The Mission
*Please note application requirements detailed in How to Apply.*
At Unlocked Labs, we believe that those closest to the problem are best equipped to build the solution. Founded and led by formerly incarcerated technologists, Unlocked Labs is working to rebuild the digital infrastructure of the American justice system.
Unlocked Labs partners with Departments of Corrections, higher education institutions, and workforce organizations to build the infrastructure needed to expand access to education, rehabilitation, and reentry opportunities inside correctional settings. We help states design and implement secure networks, device ecosystems, access systems, data infrastructure, and custom software tools that allow high-quality programs to be delivered, managed, and measured in prisons.
Our work sits at the intersection of infrastructure, software, implementation, and systems change: demonstrating what becomes possible when correctional systems invest in opportunity instead of isolation.
With support from national foundations including the Mellon Foundation and Ascendium Foundation, and through active partnerships with multiple state correctional systems, Unlocked Labs is entering a phase of rapid national scaling. We are seeking a visionary Chief Technology Officer to provide the technical leadership, operational clarity, and systems thinking required to scale secure digital infrastructure across some of the most complex environments in the country.
The Role: Chief Technology Officer
As CTO, you will serve as the senior technical leader responsible for the architecture, implementation strategy, and long-term scalability of Unlocked Labs’ technology ecosystem. This includes secure correctional infrastructure deployments, custom software platforms, data and analytics systems, and the operational tooling required to support implementation across multiple state environments.
You will help mature Unlocked Labs from a founder-led technical organization into a durable, multi-state infrastructure and services organization capable of supporting Departments of Corrections at scale. Reporting directly to the Executive Director and serving on the Leadership Team, you will ensure strong alignment between product strategy, engineering execution, and field implementation.
This is not a traditional software leadership role. Success in this position requires the ability to navigate the intersection of engineering, product, implementation, public-sector operations, security constraints, and long-term systems change. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing architecture decisions with engineers, operational realities with prison administrators, and strategic tradeoffs with executive leadership.
Key Strategic Responsibilities
- Technical Strategy & Organizational Leadership
Provide the technical “North Star” for Unlocked Labs. Translate organizational priorities into a clear, multi-year technology strategy that balances innovation, implementation feasibility, operational sustainability, and the security requirements of correctional environments.
Partner closely with executive leadership to shape organizational strategy, technical investment priorities, and long-term systems architecture across multiple state deployments.
- Leadership of Product, Engineering & Services
Directly manage and mentor the leads of Product, Engineering, and Technical Services. You will be responsible for ensuring strong alignment between what we build, how we build it, and how it is implemented and supported in the field.
Help create an engineering and product culture that values clarity, accountability, collaboration, operational excellence, and mission alignment.
- Infrastructure, Security & Public Systems Architecture
Lead the technical strategy behind secure correctional infrastructure deployments, including networking environments, device ecosystems, identity and access systems, interoperable data platforms, and the software tools layered on top of that infrastructure.
You will ensure Unlocked Labs’ technology ecosystem remains scalable, secure, operationally sustainable, and implementation-ready across multiple state partners.
- Systems Implementation & Operational Strategy
Guide the organizational strategy for deploying technology inside complex correctional environments. This includes helping shape implementation models, technical standards, security practices, procurement approaches, and long-term operational sustainability in partnership with state agencies and institutional stakeholders.
You will help ensure that our technology is not only technically sound, but realistically deployable and maintainable in real-world correctional systems.
Oversee the evolution of Unlocked Labs’ software and data ecosystem, including educational delivery platforms, operational tooling, program tracking infrastructure, and analytics systems. Help shape interoperable systems that allow Departments of Corrections and education providers to better understand access, participation, outcomes, and pathways toward rehabilitation and reentry.
- Inside-Out Talent Development
A core pillar of our mission is developing technical talent among justice-impacted individuals. You will help oversee apprenticeship, mentorship, and professional development pathways that create real advancement opportunities from early-stage contributors to senior technical roles.
You believe that talent is universal, but opportunity is not — and are excited to help cultivate a mission-driven technical team that reflects the communities most impacted by the justice system.
- External Partnerships & Technical Advocacy
Serve as a senior technical representative to Departments of Corrections, higher education institutions, funders, implementation partners, and external stakeholders.
You bring curiosity about operational realities, the ability to understand the need behind the request, and the credibility to translate that understanding into thoughtful technical strategy and honest conversations about tradeoffs, constraints, and long-term sustainability.
Who You Are
- A High-Agency Technical Leader
You are comfortable making difficult decisions, creating clarity in ambiguous environments, and balancing competing priorities across product, engineering, implementation, and organizational strategy.
You know how to move between high-level systems thinking and practical operational execution.
- A Mission-Driven Technologist
You bring deep technical experience in modern software and infrastructure environments — ideally including distributed systems, secure networking, cloud infrastructure, backend systems, and modern web application architecture.
You are motivated by meaningful social impact and excited by the challenge of building technology in environments where the stakes are unusually high.
- A Systems-Oriented Builder
You understand that technology adoption succeeds or fails based on the interaction between software, infrastructure, operations, policy, training, and human support systems.
You are excited by the challenge of building technology that works in high-security, operationally complex environments.
- A Compassionate Team Builder
You know how to lead experienced engineers while also supporting earlier-career contributors and nontraditional technical talent. You create environments where people can grow, contribute meaningfully, and do the best work of their careers.
You are excited to work alongside justice-impacted technologists and believe lived experience strengthens teams and systems design.
Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in technical roles, including 5+ years leading engineering, infrastructure, or product teams
- Experience leading cross-functional technical organizations across engineering, product, and implementation functions
- Strong technical background in modern software systems and infrastructure architecture
- Experience managing technical systems that require high reliability, security, and operational resilience
- Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate technical concepts for nontechnical stakeholders
- Comfort operating in fast-moving, mission-driven, and evolving organizational environments
Bonus Experience
- Experience with government technology, education technology, public infrastructure, or highly regulated environments
- Experience designing secure networking or identity/access systems
- Experience with interoperability, analytics, or large-scale data systems
- Experience mentoring nontraditional or early-career technical talent
- Familiarity with Go, React, Docker, Linux environments, or modern DevOps workflows
Why Unlocked Labs?
- Build Technology That Matters. You will help shape the infrastructure that expands educational access, rehabilitation opportunities, and pathways home for thousands of incarcerated people across the country.
- Long-Term Stability & National Scale. Unlocked Labs has multi-year philanthropic support and active state partnerships that provide the runway to build durable, long-term systems with real public impact.
- A Unique Team & Culture. Over half of our team is justice-impacted. We believe lived experience strengthens organizations, products, and leadership. Our culture values curiosity, humility, accountability, creativity, and deep commitment to the mission.
- Competitive Compensation & Benefits. We offer competitive compensation, health/dental/vision coverage, and retirement benefits because we believe the world’s most important work deserves exceptional talent and sustainable careers.
How to Apply
If you are excited to help build the future of digital infrastructure for education and rehabilitation in correctional systems, we’d love to hear from you.
Please submit:
- Resume
- Brief cover letter or vision statement on the role of technology in justice system transformation
- Answers to the screening questions
Unlocked Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage justice-impacted individuals, women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and candidates from nontraditional backgrounds to apply.
Pay: $130,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
Application Question(s):
- How many years of people management experience do you have leading technical teams?
- What is the largest technical team you have directly managed?
- Do you have lived, professional, volunteer, research, or advocacy experience connected to carceral environments or justice-impacted communities?
- Unlocked Labs works inside correctional environments where technology must balance access, dignity, security, and operational reality. What draws you to this mission?
- Which functions have you directly led or managed? List all that apply:
Software engineering, Product management, IT infrastructure / networking, Security / compliance, Technical implementation / deployment, Customer support / technical services, Data / analytics, Other (please expand)
Work Location: Remote
