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We’re hiring a Chief Technology Officer

Applications for this role have now closed. Please see our jobs page for our open positions.

Minimum salary: $155K/year
Location: Austin, TX (preferred but not required)

The 19th is hiring a Chief Technology Officer to grow and maintain the tech stack and infrastructure for our growing nonprofit news organization. As CTO, you will manage the deployment of technology resources to support 19th stakeholders, including editorial, operations, product and revenue teams; readers and subscribers; and other external supporters and partners. You will vet all existing and proposed technologies to ensure that internal and external platforms operate efficiently and securely, in alignment with organizational goals.  And you will oversee our burgeoning engineering team as a leader who can offer practical solutions and hands-on guidance, as well as strategic vision and direction. Finally, you will champion our mission through equitable development practices.   

Responsibilities include: 

  • Own site security, stability and performance metrics (communicating regularly to key stakeholders); Ensure site infrastructure is optimized for maximum reach and accessibility on third-party platforms 
  • Leverage user feedback and platform analytics to identify, prioritize and assign system enhancements and bug fixes 
  • Evaluate technical requests from editorial, operations, product and revenue teams. Communicate constraints, tradeoffs and priorities
  • Own and expand on our code standards, code review and quality assurance processes to increase efficiency and minimize technical debt 
  • Grow a team of engineers and lead them in feature development and debugging best practices. 
  • Manage IT budget and contractor resources 
  • Own relationships with software and hardware technology vendors
  • Train staff in security protocols and best practices

Relevant skills include: 

  • 5+ years of experience owning site infrastructure and leading technology teams 
  • Expert knowledge of our code stack, including WordPress, Cloudflare, Docker, Webpack, GitHub, Mailchimp, Heroku+Hasura and JavaScript, or comparable technologies 
  • A track record of leading improvements to site speed, technical SEO and accessibility 
  • Established relationships with engineers in the news industry 
  • Ability to communicate and collaborate with a wide range of teams, from editorial to audience to events to product to revenue

Benefits

  • 20 days paid time off, plus major holidays (13 per year)
  • Health, dental and vision insurance
  • 401(k) with matching 
  • Flexible work hours
  • Professional development/conference stipend
  • Up to 6 months paid family leave
  • Flex Spending Plan (for medical or child care expenses)
  • Disability insurance (ST and LT)
  • Life insurance
  • Caregiver leave

We know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We also encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. 

How to apply

Interested candidates should apply at the link below by November 21, 2021 at 12AM CT. Have questions about this position? Contact Emily Swelgin, Director of Product at [email protected]. Please note: We are not accepting résumés or applications via email.