Why this finalist deserves to win Best Tech Manager:
Kristofer Younger is the director of education at Zip Code Wilmington, a nonprofit coding school that trains adults from diverse backgrounds in the technical, interpersonal and leadership skills needed to secure a competitive developer job in 12-weeks. Kris is a true example of what it means to be “The Best Tech Manager” because he is a dedicated senior leader, mentor to students, and collaborator with corporate partners, who continues to hone his own tech skills to keep up with the pace at which technology is advancing. He’s never not learning or doing, so he can continue to bring the very best to others.
Kris is a veteran in computer science and has more than 30 years of experience at successful startups and technology giants such as Sun Microsystems, NeXT, Netscape and AOL. Early on in his career, he worked alongside the late Steve Jobs. He has literally watched and participated in the advancements of technology and is a pioneer that has helped shape how the world uses and consumes technology.
His technical expertise is centered around networked computing of all kinds, which aids him in structuring curriculum for Zip Code Wilmington around Java, and JavaScript coding languages. But that is not all. He is well versed in other technology platforms, such as iOS/Swift/Objective-C, Linux, Google Go (golang), Ethereum (and bitcoin blockchain tech), etc., making his technology skills offering diverse and among the most comprehensive in the field.
With his vast tech knowledge and under his leadership as Director of Education, Kris has helped shape Zip Code Wilmington into a premier coding nonprofit institution. Applications and class sizes, also known as cohorts, have grown year-over-year (nearly 40 percent when comparing July 2017 and July 2018 cohorts), and, since Zip Code Wilmington was established, 88 percent of graduates have been placed in paid positions within three months of graduation. This is a testament to the curriculum he creates in collaboration with Zip Code’s corporate partners and re-tools as tech advances. He has worked hard to provide the very best tools and resources, such as IntelliJ, DataGrip, Visual Studio Code and other professional tools to teach students the technical fields, while mentoring his staff to excel as instructors.
Wearing multiple hats, one as an instructor and another as a manager/director, his roles and responsibilities include leading strategic education planning and implementation with Zip Code’s corporate partners and faculty, counseling and motivating students and instructors, driving organizational change and growth as it pertains to technology advancement, and building and maintaining a competitive, fast-tracked and updated curriculum. He is truly passionate about the school’s world-class curriculum and is always looking to bring in other ways of learning and teaching for all. For instance, recognizing employers’ increasing need for their tech teams to be able to engineer their data and distill analytics, Kris saw a need to develop Zip Code Wilmington’s first data engineering and analytics cohort, which will be offered in early 2020.
Because of Kris’s technical background, and experience working as a leader at different types of companies in his career, Kris is a mentor that goes beyond measure. From guiding students and alumni or managing the teaching staff, Kris goes out of his way to help all succeed--both for their greater good and the greater good of the organization, and the organization’s corporate partners. In fact, several co-workers, past/current students and partners have said:
• “Throughout the program it was apparent that Kris truly wanted each of us to succeed and believed that we could.” -- student quote
• “Kris is a legend- his knowledge and experience is apparent and inspiring!” -- student quote
• “One of the smartest people I've had the pleasure of meeting.” --student quote
• “Kris has done a phenomenal job of expanding Zip Code’s programming, by developing Zip Code’s new data engineering program and creating and leading our “What the Tech” program, geared towards business professionals working alongside technologists.” – team member and employee quote
Kris has accomplished a lot in his time at Zip Code Wilmington. He standardized the Java curriculum, increase in the amount of group work and coding done by students, and implemented an “Objects First” immersion technique, which means students are doing object-oriented programming on the very first day. However, what is more impressive is how he is continuously learning and applying his technology knowledge to bring the best curriculum to the organization. In fact, Kris might say that the very best instructors and teachers are those that are also learning and doing, and those that come from the coding workforce themselves.
His unwavering commitment to help others succeed in their education and career advancement, coupled with taking the organization to new heights through new curriculum, proves Kris’s tenacity of never settling and always pushing for the very best.
Kris’s vision for Zip Code Wilmington is clear--train individuals for good-paying tech jobs, help students significantly increase their earning power and show that anything is possible.
