Director, IT Applications
Location: New York, NY
Immediate Supervisor:
Division/Department:

Audubon’s headquarters are in New York, supporting more than 700 staff in over 80 locations, nationwide. It has a national budget of $81 million.  Founded in 1905 and supported by 400,000 members, close to 500 chapters, 23 state offices, 58 Audubon Education Centers and a number of Sanctuaries throughout the Americas, the National Audubon Society conserves and restores natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife, and their habitats, for the benefit of humanity and the Earth's biological diversity.  What has traditionally set Audubon apart from other conservation organizations is its focus on people as the solution to the environmental challenges we face today.  Audubon believes that individuals can make a difference in protecting our environment and therefore it develops programs and strategies at the local level to both educate, and employ the strengths of, numerous constituencies and local communities.  We do this through local chapters, nature centers, citizen science programs, and public policy advocates.

Audubon's goal is to become the most effective conservation organization in the country.  Building upon its Strategic Plan and Five Year Goals, Audubon plans to establish a state program in most states as the primary operating vehicles to deliver conservation programs locally.  Audubon currently operates offices in 23 states and is rapidly expanding its outreach across the country.  Each state program is charged with protecting key ecosystems in its state, supporting local Chapters and with establishing a network of community-based nature centers. 

Audubon is about engaging people in conservation and one of our key strategies is bird conservation through a national and global network of Important Bird Areas.  In addition, we recently received a large, multi-year grant to educate and empower the public to take hands-on conservation action to reduce the negative impact of human activity on nature. Audubon is also emphasizing the use of internet technology to engage new audiences for conservation in new ways.  It is all part of a larger strategy to diversify the organization and the environmental movement, and to engage a much broader spectrum of people in conservation.   A popular cornerstone of Audubon’s communications efforts is the award-winning Audubon magazine which is published six times per year.

All of these programs and activities represent significant growth in the organization over the past few years, and they increasingly rely on technology to support their implementation. 

Audubon is seeking a Director, IT Applications with significant leadership experience in managing the full portfolio of applications, people, and vendors required for a complex non-profit national operation. Reporting to the Vice President of Information Systems and Administration, the Director, IT Applications will be responsible for providing application enhancements, application maintenance, upgrades, and managed operations for a suite of applications that include:

• Direct Marketing (Millennium)
• Major Gift Moves Management (Millennium, Crystal Reports)
• Subscription Management (Advantage)
• Accounting and Budgeting (Blackbaud’s Financial Edge and Advanced Budgeting Module)
• Human Resources, Payroll and Time & Attendance (ADP)
• Audubon’s science and conservation needs; Christmas Bird Count, Important Bird Areas (Java and PHP)
• Online fundraising and advocacy (Convio)
• Web Content Management and Web Applications (Drupal)
• General database management (Oracle, MS-SQL-Server and My-SQL)
• Application Development environments (Java SE, Java EE, Spring Framework and  Hibernate, PHP and Drupal)
  

Specific experience with the package software applications mentioned above is a plus but is not a requirement.

The Director, IT Applications will supervise a staff of approximately 7 - 10 people located in the Edison, New Jersey office and the organization’s headquarters office in New York City.  This position will be based in New York City (225 Varick St.)

• Thoroughly understand the National Audubon Society – its history, mission, culture, programs, structure, operations, systems, and goals for the future
• Develop a close working relationship with user liaisons in every department including Development, Science, Education, Policy, Conservation, Field Operations, Chapter Relations, Communications and Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, International Alliances.
• Develop a close working relationship key users in Audubon’s state offices and centers.
  
• Ensure the efficient and effective operation of Audubon’s major business applications.
  
• Ensure that enhancements to Audubon’s major programmatic and business applications are implemented on time, within budget and meet objectives.
• Develop and implement strategies for improving Audubon’s application architecture.
• Participate as a pro-active leader in Audubon’s Information Technology department.
• Participate as a pro-active leader in the development and execution of Audubon’s Strategic Information Systems Plan.
  
• Negotiate with vendors and consultants to obtain services and support for Audubon’s applications. 
• Set goals, evaluate performance, and manage the overall operations of Audubon’s business applications, including staff, service levels, and budgets. Create short-term and long-range strategies and plans that include clearly laid out departmental goals and objectives; hold staff accountable for achieving these goals; ensure that strategies are implemented with a balance between national and local activities.  Lead, develop, manage and motivate staff at national headquarters.
• Foster a commitment among staff to serve and support field information system activities; regularly communicate with the entire organization about the current and future IS needs of the organization; ensure that professional resources are available to the field in support of their technological needs.
  
• Participate in special projects and other initiatives as determined by the Vice President, Information Systems and Administration.

The ideal candidate should have the following experience and qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with a major in business or information technology or better.
• A minimum of 15 years of information services experience including 5 years in senior level information services management.
• Significant experience working in a leadership position in the national headquarters of an organization that is geographically distributed and where the field operating units have a medium to high degree of autonomy.
• A thorough understanding of the major systems needed to support a geographically distributed non-profit membership based organization.
•  Proven and exceptional skills working as part of the management team of a national organization.
• Hands-on experience in all phases of the traditional Systems Development Life Cycle including strategic IT planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, and post production support.
• Experience developing customer-facing software and supervising software engineers.
• Superior staff management and development skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with ability to make presentations in clear terms for Audubon’s employees, board members, and others.
• Strong customer service orientation and history

Consideration may be given to applicants who do not have experience in the non-profit sector, if they have experience with geographically distributed organizations with operating structures and customer systems similar in nature to large non-profit organizations.

The National Audubon Society's mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the Earth's biological diversity.

Audubon promotes a diverse workplace and is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of the National Audubon Society to employ the man or woman best qualified for the job regardless of race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability (handicap) or marital status.