Director, NET+ Technology & Product
Job Description:
An advanced non-profit technology community founded in 1996 by the nation’s leading higher education institutions, Internet2 provides a collaborative environment for U.S. research and education organizations to solve shared technology challenges and develop innovative solutions supporting their research, educational, and community service missions. Today, Internet2 stands at the intersection of infrastructure and innovation, operating a state-of-the-art national research and education network while simultaneously advancing a comprehensive service portfolio spanning trust and identity solutions, cloud programs and services, research engagement initiatives, and community-building programs. This integrated approach enables Internet2 to deliver unique value that empowers its diverse membership, including universities, government agencies, regional networks, corporations, and leading research and education organizations.
Position Summary:
Internet2 seeks a Director of NET+ Technology & Product to lead the technical direction and product portfolio of the NET+ program, a community-governed portfolio of cloud and emerging-technology services serving more than 600 research and education institutions. NET+ is developing differentiated, data-driven products and services that support the user community, leveraging its brokered cloud services.
The successful candidate will define and lead the technical vision across cloud, data, and AI while owning the NET+ product portfolio, including the Cloud Scorecard, data benchmarking and service profiles, Answers by Experts chatbot, and subscriber enablement tools. They will set strategic direction, manage the product roadmap, and translate emerging technologies into valuable, sustainable products and services for the community. As a technically credible leader, they will oversee a flexible delivery model that leverages consulting engineers, data and AI specialists, and technical project managers, ensuring high-quality execution and outcomes.
This individual will partner with the community on cloud and AI strategy, guide technical investments, and manage the team and contractors responsible for developing and delivering products and services. Hands-on development will be limited to exceptional circumstances, such as critical issue resolution, with the primary focus on leadership, oversight, and execution.
Responsibilities:
Technical Leadership & Architecture
- Define and drive the NET+ technology vision across cloud, data, and AI, ensuring alignment with program objectives and long-term strategic goals.
- Provide architectural leadership and technical oversight for products, platforms, and key initiatives, including cloud migrations, data solutions, integrations, and AI-enabled services.
- Establish technical standards, governance, and operational best practices to ensure secure, scalable, and sustainable service delivery while supporting critical technical challenges as needed.
Product Ownership & Portfolio Direction
- Oversee the technical aspects of the NET+ technical product portfolio, including Cloud Scorecard, benchmarking, and knowledge services.
- Drive product roadmaps and priorities based on member value and strategic impact.
- Partner with product owners to deliver requirements, releases, and measurable outcomes.
Workforce & Delivery Management
- Scope and manage consulting engagements and statements of work; evaluate deliverables, manage performance, and ensure value for spend.
- Serve as the integration point across distributed technical resources, ensuring coherent architecture and avoiding fragmentation.
- Mentor and provide technical direction to technical contributors as appropriate.
Community, AI & Emerging Technology
- Serve as a credible technical leader to the US research and higher education community on cloud, AI, and other emerging technologies; participate in community calls, working groups, and key member engagements.
- Translate community needs and emerging-technology trends into product and roadmap decisions.
- Contribute to data and AI strategy for the program, with data-strategy ownership coordinated with consulting technical leadership.
Strategy & Cross-Functional Partnership
- Contribute to NET+ strategic planning, budgeting, and the evolution of the program's value proposition.
- Partner across program management, business operations, and growth functions to ensure technical and product work advances program goals.
- Help build a resilient operating model that reduces single-point-of-failure dependencies and supports program continuity.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or information technology related degrees (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
- 5+ years direct experience in technology leadership roles.
- 5+ years direct experience operating in major cloud platforms (AWS experience is a plus), data engineering and analytics, application integration, or AI/ML concepts and tooling.
- Experience building and owning a product or platform roadmap and translating user needs into delivered capabilities.
- Proven ability to engage credibly with senior technical stakeholders (e.g., CIOs, CTOs, enterprise architects) and to translate between technical and non-technical audiences.
- Strong written and verbal communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills suited to a community-governed, consensus-oriented environment.
- Travel up to 20% per year.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree (MBA or Engineering related).
- Background bridging enterprise IT, innovation programs, and emerging technology.
- Demonstrated experience leading technical delivery through contracted or distributed teams through professional services.
- Demonstrated experience representing an organization externally through presentations, speaking engagements, or workshops on cloud, AI, or related technology topics.
- Experience scoping and managing consulting engagements, statements of work, and vendor or contractor relationships.
- Experience in higher education, research and education, or the broader public sector technology community.
- Experience with cloud migrations and with data governance, security, and compliance in a multi-tenant or multi-institutional context.
- Familiarity with community-governed or consortium-based service models and multi-institutional collaboration.
- Hands-on experience with AI/agentic AI services, data benchmarking, or data-as-a-service products.
- Relevant industry certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect, or comparable cloud architecture, security, or platform engineering certifications are preferred.
- Understanding of key technology domains influencing higher education IT strategy, including AI-enabled workflows, cloud economics, security engineering, infrastructure automation, compliance, and research computing.
What we offer:
As a full-time employee, you will be eligible to participate in Internet2’s employee benefits program effective on your start date in accordance w
