Chief Information and Operations Officer

About this role

This is a remote position.
Location: Remote, U.S.-based (Eastern Time Zone preferred, with easy access to Washington, DC); approximately 20% travel
Employment Type: Full-time, exempt
Work Authorization: Must meet applicable U.S. citizenship or permanent residency requirements for federal security and access
Role Focus: Technology strategy and end-to-end ownership of a FedRAMP-authorized secure data platform, including architecture, cloud operations, cybersecurity, compliance, and researcher services
Reporting: Reports to the CEO; serves on the senior leadership team and advises the Board of Directors and Technology Advisory Board
About the Role
BizFirst is assisting our client with the search for a Chief Information & Operations Officer (CIOO) who will own technology strategy and the end-to-end security, reliability, scalability, and continued evolution of its secure research and data platform. This leader will oversee platform architecture and development, cloud and production operations, cybersecurity and compliance, data infrastructure, researcher services, internal systems, and technology support. A critical first-year priority is leading the organization toward FedRAMP High authorization.
This is a strategic and operational role. The CIOO sets long-term technology direction while making sure the platform and other critical systems run securely, reliably, efficiently, and responsively. The role is accountable for the technology itself and for how successfully researchers, government agencies, and partners can use it.
As a member of the senior leadership team, the CIOO advises the CEO, Board of Directors, and Technology Advisory Board on technology strategy, investment, cybersecurity, operational readiness, and risk. The organization is small and mission-driven, so this leader combines executive judgment with a readiness to work hands-on when the situation calls for it.
Our client is a nonprofit that helps government agencies use administrative data to make better-informed public decisions. It builds data infrastructure, analytical tools, and data skills across the public sector, and it operates a FedRAMP-authorized research platform in AWS GovCloud that lets agencies securely link longitudinal data with other states and agencies. The platform supports more than 20 state agencies, several federal agencies, and approved researchers, and the organization's work is backed by leading national foundations.
What You'll Do

• Develop and execute a technology strategy aligned with the organization's mission, business strategy, growth priorities, contractual commitments, and risk profile, supported by a multi-year platform roadmap shaped by partner and customer needs.

• Set technology budgets, investment priorities, capacity plans, staffing models, and vendor strategies, and evaluate where emerging technologies can strengthen the platform, security, and operations.

• Own the architecture, engineering, and modernization of the platform and related secure data infrastructure, leading development of researcher workspaces, data pipelines, analytical tools, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities.

• Translate government, researcher, and partner needs into technical requirements and development plans, and move new capabilities into secure, reliable, documented, and supportable production.

• Own end-to-end platform operations and researcher services, including onboarding, access, workspace and data provisioning, technical support, offboarding, service levels, and escalation procedures.

• Lead the strategy and execution for progressing toward FedRAMP High authorization within the first year, including security controls, governance, documentation, resourcing, and cross-functional coordination. Embed FedRAMP continuous monitoring into daily operations and manage relationships with the government sponsor, assessors, and partners on FedRAMP, NIST, FISMA, and contractual requirements.

• Own reliability, availability, performance, and cloud cost across production environments, with clear standards for release and change management, monitoring, incident response, backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

• Lead the secure ingestion, processing, provisioning, and governance of sensitive administrative data, with strong controls for data movement, segregation, access, retention, and auditability.

• Oversee internal applications, identity and access management, collaboration tools, end-user technology, and service-management practices that keep support responsive and well documented.

• Build and lead a technology team of employees, contractors, consultants, and vendors; support business development and proposals by assessing feasibility, security, capacity, cost, and delivery; and communicate priorities, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to nontechnical audiences.

Required Qualifications
The following qualifications are essential for this role:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• At least 12 years of progressively responsible technology experience, including leadership in a CIOO, CTO, vice president, senior director, or comparable role.

• Demonstrated experience leading or playing a significant leadership role in a FedRAMP Moderate or High authorization effort, with knowledge of FISMA, NIST, and federal security requirements.

• Experience building and operating secure cloud platforms that handle sensitive or regulated data, including FedRAMP-authorized or comparable NIST- or FISMA-aligned environments.

• Strong working knowledge of cloud architecture, cybersecurity, software and product development, data platforms, production operations, and disaster recovery.

• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams across engineering, cloud operations, cybersecurity, data engineering, product delivery, and internal IT.

• Clear executive communication, including the ability to explain technology priorities, risks,…