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About Northwoods
Caseworkers make decisions every day that shape the safety and future of children, families, and older adults. Too much of their time goes to paperwork instead of people. Northwoods exists to improve their productivity and give them time back.
For more than 20 years, Northwoods has served state and county health and human services (HHS) agencies, with a team that includes former case workers and social workers. Its Traverse platform supports roughly 45,000 caseworkers across child welfare, child support, economic assistance, and adult services. Grove pairs trained specialists with Traverse to take administrative work off caseworkers' plates.
The Opportunity
Northwoods is seeking a CEO to lead its next chapter: growing its position as a trusted partner for county HHS agencies across child welfare, child support, economic assistance, and adult services, while expanding into new HHS markets.
The market is asking exactly this:
- Eligibility workloads are surging as federal SNAP funding shifts to states and Medicaid adds work requirements and six-month renewals.
- Child welfare modernization has stalled. After a decade of investment, fewer than a third of state CCWIS projects are operational.
- The workforce is overwhelmed. Agencies need technology and AI that return time to case workers, with decisions regarding people.
This is a hands-on operating role for a leader who combines credibility with HHS agencies, a measurable record of launching products, and the judgment to expand while strengthening the core business.
Role Overview
The CEO will have full P&L responsibility and accountability for Northwoods' financial performance, organizational health, and strategic execution. The mandate includes:
- Growing the county Traverse and Grove business
- Expanding into new HHS markets, including state agencies, with a scalable, productized approach
- Bringing AI into Traverse and Grove to measurably improve caseworker capacity
- Entering adjacent markets where Northwoods has a clear right to win
- Building the capture, delivery, and partnership capabilities statewide work requires
Financial discipline is core to the role. The role balances investment in new growth with consistent, profitable performance.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Growth
- Set and execute a multi-year strategy that grows the county business and expands into new HHS markets
- Prioritize opportunities based on market need, funding, and Northwoods' ability to win
- Keep the product scalable and productized
Government Relationships
- Personally lead relationships with state HHS leaders, state CIOs, and county HHS directors
- Lead statewide capture, from pre-RFP shaping through award and contract negotiation
- Build effective partnerships across the HHS ecosystem, including systems integrators
- Apply a working knowledge of federal funding and approval processes to pricing and deal structure
- Sustain land-and-expand momentum and reference networks in county markets
Product, Technology & AI
- Own product strategy and roadmap for all products and solutions
- Launch new products with clear adoption, revenue, and margin targets
- Use AI to increase caseworker capacity and engineering productivity
Delivery & Operations
- Build a delivery organization ready for larger, more complex implementations
- Protect service quality for existing customers during expansion
- Run a disciplined operating cadence with strong forecasting, cost visibility, and accountability
Leadership & Culture
- Lead and develop the existing leadership team, and add talent where needed
- Preserve Northwoods' mission-driven, caseworker-first culture
- Model accountability, transparency, and integrity
What Success Looks Like
- Continued, profitable growth of the county business
- Successful entry into new HHS markets, including at the state level
- AI capabilities that measurably expand caseworker capacity
- Sustained financial performance while investing in growth
- A strong, stable leadership team with the bench to enable county and statewide growth
What You Must Have Done Before
- Owned a P&L as CEO, President, GM, or equivalent at a software business serving state or local government
- Built or scaled a business in the state and local HHS market and earned the trust of its leaders. You know the programs we support, the stakeholders involved, the policy environment, and how agencies buy and implement technology, and you understand how much relationships matter in this market. We will ask for references from state and county agency leaders you have worked with.
- Run two growth motions at once. You have invested in a long-cycle opportunity while continuing to grow and protect a faster-moving core business.
- Launched a product and grown it. Be ready to share the adoption, revenue, and margin results.
Preferred Experience
- Captured and delivered a statewide HHS system (child welfare, child support, eligibility, adult services, or similar), or played a leading role in one, including federal funding and approval processes
- Entered an adjacent market with an existing product or platform
- Experience across multiple HHS programs and federal oversight agencies
- Working experience with federal funding strategies, modular modernization efforts, and state HHS procurement. You don't need to be our funding expert, but you should know how these forces shape how opportunities progress and how vendors succeed once engaged.
- Leadership at a commercial HHS software vendor, not solely at a systems integrator
- Built AI-enabled products for regulated data
- Private equity, permanent-capital, or investor-owned environments
This Role Is Not a Fit If
- Your growth record depends mainly on large custom implementations
- You prefer strategy work to customer meetings, deals, and hiring
- You need a large team in place before you can deliver results
- You see growing the core business and pursuing new markets as a tradeoff rather than a shared priority
Why Join Northwoods & Banyan
As a Banyan CEO, you will lead with autonomy in a long-term ownership environment, join a trusted peer community of software CEOs, access optional operating resources without losing independence, and share meaningfully in value created through EBITDA growth and multiple expansion.
This role offers the chance to build the modern HHS platform agencies have been waiting for on a foundation 45,000 case workers already trust.
Location: Dublin, OH or remote (USA), with travel.
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