Director of Ops Technology

Our Mission and Opportunity

Early education is one of the most important determinants of childhood outcomes, a critical support for working families, and a $175B market that remains underserved by modern technology. Brightwheel is the largest, fastest growing, and most loved platform in early ed, trusted by millions of educators and families every day. We are a three-time Cloud 100 company https://www.forbes.com/lists/cloud100/a, backed by top investors including Addition, Bessemer, Emerson Collective, Lowercase Capital, Notable Capital, and Mark Cuban.

Our Team

Our team is passionate, talented, and customer-focused. We embody our Leadership Principles https://mybrightwheel.com/about/ in our work and culture. We are a distributed team with remote employees across every US time zone, as well as select offices in the US and internationally.

Who You Are

You're someone who takes ownership beyond your remit and doesn't wait for a clean, fully-scoped mandate before moving. You lead through strong managers, but you don't hide behind them: when something needs fixing, you're just as likely to jump in and fix it yourself as you are to coach someone else through it. You think critically and move fast, comfortable making calls with incomplete information and adjusting as you learn more.

You will thrive here if you get energy from operating across multiple different functions, some you know deeply, some you're learning as you go, and you're honest with yourself and others about which is which. You will thrive here if you see an evolving scope as an opportunity rather than a liability.

What You'll Do

• Own the tech stack and teams that run operations at Brightwheel
• Lead our established technical systems architecture and admin teams, redesigning our GTM stack for efficiency in an AI-first world.
• Personally own and drive select high-priority workstreams and initiatives directly, not solely through delegation.
• Deliver impactful, company-wide capabilities that improve business outcomes and drive key decisions, while supporting our businesses’ operating cadence.
• Manage a team of managers and individual contributors across functions, stepping in directly wherever the situation requires it.
• Drive AI-native transformation across every function you own, including hands-on build where appropriate.

What You've Done

• Led a multi-function technical or operational org, managing managers across domains
• You’ve owned outcomes, not just outputs. Business impact like growth, efficiency, conversion, retention, not just dashboards or insights. This role will help shape the future of our company.
• Worked closely enough with data engineering, software engineering, or technical systems (e.g., Salesforce architecture) to troubleshoot issues directly, not just interpret reports from others.
• Operated in a mid-size, high-growth company where you had to build without inheriting mature infrastructure.
• Navigated a role or org structure that changed shape over time, and adapted your own scope and approach accordingly.
• Built AI-native workflows or tooling that materially changed how a team or company operated, not incremental automation, real step-function change in how work got done.
• Collaborated closely with C-suite and executive leaders to shape strategy using data, including creating structure in ambiguity.

This role is not a fit if...

• You prefer a role with a fully-defined, static scope; this org and mandate are still being shaped, and will continue to shift based on where your strengths land.
• You lead primarily through delegation and expect managers to fully own execution; this role requires you to personally step in and drive work directly, not just direct others.
• You rely on authority to get things done; Success in this role requires influencing across teams with competing priorities, not just managing within your org.

Brightwheel is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Protecting Our Applicants: Please be aware of recruiting scams impersonating Brightwheel. All legitimate communications come from @mybrightwheel.com http://mybrightwheel.com addresses, and we never ask for payment or sensitive personal data as part of our hiring process. If you suspect fraudulent contact, reach out to security@mybrightwheel.com. Thank you for helping us keep our applicant community safe.