Director of Information Technology

Position Summary:

This role is responsible for providing oversight and management of information technology and the related ecosystem, including management of our outsourced Managed Service Provider (MSP). The ideal candidate will have prior Investment Management industry experience, will understand SEC requirements for technology and cyber security and will have experience managing the IT aspects of artificial intelligence (AI); they will also have robust collaboration and leadership skills and the ability to build strong interpersonal relationships. The Director – Information Technology must possess problem-solving skills with the appropriate attention to detail.

Essential Functions:

• Full management and oversight of the technology infrastructure and cyber security best practices ensuring the effective implementation and performance of technology to improve business processes and drive strategic objectives
• Work with stakeholders in the company as well as vendors to create and implement the company’s IT strategy
• Identify any gaps in technology to include knowledge of SEC requirements, and manage projects remediating the identified gaps
• Responsible for oversight of our AI efforts and tools from a technology and security perspective
• Responsible for managing our technical support vendors (especially our MSP) as well as our cyber security vendor
• Responsible for regular audits of technology and cyber security to ensure all expectations are being met to include the security of company systems and hardware
• Perform technology-focused vendor audits to ensure all expectations are being met
• Manage our disaster recovery, business continuity and incident response planning processes and related testing
• Identify technology needs and make recommendations to the Managing Director – Finance, Accounting & Technology to include potentially finding new or different vendors or systems depending on the changing needs of the business and practical improvements to the user experience
• Ownership and expertise across the technology spectrum, including end user support, infrastructure & network management, systems analysis, project management and cyber security
• Support the Managing Director – Finance, Accounting & Technology as well as the Chief Compliance Officer with any required implementations, reporting, or analysis

Additional Responsibilities/Duties:

• Develop and document standard operating procedures for the management of our systems and hardware
• Identify and implement opportunities for process improvement
• Own SEC technology requirements and compliance
• Other duties as needed or required

Other Skills & Attributes Required:

• Highly organized, with exceptional project and time management skills and an ability to coordinate with others to meet tight deadlines
• Excellent grammar, verbal and written communication skills and have a positive, upbeat attitude
• High attention to detail with ability to audit and find/solve problems
• Ability to produce high-quality detailed work in a timely fashion with little supervision
• Takes ownership to personally resolve problems (or find someone who can)
• Listens well, asks clarifying questions, and checks for agreement with team members
• Dependability and strong sense of accountability, with advanced situational judgment
• Works with team to analyze common issues, dig for root causes, and adjust services or processes to prevent issues from occurring in the future.
• Ability to explain technology concepts and issues effectively to a non-technical audience

Education & Technical Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Networking or related field; or equivalent work experience required
• 10+ years of experience in Technology, including a strong knowledge of systems, networks, hardware and cyber security, and SEC requirements
• Experience in managing an MSP highly preferred
• Experience with managing Office365 and SaaS solutions
• Proficiency in project management
• Investment Management or other SEC regulated industry experience preferred

Supervisory Responsibilities: Technology vendor management with several technology and cyber security vendors

Competencies: To perform this job successfully, the individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
2. Achievement Focus: Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; measures self against standard of excellence; recognizes and acts on opportunities; sets and achieves challenging goals; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
3. Analytical Skills: Collects and researches data. Designs workflows and procedures. Identifies data relationships and dependencies.Synthesizes diverse information. Uses intuition and experience to complement data.
4. Quality: Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure quality.
5. Problem-Solving: Develops alternative solutions; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; identifies problems in a timely manner; resolves problems in early stages; works well in group problem-solving situations.
6. Dependability: Commits to doing the best job possible; follows instructions, responds to management direction; keeps commitments; meets attendance and punctuality guidelines; responds to requests for service and assistance; takes responsibility for own actions.
7. Judgment: Displays willingness to make decisions; exhibits sound and accurate judgment; supports and explains reasoning for decisions; includes appropriate people in decision-making process; makes timely decisions.
8. Communications: Exhibits good listening and comprehension; expresses ideas and thoughts well in written form; expresses ideas and thoughts well verbally; keeps others adequately informed; selects and uses appropriate communication methods.
9. Teamwork: Balances team and individual responsibilities; contributes to building a positive team spirit; exhibits objectivity and openness to others’ views; gives and welcomes feedback; puts success of team above own interests.

In addition to the above job-specific competencies, all Forum employees are expected to demonstrate these Forum Core Competencies:

1. Adaptability:Accepts criticism and feedback; accustomed to a culture of rapid and constant change and easily adjusts to changing priorities and conditions; manages competing demands.
2. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
3. Collaboration: Recognizes and cultivates strong interpersonal relationships and cross-functional collaborations; generates value and uses motivation to influence and create change; seeks not to control but to inspire; facilitates dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information.
4. Accountable: Keeps and follows-through on commitments; readily takes ownership of achieving results by exhibiting responsibility and initiative; displays open, proactive communication that builds trust.
5. Initiative: Asks for help when needed; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities; seeks increased responsibilities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; undertakes self-development activities; volunteers readily.
6. Respectful: Displays integrity and honesty; maintains professional demeanor and composure in tense situations; exhibits fairs and generous behavior; readily owns up to mistakes and admits when wrong; strives to “get it right;” displays loyalty even when tough to do so.

Forum Values:

Blaze the Future (Entrepreneurial): Take initiative. Push what’s possible. Own your path but stay nimble. Embrace change, take risks, and always challenge the status quo.

Make it Better Together (Collaborative): Go all in. Get Messy. Welcome new ideas and share yours freely. Be a sponge. Bump heads. Talk it out. Listen. Learn. Repeat.

Stay Open (Vulnerable): Have the courage to make yourself vulnerable. Communicate honestly and respectfully. Share mistakes and trust one another.

Dare to be clear (Clarity): Certainty is impossible, but clarity is essential. Eliminate the noise and focus your strategy to achieve something better, something great.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Compensation Information: Base salary range is $160,000 to $175,000. This range is estimated for this role; actual pay may be different.

Benefits for full-time employees include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, employee assistance program, Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, 401(k) with company match program, 12 paid company holidays, self-managed PTO, anniversary milestone program/awards, gift matching program.

Position Summary:

This role is responsible for providing oversight and management of information technology and the related ecosystem, including management of our outsourced Managed Service Provider (MSP). The ideal candidate will have prior Investment Management industry experience, will understand SEC requirements for technology and cyber security and will have experience managing the IT aspects of artificial intelligence (AI); they will also have robust collaboration and leadership skills and the ability to build strong interpersonal relationships. The Director – Information Technology must possess problem-solving skills with the appropriate attention to detail.

Essential Functions:

• Full management and oversight of the technology infrastructure and cyber security best practices ensuring the effective implementation and performance of technology to improve business processes and drive strategic objectives
• Work with stakeholders in the company as well as vendors to create and implement the company’s IT strategy
• Identify any gaps in technology to include knowledge of SEC requirements, and manage projects remediating the identified gaps
• Responsible for oversight of our AI efforts and tools from a technology and security perspective
• Responsible for managing our technical support vendors (especially our MSP) as well as our cyber security vendor
• Responsible for regular audits of technology and cyber security to ensure all expectations are being met to include the security of company systems and hardware
• Perform technology-focused vendor audits to ensure all expectations are being met
• Manage our disaster recovery, business continuity and incident response planning processes and related testing
• Identify technology needs and make recommendations to the Managing Director – Finance, Accounting & Technology to include potentially finding new or different vendors or systems depending on the changing needs of the business and practical improvements to the user experience
• Ownership and expertise across the technology spectrum, including end user support, infrastructure & network management, systems analysis, project management and cyber security
• Support the Managing Director – Finance, Accounting & Technology as well as the Chief Compliance Officer with any required implementations, reporting, or analysis

Additional Responsibilities/Duties:

• Develop and document standard operating procedures for the management of our systems and hardware
• Identify and implement opportunities for process improvement
• Own SEC technology requirements and compliance
• Other duties as needed or required

Other Skills & Attributes Required:

• Highly organized, with exceptional project and time management skills and an ability to coordinate with others to meet tight deadlines
• Excellent grammar, verbal and written communication skills and have a positive, upbeat attitude
• High attention to detail with ability to audit and find/solve problems
• Ability to produce high-quality detailed work in a timely fashion with little supervision
• Takes ownership to personally resolve problems (or find someone who can)
• Listens well, asks clarifying questions, and checks for agreement with team members
• Dependability and strong sense of accountability, with advanced situational judgment
• Works with team to analyze common issues, dig for root causes, and adjust services or processes to prevent issues from occurring in the future.
• Ability to explain technology concepts and issues effectively to a non-technical audience

Education & Technical Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Networking or related field; or equivalent work experience required
• 10+ years of experience in Technology, including a strong knowledge of systems, networks, hardware and cyber security, and SEC requirements
• Experience in managing an MSP highly preferred
• Experience with managing Office365 and SaaS solutions
• Proficiency in project management
• Investment Management or other SEC regulated industry experience preferred

Supervisory Responsibilities: Technology vendor management with several technology and cyber security vendors

Competencies: To perform this job successfully, the individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
2. Achievement Focus: Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; measures self against standard of excellence; recognizes and acts on opportunities; sets and achieves challenging goals; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
3. Analytical Skills: Collects and researches data. Designs workflows and procedures. Identifies data relationships and dependencies.Synthesizes diverse information. Uses intuition and experience to complement data.
4. Quality: Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure quality.
5. Problem-Solving: Develops alternative solutions; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; identifies problems in a timely manner; resolves problems in early stages; works well in group problem-solving situations.
6. Dependability: Commits to doing the best job possible; follows instructions, responds to management direction; keeps commitments; meets attendance and punctuality guidelines; responds to requests for service and assistance; takes responsibility for own actions.
7. Judgment: Displays willingness to make decisions; exhibits sound and accurate judgment; supports and explains reasoning for decisions; includes appropriate people in decision-making process; makes timely decisions.
8. Communications: Exhibits good listening and comprehension; expresses ideas and thoughts well in written form; expresses ideas and thoughts well verbally; keeps others adequately informed; selects and uses appropriate communication methods.
9. Teamwork: Balances team and individual responsibilities; contributes to building a positive team spirit; exhibits objectivity and openness to others’ views; gives and welcomes feedback; puts success of team above own interests.

In addition to the above job-specific competencies, all Forum employees are expected to demonstrate these Forum Core Competencies:

1. Adaptability:Accepts criticism and feedback; accustomed to a culture of rapid and constant change and easily adjusts to changing priorities and conditions; manages competing demands.
2. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
3. Collaboration: Recognizes and cultivates strong interpersonal relationships and cross-functional collaborations; generates value and uses motivation to influence and create change; seeks not to control but to inspire; facilitates dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information.
4. Accountable: Keeps and follows-through on commitments; readily takes ownership of achieving results by exhibiting responsibility and initiative; displays open, proactive communication that builds trust.
5. Initiative: Asks for help when needed; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities; seeks increased responsibilities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; undertakes self-development activities; volunteers readily.
6. Respectful: Displays integrity and honesty; maintains professional demeanor and composure in tense situations; exhibits fairs and generous behavior; readily owns up to mistakes and admits when wrong; strives to “get it right;” displays loyalty even when tough to do so.

Forum Values:

Blaze the Future (Entrepreneurial): Take initiative. Push what’s possible. Own your path but stay nimble. Embrace change, take risks, and always challenge the status quo.

Make it Better Together (Collaborative): Go all in. Get Messy. Welcome new ideas and share yours freely. Be a sponge. Bump heads. Talk it out. Listen. Learn. Repeat.

Stay Open (Vulnerable): Have the courage to make yourself vulnerable. Communicate honestly and respectfully. Share mistakes and trust one another.

Dare to be clear (Clarity): Certainty is impossible, but clarity is essential. Eliminate the noise and focus your strategy to achieve something better, something great.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Compensation Information: Base salary range is $160,000 to $175,000. This range is estimated for this role; actual pay may be different.

Benefits for full-time employees include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, employee assistance program, Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, 401(k) with company match program, 12 paid company holidays, self-managed PTO, anniversary milestone program/awards, gift matching program.