Job Description

The Salk Institute seeks a Director of Information Systems to oversee the enterprise systems landscape that supports administrative and research operations. This role emphasizes the adoption of modern, commercial off-the-shelf solutions for business operations while recognizing that there will be need to develop both custom integrations and limited home-grown software solutions if commercial alternatives do not exist. The Director is responsible for ensuring systems are integrated, reliable, and aligned with mission-critical needs. Reporting to the Executive Director of IT and managing 8 direct reports, the Director provides leadership in applying technology - including artificial intelligence and automation—to streamline processes and improve decision-making. The position offers a unique opportunity to shape Salk’s digital landscape, supporting world-class science and institutional growth.

Who We Are

The Salk Institute is an internationally renowned research institution that values all members of our scientific community. We seek bold and interactive leaders passionate about exploring new frontiers in science. Our collaborative community embraces perspectives across discipline, professional acumen, and unique life experiences, fostering innovation, and a sense of belonging. Together, we strive to improve the wellbeing of humanity through groundbreaking research.

Founded by Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine, the Institute is an independent, nonprofit research organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature, and fearless in the face of any challenge. Salk's vibrant community has many talented individuals from varied backgrounds, each playing a crucial role in driving our mission forward. From visionary leaders to dedicated administrators and brilliant faculty members, the Institute is united by a shared passion for scientific exploration and innovation.

What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be

• Team Leadership and Development: Manage, mentor, and inspire a team of 8 direct reports responsible for integration, reporting, software development and technical support for core business systems including Banner. Provide clear direction and set priorities for the team, balancing ongoing operational support with
• strategic project initiatives. Foster a collaborative and high-performance culture, encouraging professional growth through training and mentorship. Conduct regular performance evaluations, recognize achievements, and guide the team in adopting best practices in agile project management, DevOps, and customer service.
• Ensure the team works closely with other IT units (infrastructure, support, etc.) and with end-user departments to deliver excellent service and technical solutions.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Serve as a primary liaison between the Information Systems team and administrative and research stakeholders. Proactively engage with administrators, faculty, and core facility users to understand their technology needs and pain points. Translate business and research requirements into effective IT solutions, ensuring that IT initiatives remain closely aligned with the Institute’s strategic plan.
• Systems Integration & Data Architecture: Ensure seamless integration of enterprise applications and databases across the Institute, so that data flows efficiently between systems (e.g. linking research data systems with financial, HR, grant development, and facilities systems). Oversee development of robust interfaces and use of integration platforms/API strategies to connect disparate systems into a cohesive digital ecosystem.
• Reporting and Business Operations Dashboards: Develop and maintain interactive digital reports and dashboards that deliver clear, timely, and actionable insights to Institute leadership. This role ensures that financial, HR, grants, and facilities data are presented in intuitive formats that support data-informed decision-making. By championing modern reporting practices and tools, the Director drives a culture of transparency, accountability, and strategic alignment across the organization.
• Enterprise Systems Management: Champion the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and cloud-based solutions to meet these needs, minimizing custom development by selecting, implementing, and configuring proven vendor systems. Oversee Financial Information Systems supporting accounting, budgeting, procurement, and financial reporting, in partnership with Finance. Lead ERP implementations and modernization efforts, including requirements definition, vendor selection, data migration, integration, testing, change management, go-live, and post-implementation stabilization. Direct the use of ServiceNow for service management, workflow automation, and integration with enterprise systems.
• Business Process Improvement & Automation: Lead cross-functional business process reengineering with Finance, HR, Operations, and research stakeholders. Assess current-state workflows, redesign end-to-end processes and controls, and establish measurable improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and service delivery. Apply ServiceNow workflows, robotic process automation (RPA), and AI, including agentic AI, where appropriate; guide organizational change and measure adoption and business outcomes.
• Software Development: Oversee software development efforts that prioritize data integration across core business platforms, leveraging commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions whenever possible. Custom development is pursued only when no suitable COTS options exist, ensuring resources are applied strategically to meet institutional needs. This role requires strong expertise in CI/CD pipelines, agile methodologies, and professional software engineering practices to deliver secure, scalable, and reliable solutions.
• Security, Compliance & Data Governance: Work closely with the Executive Director of IT and Information Security teams to ensure all information systems follow best-in-class security practices and compliance standards. Implement appropriate access controls, data privacy safeguards, and cybersecurity measures across applications, particularly where research data or personal information is involved. Establish AI safety and security practices with Information Security, including model and vendor risk assessments, protection of sensitive data, access controls for AI agents and tools, human oversight and approval boundaries, testing for prompt injection and unsafe outputs, audit logging, continuous monitoring, and incident response.
• Project Management & Delivery: Oversee a portfolio of IT projects – from major system implementations to iterative enhancements – ensuring they are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget. Utilize formal project management methodologies to plan, track, and report on project progress.
• Strategic Technology Leadership: Develop and implement a forward-looking enterprise information systems strategy that aligns with the Institute’s scientific mission and operational goals. Identify opportunities where technology can advance research objectives and improve administrative efficiency, keeping Salk at the cutting edge of IT in the not-for-profit research sector. In partnership with the Executive Director of IT, direct and monitor the enterprise AI strategy, roadmap, and investment priorities. Evaluate and implement AI and agentic AI use cases aligned with institutional needs; establish governance, success measures, and ongoing monitoring of performance, cost, adoption, and risk.
• Vendor Management: Manages third-party vendor relationships to ensure needs and contractual obligations are met; partners with Procurement, especially during contract reviews, to ensure business needs are identified and addressed.
• As a senior member of the IT leadership team, performs other related duties as assigned by the Executive Director of IT.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Directly supervises 8 employees within the IT department.
• Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws.
• Responsibilities include performance evaluation and personnel management, interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

What we Require

• Bachelor's Degree (BA) in computer science, information science, business or related field from a four-year college or university.
• Ten years of progressively responsible experience in information technology, with at least 8 years in leadership roles overseeing data integration architectures, ERP system integration, and reporting platforms for operational data.
• Experience in a research, academic, or nonprofit environment supporting scientific data systems is highly desirable.
• Five to ten years of software development oversight.
• Proven leadership skills in building and directing high-performing teams. Ability to mentor staff and foster a positive, inclusive team culture dedicated to excellence and innovation. Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, including the capacity to work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders (from scientists to
• finance staff) and to convey technical concepts in approachable terms.
• Demonstrated experience managing Financial Information Systems, including financial operations, reporting, integrations, data integrity, and internal controls, in close partnership with Finance stakeholders.
• Proven experience leading prior ERP implementations through the full lifecycle, including requirements gathering, solution selection, configuration, data migration, integration, testing, organizational change management, deployment, and stabilization.
• Strong ServiceNow expertise, including platform capabilities, IT service management, workflow design and automation, integrations, governance, and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated experience leading business process reengineering across enterprise functions, translating business needs into redesigned workflows and measurable operational improvements.
• Deep understanding of enterprise software architectures and integration techniques. Familiarity with COTS solutions for common business needs (Finance, HR, grants management, etc.) and with tools for data integration (such as ETL pipelines or API management).
• In-depth knowledge and demonstrated practical skills in AI, including machine learning, generative AI, large language models, and agentic AI. Experience designing, evaluating, integrating, and governing AI-enabled enterprise solutions and agent workflows, including tool use, orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation,
• human oversight, and evaluation of reliability and business value. Experience directing and monitoring enterprise AI strategies, establishing performance and risk metrics, and adapting implementation priorities based on results. Demonstrated AI safety and security experience, including threat assessment, secure deployment, data privacy, prompt injection defenses, agent permissions, output validation, and ongoing monitoring.
• Extensive experience with project management, specifically as a project leader on enterprise-level initiatives.
• Experience with data warehouse concepts and electronic data interchange systems.
• Computer skills/experience required:
• Application development technologies and programming languages such as PHP, Java, and Python; tools such as version control systems and processes
• Cloud ecosystems (Amazon AWS, Google cloud), PaaS solutions (e.g., Salesforce), and cloud application solutions (e.g., Box, Asana, Zoom)
• Services oriented architecture (SOA), web services design, XML, REST technologies
• Database technologies including Oracle and MySQL

What We Can Offer

The expected pay range for this position is $160,000 to $190,000 per annum. Salk Institute provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the institute reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

Benefits

Salk Institute offers competitive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, patient advocacy services, and transit/parking program.

Salk Values

The Salk Community, both scientists and administrators, worked together to define values that we believe support Salk’s pursuit of excellence. To be truly the best scientific institution requires not only incredible discoveries, but a common understanding of how we should work together to enable those discoveries.

The acronym “I CARE” provides a simple way to remember each of the values and reminds each of us of the importance of what we do each day.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal access to opportunities for students, employees, applicants for employment and other visitors. Salk has also adopted and maintains a policy to encourage professional and respectful workplace behavior and prevent discriminatory and harassing conduct in our workplace.

Accordingly, the Institute prohibits harassment and discrimination in employment on the basis of, and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to, actual or perceived race (race is inclusive of traits associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles include, but not limited to, such hairstyles as braids, and twists), color, religion, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), national origin, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer and genetic characteristics), genetic information, marital status, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), reproductive health decision making, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, veteran and/or military status (disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era, other covered veteran status), political affiliation, and any other status protected by state or federal law.

Discrimination is prohibited with any intersectionality of the above-mentioned characteristics, including:

1. Any combination of characteristics.
2. A perception that the person has any of the characteristics or any combination of those characteristics.
3. A perception that the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics or any combination of those characteristics.