Vice President - Research and Development

Vice President, Research & Development – Harris School Solutions, FINS

This is a unique opportunity to own and drive all facets of Research & Development for Harris School Solutions' FINS expanding growth products, at a moment when AI is reshaping both how software is built and what K12 customers expect from it.

This is a technical leadership position that requires a strong blend of people management and hands-on software development experience, product vision, deep knowledge of Microsoft technologies and the multi-tooled AI ecosystem, fluency with modern AI-assisted development practices, and a working command of the agile scrum process.

The Vice President of Research & Development is responsible for a continuous flow of product research and development that improves our existing products, brings more capability to the web and the cloud on a consistent, standard technical platform, and embeds AI into both our products and our engineering practice.

You will lead the shift from AI experimentation to AI at scale: raising developer productivity through AI-assisted coding and testing, shipping intelligent features that save school business offices real time, and doing it responsibly with the data governance that public sector customers demand.

As the Senior Leader of R&D, you will inspire and collaborate with a diverse team of developers and managers located in multiple offices and a remote workforce throughout the US, across multiple products.

You are a highly motivated self-starter and team player, focused on team success, operational efficiency, and execution, and you lead by example in adopting new tools yourself.

You will manage and inspire a team of 40+ people.

This position reports to the Executive Vice President, Harris School Solutions, FINS Enterprise Solutions.

What your impact will be:


* Translate business goals and product requirements into actionable development plans, including a clear, prioritized AI roadmap for each product.


* Ensure development projects are delivered on time and within budget, using AI-assisted development, testing, and documentation to compress cycle times and raise quality.


* Provide strategic planning, direction, and control of product development activities, and contribute technical input into the overall business unit strategy, including where AI creates differentiation and where it creates risk.


* Drive adoption of AI developer tooling (for example GitHub Copilot and agentic coding assistants) across the team, set the standards for how it is used, and measure the productivity and quality results.


* Lead the delivery of AI-enabled product capabilities for K12 finance, HR, and administrative workflows, such as intelligent automation, natural-language reporting, anomaly detection, and assistive experiences that reduce manual effort for district staff.


* Establish responsible AI practices for the business unit: data privacy and student-data protections (FERPA and state requi...