Director of Information Systems and Technology Strategy

Description

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries collectively building, stewarding, and sharing a wealth of resource materials from all world regions to support inspired research and teaching, seeks an innovative, collaborative, and experienced Director of Information Systems and Technology Strategy. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to lead the development of CRL’s digital and technology strategy and manage organizational efforts to deliver results in line with that strategy, in service of CRL’s mission.

The Director of Information Systems and Technology Strategy reports to the President of CRL, serves as a member of CRL’s Executive Leadership Team, and leads an administrative portfolio that includes the departments of Information Systems and Metadata & Discovery Enhancement. This position will actively engage with the CRL community, including the CRL Board of Directors, and represent CRL in relevant international and national professional communities.

MAIN DUTIES:

• Serves as CRL’s senior leader for digital and technology strategy development and related operations, including information technology selection and development, operational performance, risk management, security viability, and metadata enhancements.

• Keeps abreast of, and actively participates in, new developments and trends in digital scholarship, computer hardware, software, network & telecommunication technology, and metadata & discovery best practices in the field of research libraries.

• Manages a diverse group of dedicated technical staff in the CRL Information Systems and Metadata and Discovery Enhancement departments.

• Maintains a technology plan that includes analysis of CRL’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and goals/objectives for new projects, infrastructure improvements, and user support.

• Develops and executes device fault tolerance and disaster recovery plan and assures sound systems and data backup/restore procedures.

• Manages CRL’s IT infrastructure related capital budget. Develops technology vendor relationships by negotiating contracts, monitoring billing and resolving issues.

• Proactively identifies areas of improvement; determines solutions; implements enhancements/changes to improve CRL online operations and services.

• Ensures the integrity of all information technology systems and promotes cross-functions, cross-departmental collaborations.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

$110,000 minimum salary. Actual salary will depend on qualifications and experience. CRL offers excellent benefits, including health and retirement plans. Flexible work arrangements, including flex-time and telecommuting, are possible. The Center for Research Libraries is committed to fostering an organizational culture that fosters excellence and innovation through teamwork, continuous learning, and the foregrounding of diversity, inclusion, and equity in all aspects of our work.

CRL is committed to actively promoting the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion as key components for serving our members and advancing our global mission. As such, CRL is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws regarding recruitment, hiring and employment and is dedicated to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at CRL are based on organization needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. CRL will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics.

Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, MLS or related field.

• Seven years broad-based technological experience, preferably in academic research libraries setting.

• Five years professional staff management and supervisory experience.

• Knowledge of network administration, software implementation, library metadata standards and Web development.

• Ability to integrate technological solutions with library operations.

• Passion for collaboration, and demonstrated ability to build, lead and inspire teams comprised of professionals representing different disciplines with varying degrees of technical experience.

• Demonstrated expertise in project management.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with all levels of the organization (internal and external).

• Commitment to the organization’s mission.

PREFERED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Working experience in academic libraries.

• Knowledge of various library software, including ILS, Inter Library Loan and cataloging applications and utilities.

• Experiences and familiarity with technology components currently deployed at CRL environment, such as VMware, UNIX/Linux and Windows servers, firewalls, routers, switches and network infrastructure, Office365, AWS, Drupal, WordPress, Salesforce, SQL, PHP, Python, JAVA, Symfony, Django, API, IIIF, LDAP, Shibboleth and Google Analytics.