Director, Technology Enablement

About Understood Understood is a nonprofit focused on shaping the world for difference. We raise awareness of the challenges and strengths of people who learn and think differently. Our resources help people navigate challenges, gain confidence, and find support and community so they can thrive. Having a shared commitment to our values is a key factor in any hire we make. We have five core values: Continuously learn. Act with intention. Champion difference. Inspire change. Grow together. Come be part of an organization with an entrepreneurial spirit that’s helping to shape the world for difference. Together, we can build a world where everyone can reach their full potential. To learn more about Understood, please visit: www.understood.org . Who you are To advance Understood’s mission and to further our impact, we’re hiring a Director of Technology Enablement, reporting to our VP, Engineering & IT. This leader owns the full spectrum of how technology serves our people. That spans everything from “your laptop works” to “here’s how this tool changes your workflow.” Technology is not a support function at Understood. It is the lever that determines how fast we move, how well our people perform, and how effectively we deliver on our mission. Our people now have access to information that is fundamentally different from what they had even a year ago, and the possibilities keep expanding every month. This role exists to bring the entire organization together on that journey. This isn’t an IT Manager or Director role. It treats employees as customers to be enabled, not as tickets to be closed. The role starts by stabilizing IT operations and overhauling how we support employees. From there, it grows into the engine that drives technology adoption, proficiency, and transformation across the organization. It also positions Understood to treat AI as a fundamental shift in how work gets done, not just an automation tool bolted onto existing workflows. The role carries a cultural mandate. We invest in our people’s technology capabilities because we believe it makes them, and our mission, stronger. We provide enablement, training, and the right tools, and we expect our people to lean in: to be curious, to experiment, and to take ownership of their own growth. “I don’t know how” is a starting point we’ll help with; “I don’t want to learn” is not consistent with where this organization is going. This person sets that tone and models it alongside leadership. This is an ideal role for a hands-on technologist and evangelist who can operate autonomously: someone fluent in modern productivity and AI tools, energized by helping people work better, and able to run IT operations cleanly while leading the change management that makes new technology stick. This is a hybrid role that requires a minimum of three (3) days a week in our NYC office, with a focus on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. We are a Mac-based environment, and team members are provided a Mac laptop for their work. What you’ll do Technology enablement Act as a technology evangelist. Proactively find ways teams can work better with tools they already have, like AI features in Adobe Creative Cloud, Gemini in Google Workspace, and automation in Slack and Jira. Partner with teams to unlock that potential in their day-to-day work. Champion Claude and AI across the organization. Serve as a hands-on internal Claude champion who builds skills, plugins, and workflows for each team’s actual work, so every team has Claude working for them and experimentation becomes self-sustaining. Drive adoption of new tools. Own the adoption and internal integration of new rollouts. Work with external training vendors where useful, but own the integration into how people actually work, because adoption doesn’t stick when the person driving it leaves. IT operations Lead a small IT team, including an IT operations manager and IT support specialists. Own the hardware lifecycle: laptops, access points (APs), networ…