What are the responsibilities and job description for the Vice President of Technology position at Lighthouse Autism Center?
Job Type
Full-time
Description
Position Title: Vice President of Technology
Reports To (Title): President
This position is hybrid – 50% travel to South Bend, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois (IT Warehouse and Corporate Office)
Company Overview: Lighthouse Autism Center is the leading Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy provider in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois and expanding within those states and other states across the U.S. Since 2012, Lighthouse Autism Center has provided the highest quality, center-based ABA therapy to children with autism. At Lighthouse, children work on things like social skills, daily living skills, communication skills, and school-readiness skills. All children are overseen by Board Certified Behavior Analysts and programs are implemented by Registered Behavior Technicians. Lighthouse Autism Center also has full-time Speech-Language Pathologists on staff who provide co-treat and consultative services speech therapy services to children who attend the centers.
Summary: The Vice President of Technology (VPIT) is a senior leadership role that defines and leads the technology vision, strategy, and operations for LAC. This role will support all functions in the organization in addition to expansion initiatives, including organic growth and M&A. A primary responsibility of this role is to provide strategic oversight, execution, and leadership of an information technology roadmap that positions the organization for long-term success. The VPIT will oversee all aspects of the IT department, including infrastructure, security, applications, data management and support services. The VP of IT reports to the President and serves as a key member of the senior leadership team.
Responsibilities
Strategic & Leadership
Education & Certifications
Full-time
Description
Position Title: Vice President of Technology
Reports To (Title): President
This position is hybrid – 50% travel to South Bend, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois (IT Warehouse and Corporate Office)
Company Overview: Lighthouse Autism Center is the leading Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy provider in Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois and expanding within those states and other states across the U.S. Since 2012, Lighthouse Autism Center has provided the highest quality, center-based ABA therapy to children with autism. At Lighthouse, children work on things like social skills, daily living skills, communication skills, and school-readiness skills. All children are overseen by Board Certified Behavior Analysts and programs are implemented by Registered Behavior Technicians. Lighthouse Autism Center also has full-time Speech-Language Pathologists on staff who provide co-treat and consultative services speech therapy services to children who attend the centers.
Summary: The Vice President of Technology (VPIT) is a senior leadership role that defines and leads the technology vision, strategy, and operations for LAC. This role will support all functions in the organization in addition to expansion initiatives, including organic growth and M&A. A primary responsibility of this role is to provide strategic oversight, execution, and leadership of an information technology roadmap that positions the organization for long-term success. The VPIT will oversee all aspects of the IT department, including infrastructure, security, applications, data management and support services. The VP of IT reports to the President and serves as a key member of the senior leadership team.
Responsibilities
Strategic & Leadership
- Develop and own the multiyear IT / technology roadmap aligned with organizational growth, clinical innovation, regulatory requirements, and scalability.
- Participate in executive planning, contributing technology perspective to business strategy, expansion, mergers/acquisitions, and new market entry.
- Monitor and analyze emerging trends in health tech, telehealth, data platforms, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and determine applicability to LAC.
- Communicate standards, policies, priorities, and foster a culture of digital adoption across staff.
- Lead, mentor, and develop the technology organization (IT operations, infrastructure, software, data, security, application development) to support current operations and scale.
- Oversee the design, deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of enterprise IT infrastructure, networks, cloud, data centers, site connectivity, and remote access.
- Ensure high availability, performance, scalability, redundancy, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
- Oversee software application portfolio (EMR, billing, HRIS, etc.) — ensure integration, upgrades, enhancements, and vendor management.
- Implement robust cybersecurity, governance, compliance, risk, and privacy frameworks (e.g. HIPAA, PHI, and overall data protection).
- Lead IT operations: service desk, incident management, change control, asset management, vendor contracts, SLAs, and support for centers across geographies.
- Establish data architecture, data governance, and business intelligence / analytics capabilities to empower informed decision making across clinical, operational, and financial teams.
- Drive process improvement and automation through technology (e.g. workflow automation, integrations, APIs, RPA).
- Ensure data integrity, quality, security, and compliance.
- Oversee major technology initiatives (new system implementations, migrations, upgrades, integrations, acquisitions).
- Ensure projects are delivered on time, on budget, and deliver expected value.
- Manage cross-organizational changes, training, adoption, and support to embed new systems and ways of working.
- Work closely with clinical, operations, finance, HR, and other teams to ensure technology solutions meet business needs.
- Own IT budget planning, forecasting, cost management, and return on investment (ROI) assessment.
- Establish governance structures (steering committees, technology review boards) to prioritize investments.
- Manage vendor relationships, contracts, vendor performance, evaluations, and renewals.
- Ensure compliance with regulatory, contractual, and security obligations (e.g. audits, risk assessments).
Education & Certifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field. Master’s degree (e.g. MBA, MIS) preferred.
- Relevant technical certifications are a plus (e.g. CISSP, CISA, PMP, ITIL, cloud certifications).
- 10 years of progressive experience in technology leadership roles, including hands-on experience in infrastructure, software, operations, and security.
- At least 5 years in a senior leadership (director, VP, or CTO) role, ideally in healthcare, behavioral health, clinical services, or regulated environments.
- Experience with multi-site operations, scaling systems, and distributed networks.
- Proven track record of delivering large technology transformations, systems implementations, migrations, and integrations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams, manage budgets, negotiate with vendors, and govern technology investments.
- Experience in data analytics, BI, reporting, predictive modeling, or similar capabilities.
- Hands-on understanding of cybersecurity, risk management, compliance (e.g. HIPAA, data privacy).
- Experience working with EMR / clinical systems, interoperability, healthcare data, and integrations is strongly preferred.
- Strategic thinking, vision, and the ability to translate business needs into technology solutions
- Strong financial acumen and ability to manage technology budgets, cost-benefit analysis, and ROI
- Excellent communication skills — able to convey technical issues to non-technical stakeholders
- Leadership, mentoring, and team development capability
- Problem-solving mindset and ability to manage ambiguity in a growing organization
- Customer-centric orientation with the ability to partner with clinicians, operations, finance, and other cross-functional stakeholders
- Experience managing change and adoption across diverse user groups
- Strong vendor management, contracting, negotiation skills
- Rigorous about security, governance, risk mitigation, and compliance