Founders Pledge
Head of IT
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About Us
At Founders Pledge, our mission is to empower entrepreneurs to do immense good with their charitable giving. Since launching in 2015, our community of over 2,200 members has pledged nearly $13.6B and donated $1.8B+ to the charitable sector in 45+ countries.
We provide end-to-end giving infrastructure, pioneering research, and access to a global network of experts. In other words, we help tech leaders become strategic philanthropists. Our members include founders and leaders behind companies such as Airbnb, UiPath, Dropbox, Skype, Spotify, and Uber.
We focus on deploying capital where it can achieve the greatest impact, guided by evidence, careful analysis, and long-term thinking.
Salary: circa £80,000 depending on location
About The Role
We’re looking for a Head of IT to take ownership of IT operations, administration, and security at Founders Pledge. You’ll report to the Director of Technology and serve as the organisation’s senior point of expertise for IT.
This is a hands-on leadership role rather than a people-management position. You’ll set direction, make decisions, manage key suppliers, and take the lead when incidents occur or new technology needs to be assessed. You won’t initially have a dedicated team, so you’ll be comfortable moving between strategic decisions and practical delivery.
In a typical week, you might:
- Negotiate a platform renewal
- Lead an incident post-mortem
- Strengthen a Google Workspace policy
- Respond to a donor’s security questionnaire
You’ll have the autonomy to shape how IT operates and the opportunity to understand how technology, security, and operations fit together across the organisation.
This role will suit someone who enjoys variety, takes ownership, and is comfortable working across multiple systems and disciplines. It is less suited to someone looking to specialise deeply in a single platform within a large IT function.
What You'll Do
- Incident management
- Partners and suppliers
- Governance and assurance
- IT operations
- Data protection
- Knowledge and enablement
Security and risk
- Own and continuously improve our organisational security posture, including risk assessments, our controls framework, and alignment with CIS benchmarks.
- Lead quarterly access reviews across our core systems.
- Make proportionate, well-documented security decisions that balance risk with operational needs.
- Coordinate external penetration testing and security assessments, ensuring that remediation work is prioritised and completed.
- Lead technical and security incidents from initial triage through to resolution.
- Manage incident communications clearly and calmly, keeping the right stakeholders informed.
- Run constructive post-mortems and ensure lessons are translated into practical improvements.
- Manage relationships with our MSP, cybersecurity partners, and other specialist suppliers.
- Oversee security-alert escalation, service reviews, and supplier performance.
- Own key technology vendor relationships, contract renewals, and commercial negotiations.
- Own the technology review process for new tools and services.
- Maintain the contract and renewal calendar for key technology suppliers.
- Coordinate responses to donor security questionnaires, audits, and cyber-insurance requirements.
- Maintain clear, useful documentation of our technology controls, risks, and decisions.
- Oversee joiner, mover, and leaver processes, ensuring access and equipment are managed securely.
- Maintain our asset register and coordinate device purchasing, configuration, and lifecycle management.
- Own the helpdesk service and ensure colleagues receive timely, practical support.
- Administer and improve Google Workspace, Notion, Slack, and our other core SaaS platforms.
- Oversee endpoint and remote monitoring and management systems.
- Conduct monthly audit reviews and manage our DNS and domain infrastructure.
- Lead the technical aspects of data-processing agreement reviews and data-deletion requests.
- Work closely with our Risk and Compliance team to translate data-protection requirements into effective technical practices.
- Improve how we capture and share organisational knowledge about IT systems.
- Expand our self-service guidance and documentation.
- Deliver practical training that helps colleagues use our tools safely and effectively.
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What We're Looking For
We’re looking for someone ready to lead, exercise judgement, and take genuine ownership - not someone who simply executes against a predefined brief. You’ll be comfortable making decisions, explaining your reasoning, and acting as the senior escalation point for IT matters.
You’ll thrive in a lean, distributed organisation where priorities can vary, and ownership matters. You’ll also be naturally curious: when you encounter an unfamiliar system, you’ll want to understand how it works, how it might fail, and how it fits into our wider technology environment.
You’ll Bring
- Significant experience in IT operations, IT management, or information security, ideally including time as the senior or sole technical escalation point in a small or medium-sized organisation.
- Hands-on experience owning or materially contributing to an organisation’s cybersecurity posture, including risk frameworks, security controls, incident response, and assurance.
- Experience managing security and IT suppliers, such as managed service providers and MDR or SOC providers.
- Experience negotiating and managing technology contracts, renewal cycles, and commercial terms.
- A track record of leading technical incidents from triage to post-mortem, with calm and clear communication under pressure.
- Strong working knowledge of Google Workspace administration, endpoint management, remote monitoring and management, and modern SaaS environments.
- The ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical colleagues.
- A curious, pragmatic, and self-directed approach.
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Our core tools currently include Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Front, and Dropbox. Direct experience with every platform is not essential, but you should be comfortable learning and administering unfamiliar systems.
Nice To Have
- Experience coordinating penetration tests or formal security-assessment programmes.
- Knowledge of UK GDPR and experience translating privacy requirements into technical and operational practice.
- Experience supporting a distributed, international workforce.
- Exposure to the adoption, security, or governance of workplace AI tools.
- Line-management or mentoring experience, or an interest in developing these skills as the function grows.
Location & Travel Requirements
We prefer someone who is ok with commuting 1x a week into our London office. Our team is globally distributed across the UK and US, so comfort working across time zones is important.
Application Deadline
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Why Work With Us?
We're a diverse team, from both charitable and commercial backgrounds, who believe remarkable things happen when people tackle hard problems together. We offer real ownership, a flat structure, and the chance to help shape the future of strategic philanthropy.
You can find more about the benefits we offer here, but what makes us truly special is our mission and people. We’re a diverse team from charitable and commercial backgrounds who believe amazing things can happen when we tackle problems together. We’re building a learning-driven advisory environment - one where advisors not only support member journeys but also co-create the tools, frameworks, and resources that elevate how our community gives.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Founders Pledge. We seek people with different strengths, experiences, and backgrounds, who share our drive to understand and solve complex social challenges.
We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Finding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems requires different perspectives and unique ways of thinking, and we are committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone can do their best work.
If you’re excited about our mission but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply.
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