy and roadmap for learner and organizational data, product development, and engineering infrastructure
• Foster innovation in how we leverage data and technology to improve learner outcomes and organizational effectiveness

Data Strategy & Governance

• Champion full-cycle, comprehensive data strategy including data collection, data standards and governance, documentation, and analytics infrastructure
• Ensure data is collected, clean, and reliable across all business functions through effective processes and systems
• Collaborate cross-functionally to execute data roadmap and facilitate data input and analytics, including:
• Administer data platforms, services, pipelines, and processes.
• Consult with teams to instrument high-quality user experience data
• Provide transparency into data and reporting quality, coverage, and completeness
• Ensure data security within the organization and with data in transit

Business Partnership & Decision Support