Who We Are
Mercy Ships is a global faith-based charity that uses hospital ships to bring life-changing surgeries and transformational medical training to people in some of the most challenging contexts along the African coast. For over 40 years, Mercy Ships has been delivering lasting hope and healing through safe surgical care, while working alongside partners and stakeholders to strengthen local healthcare systems in more than 55 countries. Since the inception of this dream by founders Don and Deyon Stephens in 1978, Mercy Ships has served more than 2.7 million direct beneficiaries without regard for race, gender, or religion.
Do you have a heart for the hurting and a desire to invest your talents and experiences into a mission with eternal significance? For every transformative surgery that takes place onboard one of our Mercy Ships, there are dozens of men and women being used of the Lord to prepare the way through their vocational gifts and talents!
**Compensation range for this position is $200,000 - $220,000
This is a full-time, REMOTE position that requires domestic and international travel expected at 30-50%.
Mercy Ships is seeking a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to serve remotely. As CTO, you will provide executive leadership, strategic direction, and organizational partnership focused on the global technology function during a significant period of organizational maturity and transformation.
Reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer and working in close partnership with the Office of the CEO, Strategy & Transformation Office, Executive Leadership Team, and existing technology leadership, the CTO will evaluate the organization’s current technology environment while helping establish the long-term strategic direction, governance, enterprise architecture, and operating model necessary to support Mercy Ships' global mission.
During the initial phase of the role, the CTO will work collaboratively alongside existing technology leadership to develop a deep understanding of the organization’s mission, operations, technology landscape, organizational capabilities, and business priorities. As this understanding develops, the CTO will partner with executive leadership to strengthen technology strategy, governance, organizational capability, and delivery effectiveness by implementing approved improvements.
This role serves as both a strategic advisor and executive technology leader, ensuring that enterprise technology enables the organization’s mission while strengthening confidence, accountability, and execution across the technology function.
The CTO will provide leadership in the following areas:
- Enterprise technology strategy and architecture
- Technology governance and investment prioritization
- Technology operating model and organizational capability
- Technology delivery and execution maturity
- Workforce capability and leadership development
- Business readiness and organizational adoption
- Artificial Intelligence, automation, and emerging technology strategy
- Long-term technology investment planning
- Establish strong connections between organizational strategy, business capabilities, enterprise architecture, and technology investments.
How You’ll Contribute
Enterprise Technology Leadership & Strategy
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of Mercy Ships' global operations, strategic objectives, and technology landscape.
- Evaluate the current enterprise technology environment, including enterprise architecture, infrastructure, applications, integrations, cybersecurity, data governance, operational maturity, and technology investments.
- Develop a multi-year enterprise technology strategy aligned with organizational strategy and business capabilities.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen enterprise architecture, reduce technical debt, improve scalability, and increase operational effectiveness.
- Develop enterprise principles for AI, automation, emerging technologies, and responsible innovation.
- Guide technology investment decisions through clear architectural principles and strategic alignment.
Organizational Partnership & Capability Development
- Build trusted relationships with existing technology leadership, business leaders, National Offices, and operational stakeholders.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the current technology operating model, organizational capabilities, leadership capacity, and delivery maturity.
- Coach, mentor, and support technology leaders while strengthening accountability, collaboration, and execution.
- Recommend and implement approved organizational improvements that strengthen enterprise technology capabilities and long-term organizational effectiveness.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, servant leadership, operational excellence, and enterprise thinking.
Technology Governance & Strategic Execution
- Partner closely with the Strategy & Transformation Office to align enterprise technology planning with organizational strategic planning, enterprise portfolio management, and transformation governance.
- Strengthen governance processes supporting technology prioritization, investment decisions, architectural standards, risk management, and delivery oversight.
- Establish strong connections between organizational strategy, business capabilities, enterprise architecture, and technology investments.
- Improve transparency regarding technology priorities, sequencing, and enterprise value.
Delivery Excellence & Organizational Trust
- Evaluate current project and program delivery practices, including business readiness, change management, solution design, vendor management, and implementation governance.
- Identify root causes contributing to delivery challenges, organizational friction, and execution risks.
- Partner with technology leadership to improve execution discipline, organizational alignment, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Lead implementation of approved improvements that strengthen delivery maturity, operational excellence, and organizational trust.
- Help re-establish confidence in the technology function through transparency, measurable progress, and consistent executive leadership.
Executive Partnership & Advisory
- Serve as a trusted advisor to Executive Leadership and the Board regarding enterprise technology strategy, organizational capability, emerging technology, and investment priorities.
- Provide periodic assessments, strategic recommendations, and progress updates regarding the technology function.
- Support executive decision-making regarding enterprise modernization, technology-enabled transformation, and long-term organizational capability.
The Ideal Candidate
- Minimum 10 -15 years of progressive technology leadership experience, including executive technology leadership roles.
- Proven experience serving as a CTO, CIO, VP of Technology, or equivalent executive leadership role within complex enterprise environments.
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise technology transformation, organizational improvement, enterprise architecture, or operational modernization initiatives.
- Strong enterprise architecture and systems-thinking capabilities across applications, infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud platforms, integrations, and data.
- Experience aligning enterprise technology strategy with organizational strategy and business priorities.
- Demonstrated ability to build trusted executive relationships while leading organizational change.
- Strong understanding of globally distributed organizations and multicultural operating environments.
- Exceptional executive communication, stakeholder management, and organizational influence skills.
- Travel domestically and internationally, including flights of extended duration and occasional time zone changes; travel expected at 30-50%
Culture and Alignment
- Is aligned with Mercy Ships’ mission, core values, culture, and Code of Conduct.
- Takes an active role in supporting the Community of Faith and lives out our Core Values.
- Achieves a high level of trust in relationships, respects others, is open and honest, and admits mistakes.
Preferred Experience
- Experience within nonprofit, humanitarian, healthcare, maritime, or globally distributed mission-driven organizations.
- Experience advising executive leadership teams and Boards.
- Experience leading enterprise operating model transformation.
- Familiarity with AI governance, automation strategy, and emerging technology adoption.
**Compensation range listed is for U.S. hires only. Actual compensation may vary dependent upon location of hire.
Pour your God-given talents into a mission with eternal return on investment -- join the Mercy Ships Crew, today! This is a paid position. To explore our many Mercy Ships volunteer opportunities, please visit us at: https://www.mercyships.org/get-involved/volunteer/
10+ years executive technology leadership with enterprise architecture, transformation, governance, AI/automation strategy, and experience in globally distributed organizations; travel 30-50% expected.
Key Responsibilities
- leading strategy
- building capability
- improving delivery
Job Details
- Category: Information Technology
- Seniority: Senior Level
- Commitment: Full Time
- Workplace: Remote — United States
- Salary: USD 200,000 – 220,000 / year
- Languages: English
About Mercyships
A global faith-based charity that delivers surgical care and medical training using hospital ships to strengthen local healthcare systems. — Industry: Non-Profit Organizations and NGOs