The posting
Senior Director, Product and Technology
Location: Remote,
Application Submission Deadline: November 1, 2026
About Us
Propel America addresses a broken workforce system that fails both young adults and healthcare employers, sidelining talented individuals from entering healthcare careers and contributing to critical workforce shortages that threaten community health. Propel’s work centers on bridging this gap by creating alternative, debt-free career pathways into healthcare for young adults ages 18–26, particularly those from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds, while helping employers access the trained, diverse talent they urgently need. Today, over 13 million young adults in the U.S. are either not in school, not working, or stuck in low-wage jobs with little room for growth. Traditional college remains financially and logistically out of reach for many, especially young people from low-income communities, forcing them into a false choice: sacrifice income to pursue an expensive degree or remain in low-wage work without upward mobility. At the same time, systemic barriers, such as limited exposure to healthcare roles, low visibility of alternative pathways, and a lack of representative mentors, prevent many high school graduates from entering the healthcare field.
Meanwhile, healthcare employers face compounding workforce shortages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 13% growth in healthcare jobs from 2021 to 2031, translating to nearly 2 million openings annually. Many of these are middle-skill roles, which represent over half the U.S. labor market but remain unfilled due to a lack of training infrastructure. Employers often contend with high turnover in entry-level positions yet underinvest in structured career advancement pathways or innovative strategies to retain talent.
Propel America aims to solve both sides of the equation, by equipping young adults with the skills and support to launch healthcare careers and by helping employers build stronger, more diverse, and more stable workforces. In our portfolio, we offer a suite of Propel Paths and Propel Products to place young adults in critical talent gaps in healthcare
To learn more about Propel America, please visit https://www.propelamerica.org.
The Opportunity
Propel America is undergoing an exciting phase of growth and technological transformation, marked by the development of our signature Fellow Portal and the integration of cutting-edge AI technologies into our program delivery. To lead this effort, we are seeking a highly skilled and strategic Senior Director, Product and Technology.
This role sits within our newly formed Solutions Team and reports directly to the Vice President of Solutions Design.
The Senior Director will serve as our core technology lead, managing the technical implementation of our product roadmap, maintaining the integrity of our overall technology stack, and directly supervising our technical staff (Salesforce Administrator and Junior Product Developer).
Key Responsibilities
The ideal candidate is a product developer who can set a vision and design the technology roadmap while also architecting integrations, managing developers and salesforce administration as well as overseeing outsourced Managed Service Providers (MSPs). The Senior Director will act as the critical link between Propel’s strategic vision and our day-to-day software execution, ensuring that our infrastructure is secure, scalable, and built to support our fellows' journey
Key Responsibilities include
- Product leadership 40%
- Technology stack management and development 40%
- Cross Functional Collaboration (20%)
- Product Leadership
- Develop technology roadmap and set vision for Propel’s technology products including the Applicant and Fellow Portal to ensure they are responsive to fellows and employer needs
- Directly manage the Junior Product Developer in building and iterating on the Fellow Portal, ensuring coding standards, version control, and security practices are rigorously maintained.
- Guide the technical implementation of AI-integrated tools within the Fellow Portal to accelerate development, improve portal functionality, and enhance the user experience.
- Establish and enforce development workflows (e.g., Agile Scrum/Kanban, code reviews, deployment pipelines) to minimize technical debt and streamline release cycles.
- Work collaboratively with the VP of Solutions and key stakeholders to translate strategic product requirements into clear, prioritized technical backlogs.
- Work closely with Director, Content Solutions and Product Director, Apprenticeship to develop technology requirements for Propel suite of products including PropelRecruit, Apprenticeship, TTE and Hire Ready Content.
- Define and track success measures for the Fellow Portal and other products, such as adoption, engagement, completion and time-to-placement.
- Run discovery with fellows, applicants and employers (interviews, usability testing, feedback loops).
- Oversee QA, testing, release management and technical documentation.
2. Tech Stack Management & Architecture
- Own the strategic and operational direction of IT infrastructure, software development, and data systems
- Ensure the reliability, scalability, and security of core enterprise systems (Salesforce, Google Cloud, Forms software, virtual private servers, website hosting, code management workflows).
- Lead architecture and platform decisions in partnership with VP, Solutions.
- Evaluate and select software and vendors, and negotiate contracts and renewals
- Directly manage the Salesforce Administrator to ensure Propel's CRM is optimized to support programmatic operations, student tracking, and data-driven decision-making
- Conduct regular audits of the organizational tech stack to eliminate overlaps, consolidate licenses, and ensure optimal data flow across departments.
- Define and implement standards for cybersecurity, information security, and data privacy, safeguarding fellow, staff, and donor data, including oversight of all data flows between systems (e.g. FERPA, health information and funder requirements)
- Act as the primary technical point of contact and relationship manager for Propel’s outsourced Managed IT Service Provider
- Ensure the MSP successfully resolves Level 1 help desk tickets, user account maintenance, and daily IT support requests, completely offloading this burden from Propel’s executive leadership
- Collaborate with the MSP to maintain healthy network infrastructure, ensure data backups and disaster recovery plans are active, and manage device lifecycles
- Identify budgetary needs for technology and work closely VP, Solutions to develop the annual budget
- Set responsible-AI guidelines, covering acceptable use, data handling, bias review and human oversight.
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner closely with the entire solutions team to support the integration of technology into the development of products and solutions
- Work closely with the Senior Director of Evaluation and Learning to ensure that Salesforce is the source of truth for all data
- Work closely with with the Partnerships team to ensure that employer and fellow feedback is incorporated into the technology priorities and solutions development
- Lead technology team to support cross functional and organization priorities by modeling Propel’s core values
- Train staff on systems and lead change management when tools are rolled out.
Required Qualifications
- Product Development: 6-8 years in product or technology, including 3+ years managing people; experience in discovery, writing and developing technology requirements and bringing products to market
- People Management: Demonstrated experience directly managing technical staff (developers, database admins, or system engineers) and fostering a collaborative, high-performance team culture
- Platform & CRM Familiarity: Deep understanding of the Salesforce ecosystem, database schemas, and cloud-based integrations
- Vendor Coordination: Proven track record of managing technology vendors, software developers, and external IT consultants or MSPs
- Modern Workflows: Strong familiarity with Agile software development methodologies (Scrum/Kanban)
- APIs: Experience leveraging AI, APIs or machine learning integration in customer-facing products
- Data security: Experience with managing PII and other secure data
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience working in the nonprofit, workforce development, or education technology (EdTech) sectors
- Product engineering experience or knowledge of coding
- Salesforce certification (Admin, Platform App Builder), or Nonprofit/Education Cloud experience
- Experience designing products for young adults or mobile-first users
- Experience with low-code/no-code tools
Success Profile
- Strategic Translator: Exceptional ability to translate education and business requirements into pragmatic, scalable technology plans
- Security & Risk-Minded: Practical understanding of cybersecurity protocols, access control frameworks, and compliance auditing
- Clear Communicator: Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with a focus on simplicity, clarity, and active listening, and effective collaboration across functional teams.
- Mission-Driven: Strong alignment with Propel America’s values of innovation, courage, joy, team, equity, and impact
Compensation
The salary for this position is between $113,000-$153,200 annually. We consider candidate experience and location when determining where a candidate may fall within that range. Propel America offers a competitive total rewards package including coverage of 90% of health insurance premiums, unlimited PTO, and a flexible work environment.
Interested in applying?
Please submit your application here.The application deadline to apply for this position is November 1, 2026. After this date we do not guarantee review of submissions.
Propel America is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
We encourage candidates from historically underrepresented backgrounds to apply.
