Director of Information Technology

Counterpart International is a global development organization that empowers people and communities to implement innovative and enduring solutions to social, economic, and environmental challenges. For over 55 years, Counterpart has been forging partnerships with communities in need to address complex problems related to economic development, food security and nutrition, and building effective governance and institutions.

Summary

The Director of Information Technology owns Counterpart's technology strategy, budget, vendor portfolio and risk posture, and leads the IT team. The Sr. Director is accountable for the IT operating budget and its monthly reconciliation to the general ledger, for competitive procurement and contract lifecycle management across the vendor portfolio, for the security, privacy and compliance posture of a hybrid Microsoft environment spanning headquarters and five project offices, for delivery of enterprise system programs serving Finance, HR, MEL and Programs, and for serving as the business partner who converts departmental needs into working systems.

This is a working leadership role. It is approximately 40 % strategy, governance and executive advisory, and 60 % hands-on technical and financial execution. This is a full-time position based in Arlington, VA, and will report to the Chief Operations Officer.

Duties and Responsibilities

Technology strategy and organizational alignment

• Develop and regularly maintain a multi-year technology roadmap tied directly to Counterpart's organizational goals.
• Own the build vs. buy vs. outsource posture across the portfolio, and revisit it as organizational size, funding and program mix change.
• Manage technical debt deliberately, including the legacy footprint, remaining SQL Server and Active Directory dependencies, Azure Cloud and storage cost profile.
• Plan and lead the technology side of organizational transitions, including growth or contraction, office relocations, and international project office startups and closeouts, so that systems, connectivity, equipment, and data are ready when they are needed and are retired securely when they are not.
• Advise the executive team on technology cost, risk and opportunity, ensuring technology assumptions are considered before organizational commitments are made.
  
  

Financial management and budget ownership

• Build and own the annual IT operating and capital budget, including consulting with HR, Finance, Communications, MEL, New Business, Corporate and Foundations and Programs on overhead departmental budget.
• Reconcile spend to the general ledger monthly, by GL account and by vendor, and explain variance to Finance and the executive team.
• Review general ledger coding accuracy for IT expenditures, including reclassification recommendations, allocation between overhead and project funds, and monthly corporate card reconciliation.
• Actively manage licensing costs, including Microsoft licensing and enrollment, Azure consumption, Fabric capacity, and AI-related usage billing. Cloud cost management has produced material savings and requires continuous attention rather than periodic review.
• Identify and pursue nonprofit pricing, discount and grant programs (Microsoft nonprofit pricing and charity accelerator programs) as a direct offset to budget.
  
  

Vendor management, procurement and contracts

• In cooperation with Procurement, structure and run competitive evaluations for all software, hardware or IT service procurements including requirements definition, vendor comparison, reference checking and participating in the evaluation committee.
• Review and negotiate contracts, statements of work, service level commitments and data protection agreements, with attention to renewal terms, integration costs and exit provisions.
• Maintain the renewal calendar and contracts tracker and ensure agreements do not auto-renew without deliberate review.
• Identify downstream and linked costs before commitment, including integration costs across connected systems that would otherwise surface after signature.
• Hold vendors and external technical consultants account for scope, schedule and deliverables.
• Formulate and implement long-term strategic and operational plans, including business requirements, project planning, organizing and negotiating the allocation of resources for acquiring and enabling efficient and cost-effective information processing and communication technologies.
  
  

Enterprise systems and data platform

• Own the architecture and roadmap for the Microsoft environment: Microsoft 365, Entra ID and hybrid identity, SharePoint structure and permissions, Azure infrastructure, and SQL platforms.
• Direct the Power BI and Microsoft Fabric environment, including capacity sizing and cost management, workspace governance and access control, row-level security, data source lineage, and backup and recovery strategy.
• Oversee the finance and HR system portfolio, including Business Central/Sylogist Mission ERP, QuickBooks Online, expense management, e-signature and payroll and HRIS platforms, and the data integrations between them.
• Ensure reporting and data flows serving Finance, HR, MEL and Programs are accurate, documented and supportable.
  
  

Technical project management

• Serve as the project manager for enterprise system implementations and migrations.
• Convert strategy into sequenced, resourced plans with milestones, owners, dependencies and defined completion criteria.
• Maintain delivery cadence with vendors and staff, and report status, upcoming milestones, blockers and executive asks on a regular reporting rhythm.
• Produce reports and communicate with stakeholders and management team on project statuses.
  
  

AI strategy and governance

• Own Counterpart's AI Standard: what tools are sanctioned, what data may be used with them, what is prohibited, and what requires review. Keep it current as the technology and the vendor landscape change.
• Approve AI tool requests, evaluating each on data handling, contractual terms, integration risk and duplication of capability already licensed.
• Review AI terms and conditions embedded in third-party platforms, including future CRM and program systems, where vendor AI features may carry data privacy concerns that conflict with our commitments to staff, donors and program participants.
• Forecast and monitor AI-related consumption costs, which behave differently from traditional licensing and are expected to become more volatile as agent-based tools mature.
• Drive deliberate adoption where AI produces genuine efficiency for headquarters and international staff, including training and enablement, and be equally clear about where AI is not the right answer.
• Work with the Global Partners and Solution, Programs and Corporate and Foundations departments to advise on technology and AI in international development, connecting it to donor expectations, while recognizing that deep program application may require supplemental external expertise.
  
  

Security, risk and compliance

• Determine the security controls Counterpart requires, and ensure they are implemented, verified and documented.
• Respond to IT and risk management questionnaires, audit requests, cyber insurance applications and donor compliance inquiries, and be accountable for the accuracy of those representations.
• Update and maintain IT-related policies including acceptable use, AI, record retention, website privacy, and country-specific personal data processing requirements.
• Review third-party data access and vendor security posture before granting access to Counterpart systems or data.
• Maintain backup, recovery and business continuity capability, and verify it rather than assume it.
• Reduce shadow IT by ensuring departments and projects have a supported path to meet legitimate technology needs, and by identifying unsanctioned systems that create data exposure or provide an unmanaged path into Counterpart's environment.
  
  

Cross-functional partnership and requirements definition

• Partner with organizational departments to understand business needs and provide them with guidance and assistance to translate needs into system requirements.
• Partner with departments to ensure that purchased solutions are sized to the organization and do not create long-term storage costs, customization debt or licensing we cannot use.
• Maintain an intake and prioritization process for technology and reporting requests.
• Represent IT to the executive leadership team in business terms and proactively advise the CFO and COO so that technology implications are weighed before decisions are made.
  
  

Team leadership and development

• Supervise, develop and evaluate IT staff, including goal setting and performance accountability.
• Define and protect the boundary between operational and strategic work so that operational demand does not consume all available capacity.
• Coach staff through technical and process decisions in a way that builds independent.
• Maintain thorough documentation and cross-train staff so that institutional knowledge does not depend on any one person.
  
  

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible IT experience, including at least 5 years in a leadership role with direct budget accountability.
• Demonstrated Direct experience managing the IT budget cycle starting with building the budget, communicating coding and allocation methodology, conducting variance analysis, and being accountable for the outcome.
• Ability to partner with Finance on cost allocation methodology for shared technology costs is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience structuring competitive procurements, negotiating and reviewing contracts and statements of work, and managing vendor performance.
• Direct experience delivering enterprise system implementations and migrations as the accountable project owner.
• Working knowledge of security frameworks, data privacy obligations and audit or compliance response.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technology cost, risk and tradeoffs to non-technical executives in business terms.
• Supervisory experience with demonstrated staff development results.
• Bachelor's degree, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  
  

Technical qualifications

Required:

• Microsoft 365 and Azure administration, identity and access management including Entra ID and hybrid Active Directory, and SharePoint architecture and permissions.
• Practical understanding of Azure cloud cost management, capacity sizing and consumption billing.
• Familiarity with finance and HR system landscapes, integrations and data flows.
  
  

Preferred:

• Power BI. Ability to read and evaluate data models, measures and report designs, understand row-level security, and assess whether a reporting solution is well constructed or will become unsupportable. Counterpart relies on Power BI for financial, level-of-effort and program reporting.
• Microsoft Fabric. Familiarity with capacity management, workspace governance, transformations and pipeline concepts, and the cost behavior of Fabric capacity. Counterpart is actively transitioning to Fabric, and this environment will require ongoing architectural and cost decisions.
• PowerShell. Ability to write and review scripts for administration, reporting, auditing and automation across Microsoft 365, Entra and Azure.
• Python. Working proficiency for data extraction, transformation, API integration and analysis. Counterpart's system integrations frequently require pulling data from vendor APIs and reshaping it for reporting and finance use.
• Experience with REST APIs, MCPs and integration testing tools.

Counterpart International is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees and prohibit discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.