Chief Technology Officer

Located in Oakland, California, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mills College is a liberal arts college for women and gender non-binary students, with graduate programs for all genders. Consistently ranked one of the top master's universities and one of the best value colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report, Mills also has been named one of the Best Colleges in the nation by The Princeton Review. The Mills experience is distinguished by small, interactive classes, one-on-one attention from exceptional faculty, a culture of creative experimentation, and cutting-edge interdisciplinary learning opportunities which empower students to make a statement in their careers and communities. As one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the country, we have a strong record of academic success with first-generation students, students of color, Latinx students, LGBTQ students, and other underrepresented students. Mills College has recently become a Hispanic Serving Institution. Applicants with expertise and experience in supporting and promoting success for Latina/o students are encouraged to apply.

Mills College encourages diversity in hiring and particularly welcomes applications and nominations from women, gender non-binary individuals, and minorities. Mills College seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to equity, inclusion, and social justice and our desire to maintain the excellence of our faculty. In so doing, we offer our students not only the opportunity to learn about varied disciplines but to engage with diverse perspectives and ways of knowing and learning. For more information, please visit www.mills.edu.

Job Description:

The Chief Technology Officer's (CTO) role is to align the infrastructure technology vision with the business strategy of the college while balancing organizational considerations, current technology architecture, business priorities, and operational processes as well as current industry technology trajectories. The CTO is responsible for aspects of developing and setting direction for infrastructure standards and related cloud technology initiatives within the organization. This individual's team maintains existing enterprise infrastructure and related cloud technologies, balances relationships and agreements with current outsourced service partners, while providing direction in all technology-related issues in support of information operations and organizational strategies for the College.

This position plays a collaborative role in proposing technology capabilities in support of business strategic roadmaps, standardizing our technology architecture for cost and operational efficiencies, evaluating the integration of third-party technologies and creating a supporting technology strategy including managing and executing technology solutions that are strategically focused on maintaining the reliability and functionality that is essential to both internal and external constituents. This position provides oversight and leadership for technology strategy, governance, standards and policies, training and education, installation, configuration and support, and stewardship of change management, disaster recovery, and business continuity processes. In addition, the position is responsible for college, vendor, and partner relationships for technology related activities.

This newly created position was developed to align information technology in support of the mission and strategic initiatives of the college. The successful candidate will oversee technology services supporting all academic and administrative functions, including systems, ERP, networks, telecommunications, desktop computing, audio/visual, technology training, and technology purchasing and individual and unit-level administrative resources.

Essential Job Functions:

Strategic Planning and Leadership Communication

• Participate collaboratively with campus leadership to establish campus strategic plans and objectives relating to the technological needs of the entire Mills College community. 

• Advises the President and the College Officers on developing and implementing innovative and cost effective technology initiatives and programs.

• Develops a strategic technology plan and technology roadmap that anticipates business needs and plays a collaborative role in proposing technology capabilities in support of Mills' strategic organizational plan and institutional objectives.

• Works collaboratively with other IT leadership team members to produce technology architecture, standards and policies while supporting other relevant standards and policies and regulations (e.g., Information Management, Security, Applications).

• Works collaboratively with functional technologists and other technical positions across the campus outside of the ITS organization establishing a strong dotted line reporting structure (e.g., Finance, HR, Advancement, Enrollment Management, Educational Technology).

IT Team Leadership

• Advance the essential role of information technology services by providing leadership, planning, and overall management of human, financial, scholarly and technology resources. Assess and develop the skills, abilities and expertise of staff to build a positive service-oriented culture with excellent outcomes.

• Maintains a strong information systems control environment that is responsive to the risks across all aspects of technology.

• Provides oversight for quality assurance for technology service activities (e.g. performance testing, integration testing, monitoring, tool support, and change control).

• Provides stewardship for change management, disaster recovery and supports business continuity initiatives. Manages vendor performance and adherence to contract terms and conditions. Keeps abreast of industry standards, practices and new technologies to enhance key stakeholder satisfaction with ITS.  Acts as a subject matter expert and resource to others.

• Provides an environment that encourages staff in continuous improvement, learning and development of new skills to serve the College's educational mission

Project Management and Governance

• Leads, manages and coordinates IT technology needs across Mills College, including oversight of solution design and architectures, configurations, outsourcing, governance coordination, oversight of projects and overall development life cycle, and implementation activities for a wide range of technology and supporting services for Mills College in both IT and the Mills community.

• Manages and executes delivery of services as well as enhancements to technology that supports client value, business innovation, and lasting business impact while ensuring that the technology is well-maintained, responsive, secure and reliable providing consistent capabilities for both internal and external clients and customers.

• Ensure that Mills' information systems integrate securely and efficiently with external partners.

Budget Management

• Provides strategic budget oversight for areas within the technology management team's accountability for operating within the set operating and capital budget parameters.

• Establishes and reports on technology success metrics as well as key performance indicators. Provides oversight and coordination for technology governance activities. Provides oversight for successful project performance for technology supporting the College and how it is configured, deployed and enhanced throughout Mills College supporting areas.

Mobility/ BYOD/Online Learning

• Establish an integrated digital footprint with a robust and secure infrastructure that enables research and learning regardless of the constituents' location. The infrastructure must support interactive design, the development of new web and mobile applications and build upon new initiatives in data analytics and collaborative learning environments

Requirements:

• The successful candidate must be an action-oriented manager with a proven track record of successful organizational and technical leadership within information technology. The College expects the Chief Technology Officer to be an inspirational and innovative leader, an exceptional verbal and written communicator, a strategic decision-maker and budget manager, a trustworthy and ethical collaborator, a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, and an active and engaged member of the community. 

• Broad knowledge of current computing and communications technology, including digital networks, multi-media applications, distributed computing, integrated library systems, hardware and software infrastructure and cloud-based services.  Expected to be a campus expert able to provide timely and effective advice regarding information and technology needs.

• Knowledge of legal issues and risks related to cyber security, privacy, intellectual property and copyrights.

• Knowledgeable of cloud and on-demand architectures as well designing these types of solutions for maximum organization effectiveness as well as experience with implementations and scaling of these types of environments.

Minimum requirements:

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or Business Administration

• 10 or more years of progressive relevant information systems experience

• 5 or more years of concurrent experience directly related to supervision or project management, preferably in higher education

• Or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Additional Information:

This is a full-time, exempt position with an FTE of 1.0. Salary is commensurate with experience and includes an excellent benefits package including medical/dental/vision/life/LTD insurance, 403(b) retirement plan with college-matching after 6 month qualifying period, 22 days of vacation each year, 12 sick days and 10 paid holidays annually. Staff members also receive free admission to campus events, use of the pool, fitness center, and tennis courts. Tuition remission is also available after an introductory period. Voluntary benefits include: pet insurance, long-term care insurance, legal-assistance insurance, cellular provider discounts and computer hardware discounts.

Mills College does not permit discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, race, religious creed, color, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. For more information on Mills' non-discrimination policy, please go to https://inside.mills.edu/administration/administrative_offices/policies/nondiscrimination.php.

Please note that all positions are subject to a background check.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please submit:

• resume and
• cover letter 

Review of applicants will begin immediately; applications will be accepted until the position is filled.