Job Description

Department: Information Systems

Reports to: Vice President, Information Systems

FLSA Status: Exempt 

Who we are and what we’re about:

KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization and the official fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas. We partner with donors in providing philanthropic support to build a greater KU.

As an employee of KU Endowment, you’ll witness firsthand the power of our donors’ generosity. You will join a talented and fun group of people who are inspired to help KU through the support of loyal alumni and friends. This support fuels excellence, enabling students and faculty to develop innovative programs and research that distinguish the university. We connect the philanthropic passions of donors with the needs of students, faculty and programs – and everyone benefits.

People are engaged. Purpose is ignited. Lives are changed.

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging:

At KU Endowment, we recognize that we best achieve our mission of building a greater University of Kansas by embracing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We are committed to cultivating a people-centered environment that is welcoming to the spectrum of differences among us in an atmosphere of respect and fairness. Accordingly, our staff, Board of Trustees, volunteers and donors will work together to create a more representative, equitable and inclusive KU Endowment.

What we are looking for:

As a Director of DevOps application teams, you’ll lead KU Endowment’s donor relationship management product team. We are a data as mission critical organization looking for a proactive experienced individual who can help us build and operate DevOps teams and environments supporting Salesforce CRM, marketing, and financial systems. This position will be a key leader in our information systems department to implement, develop and support multiple software products. This role is key to providing highly available, reliable and secured data services to our fundraising staff. The role will lead collaborative solutions engineers who can work with teammates and stakeholders at all levels of the organization to optimize our use of data towards the mission of KU Endowment. 

The individual in this position is expected to embrace KU Endowment’s stated core values – passion for KU, partnership with donors, perpetual support for KU, and a people-centered approach – and demonstrate support for them through professional interactions and activities. 

What’s a typical day look like?

• Lead the applications and data teams through multi-year digital transformation
• Directs coaching, organizational structure, and transformational leadership towards maturing DevOps teams
• Ensures appropriate training for team managers and engineering team.
• Evangelizes and educates DevOps guidelines and standards in place at KU Endowment.
• Technical product owner for CRM, data, reporting and critical line of business applications.
• Manages multiple vendors for applications and DevOps tool stack
• Manages middleware and code repositories
• Owns team governance policies and ensures adherence
• Works with VP of IS to set annual objectives and key results
• Oversees team as they: 
• Utilizes Agile to plan and prioritize features and bugs with business product owners
• Responsible for monitoring platforms for availability and reliability
• Oversee major release readiness and implementing approved configuration change requests/requirements.
• Own incident response and blames postmortem root cause analysis 
• Following the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) in building complex solutions on or, off platform according to designs from technical leadership  
• Support existing integrations and assist in development of new strategies, integrations, automations, and datasets. 
• Conduct Quality Assurance testing for updates to ensure acceptance criteria are met and existing functionality is not impacted.
• Create seed data and complex test automation.
• Regular and reliable attendance is essential for this position.
• Performs other duties as may be assigned.

What’s required to be considered:

• Bachelor’s degree in information systems, business, engineering or related fields
• 5 years’ experience working on a DevOps product team.
• 3 – 5 years leading a DevOps team or teams
• 3 years’ running working in an Agile deployment team. 
• Demonstrated knowledge of the Software Development Lifecyle (SDLC) 
• Demonstrated knowledge of data strategy including data warehouse

What separates the best from the rest?

• DevOps accreditation or a Salesforce DevOps certification from third-party vendors, such as Gearset and Copado
• Proven leader in building a DevOps team  
• Certified Salesforce associate
• Working knowledge of non-profit fundraising
• Experience in PaaS (Products as a Service)
• Experience in transitioning to a data warehouse
• Creative problem solving 

Physical Requirements:

• A valid driver’s license. 
• Must have access to reliable transportation to travel between multiple locations for training, donor meetings, networking, events and/or work-related activities.
• Must be able to respond quickly and effectively to directions and safety hazards.
• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office productivity machinery such as computers, keyboards and a mouse, laptops, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines. 
• This is largely a sedentary role; however, some filing is required. This would require the ability to move files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand as necessary.
• The ability to observe details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• The person in this position frequently communicates with donors, colleagues, students, and general public. Must be able to communicate with others effectively.
• Physical effort/lifting, such as medium-up to 50 pounds
• Rare travel requirements can include the following, evenings, weekends, and out of town overnights as a regular part of the job. 

KU Endowment is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals to enable them to perform the essential functions of the job as regulated by ADA. If you require accommodation for any part of the application process or during employment, please contact humanresources@kuendowment.org to discuss your needs.

We’ve got you covered:

KU Endowment offers a competitive salary with an excellent benefit package including: 

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) matching program
• Pension plan
• Section 125 flexible benefits 
• Generous paid leave including holidays, personal and sick leave
• Volunteer and community engagement opportunities
• Paid Parental Leave
• Life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance
• Legal & ID Theft protection
• Critical Illness
• Accident and Hospital Indemnity insurance 
• KU education assistance 
• Free parking

Sounds good, right? What’s next?

Please include your resume and cover letter when applying for the position.

Questions regarding this vacancy may be addressed to:

Emily Garcia

Sr. Human Resources Associate

KU Endowment

PO Box 928

Lawrence, KS 66044-0928

Email: egarcia@kuendowment.org

Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled. Because of the sensitive nature of KU Endowment business and the importance of our reputation with donors, KU Endowment conducts a comprehensive review of applicants. By submitting your application, you authorize us to conduct reference checks and a review of available public information. Employment is contingent upon background and reference checks that KU Endowment finds acceptable.

Job Type: Full Time

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