Technology director for innovative online charity

What will you be doing?

Givto is a service from Better Giving Partnership (Charity No. 1168976) that connects donors with a different grassroots charity each month. Each month, users choose from three worthy causes to support with one simple Direct Debit. We handle donation flows, gift aid processing, charity and donor onboarding, reporting, and everything that sits underneath making generosity as simple as it should be.

We’re a volunteer-led team building something with real purpose, and we’re looking for a Technology Director who can own our entire technology function with the same mix of strategic thinking and rolled-up sleeves that defines everything we do.

This is a voluntary role. Like everyone at Better Giving Partnership, you’ll be giving your time because you believe in what we’re building. We’re an entirely volunteer-run team. The commitment and the scope are real, but the reward is impact, not a salary.

This is a leadership role with genuine scope. You’ll report to the CEO, represent technology to our senior leadership team, trustee board and partner charities, and set the direction for how we build, run and protect the service. But you’ll also need to be close enough to the work to review code, unblock the team, and make the architectural calls that keep things moving.

What you’ll do

You’ll own the technology function end to end. The service, infrastructure, analytics, internal IT, security, and the people who make it all work.

You’ll:

• Set and deliver the technology strategy in line with the charity’s mission and fundraising commitments
• Own the Givto service across frontend, backend, infrastructure and analytics, including availability, accessibility, security, performance and cost
• Lead a small engineering team of 2 to 4 volunteer engineers, and coordinate with external charity partners and vendors
• Run the engineering practice: version control, code review, testing standards, release management and incident response
• Oversee cloud infrastructure, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code, making sure the service is resilient, observable and recoverable
• Own data privacy and information security, covering policy, controls, supplier due diligence and incident handling
• Run internal IT services including Google Workspace, identity and access management, Slack, WordPress, Craft CMS, data storage and email
• Support monthly finance processes by making sure data from finance and analytics systems is available, accurate and auditable
• Manage the technology budget across SaaS subscriptions and cloud infrastructure spend
• Translate technical risk and opportunity into plain language for senior leadership, trustees and partners. Representing technology in the senior leadership team.

What are we looking for?

You don’t need charity sector experience. You do need to know how to lead a technology function and care about what it’s being used for.

We’d love someone who:

• Has experience leading or managing a technology team and owning a product or service end to end
• Understands modern web architecture, cloud infrastructure and engineering best practice
• Can move between strategy and hands-on work without losing sight of either
• Knows how to lead volunteers, which means motivating people who are giving their time because they believe in what you’re building
• Is comfortable with data privacy, security and compliance responsibilities
• Can explain technical decisions to non-technical people clearly and without jargon
• Takes ownership, spots problems early, and fixes things before they become crises
• Believes technology should make things better for people, not just technically interesting for engineers
• Can commit a minimum of 8 hours a month, with flexibility aroudn when and how you work

Nice to have

• Experience working in or with the charity, non-profit or social enterprise sector
• Familiarity with donation services, payment processing or fintech
• Experience managing cloud costs and SaaS budgets on a tight budget
• A background in data and analytics, not just infrastructure

What difference will you make?

Why this role matters

Every donation that flows through the service, every charity that gets discovered, every pound of gift aid that gets claimed properly: that all depends on the technology working. You’ll be the person making sure it does, and making sure it keeps getting better.

You’ll be shaping the technical foundations of a service designed to get more support to the organisations that need it most.

What’s in it for you?

You’ll work directly with the CEO and a committed, friendly volunteer team. You’ll gain senior leadership experience in the tech-for-good space, shape a national service from a position of real influence, and help build something that genuinely matters. All while working remotely and being part of a team that actually enjoys what they do.

Before you apply

We will be in touch to arrange an initial chat with our current IT director and CEO volunteers, to mutually explore the opportunity.