Director of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies

The Director of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies provides leadership for the units providing infrastructure technology support to the University. They define and deliver enterprise-class technology infrastructure solutions in support of the University’s administrative and academic needs. They provide leadership for the University-wide technology and communications infrastructure, including the data center; the University’s local and wide area networks; Inter- and intra- net services; cable plant; the University’s server farm and related operating system environments; email and directory services; voice services; technology service monitoring and response; the central storage environment; and disaster recovery services.

They provide vision and leadership for the planning (strategic and tactical), budgeting, technology evaluation and selection, implementation and assessment of the University’s technology infrastructure systems. They facilitate the creation and implementation of policies, procedures, processes, and strategies for the adoption and utilization of the University’s infrastructure technologies.

The Director of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies provides leadership to and management of assigned staff, including hiring, training, managing, and establishing projects and resource priorities. They manage direct reports to promote teamwork and to develop professional and technical qualities necessary in order to meet the goals and objectives of IS and the University. They function as a member of the senior leadership team of the Information Services Division and act as directed as a representative of the Division to University and external constituencies. They recommend, initiate, and implement improvements to infrastructure, and contribute constructive suggestions for change or improvement in other IS areas.

The Director of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies will build consensus and develop collegial, collaborative working relationships with a broad range of constituencies in support of the IS mission. They determine the most appropriate and effective means of successfully implementing infrastructure technology solutions for the user community. They coordinate their activities with the CIO and Vice Provost for IS in support of University priorities and strategic plans.

The Director of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies will have a passion for providing excellent customer service, and a focus on continual improvement across all units; a commitment to supporting innovative infrastructure technologies; and a desire to identify and deliver the best possible technology resources and services to meet the needs of the campus community.

1. Management and Strategy

• Hire and manage performance and productivity of Cyberinfrastructure Technologies personnel.

• Conduct annual performance reviews of staff.

• Cultivate organizational values and hold employees accountable for fostering these values for a healthy, professional, and productive work environment.

• Provide individualized consultation, guidance, and development to team members.

• Initiate and develop technologies and systems to support short-term and long-term strategic goals.

• Create an environment of technology innovation.

2. Coordination and Collaboration

• Work with the campus community, other campus technology support personnel, strategic IT vendors, other IS Departments, and off-campus service providers to coordinate the design and delivery of infrastructure technologies to the campus community in an architecturally sound manner.

• Play an active role as a technical expert during the planning and implementation phases of new technologies, and participate in architecture brainstorming and design discussions with technical team members.

• Provide technical guidance on complex infrastructure architecture challenges to IS team members and other solution partners.

• Participate in IS management team decision-making processes to meet campus obligations.

• Promote and ensure a customer-service focus among staff members.

• Build consensus and enhance positive relationships based on trust, predictability, and communication.

• Collaborate with the CIO and other IS Directors and staff on campus-wide technology initiatives.

3. Resource Planning

• Determine Cyberinfrastructure Technologies priorities and allocate resources accordingly.

• Refine the organization and develop staff through job development and training, skills forecasting and development, direct report coaching and development, and staff engagement.

• Collaborate with the CIO and other IS Directors and staff on campus-wide technology initiatives, including serving on the Technology Advisory Committee.

• Participate in technology planning processes.

4. Service Delivery

• Lead and supervise the creation, planning, maintenance, and secure expansion of SCU’s computing infrastructure. This includes, but is not limited to, local and hosted networking components, servers, switches, routers, LAN/WAN, IP, DNS, virtual appliances and devices, and storage.

• Ensure that architecture principles and standards are consistently applied across the data center, computer, storage, and network services.

• Working closely with the CISO, Director of Enterprise Applications, and Deputy CIO for Academic Technology, ensure all customer endpoints, desktops, laptops, and personal devices are configured appropriately for integration in a secure enterprise environment.

• Ensure maximum uptime for infrastructure systems and services.

• Ensure the appropriate distribution of infrastructure services to faculty, staff, and students.

• Ensure all key infrastructure services are maintained with high-availability functionality.

• Create and document standards and practices regarding data center, compute, storage, and network services for use across the University.

• Oversee the creation and performance of infrastructure production and test environments.

• Create scalable, interoperable, and flexible infrastructure solutions.

• Support assigned systems with on-call availability and respond within agreed upon timeframes.

• Establish, document and implement a standard routine and process for the application of patches/updates to operating systems, applications, and hardware and firmware to ensure all physical, virtual, and hosted systems are patched with the appropriate level of security and versioning.

• Oversee the process of backup operations, ensuring all required file systems and system data are successfully backed up to the appropriate media, recovery tapes or discs are created, cloud storage and backup solutions are employed as warranted, and media is recycled and sent off site as necessary.

• In coordination with the Director of Enterprise Applications, the Deputy CIO for Academic Technologies, and the CISO, manage disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

• Perform daily system monitoring, verifying the integrity and availability of all hardware, server resources, network resources, systems, and key processes.

• Manage configuration, change, and release processes.

• Manage operating and capital budgets.

• Ensure optimal service delivery, availability, and capacity.

• Serve as the liaison with hosted platform and third party providers to monitor service level agreements and ensure that performance expectations and requirements are met.

5. Service Optimization

• Enhance existing architecture frameworks in order to define, design, and implement simplified, standards based system architectures. 

• Transform the infrastructure landscape from a “solution at a time” model to a streamlined and consolidated environment with high-availability and disaster recovery.

• Assist in the design, planning, and implementation of infrastructure systems optimization and process improvement projects.

• Test and assess existing infrastructure against industry standard internal and external benchmarks to insure optimal performance and service delivery.

• Participate in IT and information security audits and prioritize corrective actions and successful remediation of areas supervised to ensure that continuous improvements are made on an on-going basis.

• Lead and participate in the change management process to ensure all changes to relevant services are documented, tested, deployed, and prepped for back-out strategies if necessary.

• Evaluate and pursue infrastructure technology cost containment and reduction strategies.

6. Communication

• Add technical and strategic input during the planning phase of potential projects in the form of technical architecture designs and recommendations.

• Regularly communicate with Cyberinfrastructure Technologies staff regarding IS and University issues, initiatives, and activities.

• Update the campus community as needed regarding Cyberinfrastructure Technologies activities.

• Keep the CIO informed of current and potential issues, activities, operational outages, and any other risks that might jeopardize or degrade IT service delivery to the University community.

7. Leadership

• Consult and advise the CIO on information technology trends, opportunities, strategy, solutions, resources, and compliance.
• Establish and foster partnerships with key stakeholders across the University to promote operational excellence.
• Build a strong network of peers at comparable institutions.
• Actively participate in University activities and initiatives.
• Work with the Planning, Projects, and Facilities Offices to anticipate infrastructure needs for new or renovated campus buildings.

8. Unit Administration

• Manage the Cyberinfrastructure Technologies functional units:

  • Networking and Telecommunications

    • Provides Tier 1 – Tier 3 operational support for wired and wireless endpoints on campus.

    • Designs/implements/validates network components of campus technology efforts.

    • Supports 1/10G WAN ISP connections in addition to perimeter firewall, optimization hardware, core routers, demilitarized zone (DMZ) and VPN services.

    • Manages LAN/WLAN services including DNS/DHCP, distribution/aggregation/access layer switching environment, campus firewalls, access points, wireless controllers, and gigabit point-to-point wireless building links.

    • Maintains physical copper/fiber Infrastructure including reinforcement and upgrade efforts.

    • Provides Data Center L1-L3 core/access switching/routing, firewall, and application delivery support.

    • Manages network security platforms including Impulse Point, Cisco VPN, Cisco ACS, Cisco ASA, Radware Alteon, and Cisco IronPort.

    • Administers network applications including VoIP, IAM, Active Directory, network file/print services, SSO/RSO, Google Apps for Education, and IPTV.

    • Supports legacy Avaya PBX phone system and endpoints.

    • Oversees several student workers to provide endpoint and L1-L3.

  • Enterprise Systems

    • Monitors and maintains SCU data centers.

    • Architects, deploys, and maintains SCU core compute, storage, and backup infrastructure.

    • Administers virtual and physical machines that are mission critical to supporting SCU.

    • Manages and monitors storage arrays that support SCU virtual infrastructure, physical compute, and file shares.

    • Backs up and protects SCU data.

    • Monitors SCU technology and alerts administrators and owners when services are offline.

    • Manages secure file transfers between SCU systems and third party vendors.

    • Administers SCU course evaluation software.

    • Performs advanced troubleshooting for systems and services.

9. Other duties as assigned.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

1. Recommends initiatives and implements changes to improve quality and services.

2. Identifies and determines cause of problems; develops and presents recommendations for improvement of established processes and practices. 

3. Maintains contact with customers and solicits feedback for improved services.

4. Maximizes productivity through use of appropriate tools; plan training and performance initiatives.

5. Researches and develops resources that create timely and efficient work flow.  

6. Prepares progress reports; informs supervisor of project status and deviation from goals. Ensures completeness, accuracy and timeliness of all operational functions. 

7. Prepares and submits reports as requested and required.

8. Develops and implements guidelines to support the functions of the unit.

Manage full-time staff currently configured into two units: Networking and Telecommunications, and Enterprise Systems. Currently, four of the full-time staff have managerial/supervisory responsibility.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The items below are representative of the knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience required or preferred.

This position requires the ability to effectively establish and maintain cooperative working relationships within a diverse multicultural environment.

The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, the California Fair Employment & Housing Act, and all other applicable laws, SCU provides reasonable accommodations for qualified persons with disabilities. A qualified individual is a person who meets skill, experience, education, or other requirements of the position, and who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Considerable time is spent at a desk using a computer terminal.  

• Required to travel to other buildings on the campus.

• Required to attend conference and training sessions within Bay Area or in- or out-of-state locations.

• Required to travel to outside customers, vendors or suppliers.

The work environment characteristics described below are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

• Typical office environment.

• Mostly indoor office environment with windows.

• Offices with equipment noise.

• Offices with frequent interruptions.

General

• Knowledge of information technology and campus technology issues and trends in higher education, and ability to continually develop new knowledge regarding the same.

• Appreciation for the University’s mission, vision, values, priorities, procedures, and policies.

Position-specific

• Understanding of the full spectrum of information technologies.

• Understanding of, and preferably experience with, relational databases.

• Understanding of, and preferably experience working in, cloud-based computing environments.

• Thorough understanding of enterprise infrastructure design challenges.

• Specific understanding of industry trends and standards.

General

• Ability to listen and understand customer needs.

• Self-motivated and shows initiative.

• Proven track record in project planning and project management.

• Must possess impeccable integrity.

Position-specific

• Deep technical skills in one or more of the technical domains that they supervise.

• Experience managing infrastructure systems delivery in a large, complex IT environment, involving multifaceted multi-year projects and technical teams.

• Experience developing plans for short- and long-range infrastructure projects, including strategies, budgets, and schedules.

• Experience developing and maintaining annual operational and capital budgets.

• Experience providing leadership and supervision of staff including position responsibilities, position planning, recruitment, retention, compensation, training/development, and evaluation; this also includes experience promoting and monitoring diversity in the recruitment process.

• Experience with server virtualization environments, preferably VMware.

• Experience with high availability, disaster recovery and data replication architectures, ideally both internally-hosted and cloud-based.

• Experience with Microsoft Active Directory.

• Experience with SAN fabric architectures, management/replication software and implementation of enterprise storage products, preferably Dell Compellent storage arrays.

• Experience in designing multi-tier enterprise storage fabrics and driving higher levels of storage utilization while safeguarding performance for tenant applications.

• Experience in developing highly available, fault-tolerant virtualization solutions.

• Experience with managing and supporting Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X clients in a Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP environment.

• Experience leading the development and implementation of standard operating procedures and policies with an emphasis on maintaining and ensuring operational continuity and security of the University’s information assets.

• Experience with technical assessment, selection, and implementation of new infrastructure technologies.

• Experience with local and hosted networking components, servers, switches, routers, management tools, LAN/WAN, TCP/IP, Ethernet, DNS, virtual appliances and devices

• Experience in designing and maintaining multiple SSID wireless networks covering both interior and exterior spaces in varying client densities.

• Experience with Network Access Control (NAC) solutions.

• Varied and strong background that would include implementation of higher education infrastructure systems.

• Experience negotiating contracts with vendors.

General

• Ability to listen and understand customer needs.

• Ability to plan, implement, and evaluate customer service initiatives.

• Ability to work in a collaborative environment, as either a member or leader of a team, to meet deadlines and achieve goals.

• Ability to manage a diverse workforce to provide excellent customer service.

• Ability to successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously. 

• Ability to exercise independent judgment and engage in critical thinking and problem solving.

• Ability to work effectively under pressure in a busy (often chaotic) and demanding information services environment, while maintaining a sense of humor. 

• Ability to explain technical issues and policies to non-technical people.

• Ability to give presentations on technical issues to a broad range of audiences.

• Ability to foster and maintain good working relationships with faculty, administrators, students, senior management, and other leaders.

• Ability to handle sensitive matters with diplomacy and the ability to mediate between competing parties.

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and manage confidential information.

• Ability to speak truth to power.

Position-specific

● Ability to plan and execute technology infrastructure initiatives strategically, tactically, and expansively.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited institution of higher education required. Advanced degree preferred.

Experience

Minimum of twelve years of experience, with a focus on providing excellent customer service to support technology in support of an organization’s mission.