Vice President & Chief Information Officer

Westminster College, a private, comprehensive college in Salt Lake City, Utah, seeks an innovative and forward-looking Chief Information Officer to join a new and energized college leadership team and play a central role in institution-wide strategic planning, budgeting for information technologies, and coordination and integration of all Westminster technology matters.

As the only private liberal arts institution in the state, located in a thriving multicultural city with an increasingly diverse demographic profile, Westminster occupies a truly unique niche in the crowded higher education marketplace. Founded in 1875, Westminster was originally established as a preparatory school and became a four-year liberal arts institution in 1949. Over the last 30 years, it has added professional programs in business, nursing and health sciences, and education. The college has a strong academic reputation, deep community and alumni support, and a legacy of providing a student-centered, liberal arts and professional education that transforms lives. It offers an intimate college experience to approximately 2,500 students, including 2,000 undergraduates and 500 graduates. Faculty focus on teaching, learning and developing distinctive, innovative programs, and students thrive in Westminster's urban Sugar House campus within minutes of the Wasatch Mountains.

This role is an exceptional opportunity for a high-performing and accomplished individual to lead a technology program in support of Westminster's mission by providing vision, leadership, integrative management, and direction for the college's shared and secured information systems. The VP/CIO designs, recommends and implements IT policy at the highest level, and serves as the college's senior spokesperson on issues related to administrative, student support, clinical, and academic information systems. As an active participant on the president's cabinet, the VP/CIO will play a key role in building a culture of trust in an environment of shared governance, developing collaborative and solution-oriented relationships with campus leaders and all campus constituents in support of Westminster's academic mission and the vision of the president, provost, and deans.

The VP/CIO will have an understanding of and passion for the mission, goals, and culture of Westminster College and a demonstrated commitment to equity and inclusion, in accordance with the core values and mission. The successful candidate will be a seasoned team leader adept at motivating, leveraging, and advocating for staff, and facilitating team success. The VP will create a professional work environment that rewards individual and collective success, builds confidence, and promotes diversity in all its forms.

VP/CIO Leadership Agenda:
Westminster's VP/CIO will create a new strategic vision for technology, enhance a service-oriented culture, and deepen technology capabilities in areas critical to Westminster's mission. While details will be finalized with the new VP/CIO's input, the Information Services (IS) division will focus on user support, learning space technology and media, providing campus-specific infrastructure critical to teaching, and deploying technologies that work in concert with the system-wide ERP (Colleague) to improve analytics and business processes. In partnership with the administration and academic leadership the AVP/CIO will influence the evolution of IS provided technologies including the ERP system, Canvas learning management system, classroom technologies, equipment refresh program, and business process improvement initiatives.

Additional priorities for the VP/CIO's leadership agenda include:

• Developing a governance model to set IS priorities transparently and in alignment with administration priorities.

• Actively support IS staff in responding to and implementing organizational change. 

• Partnering with multiple diverse constituencies to anticipate, implement, and sustain technology infrastructure.

• Providing business analysis and application administration services to Westminster business units to enable greater efficiency, improve the student experience, and optimize the use of existing technologies.

• Manage a strategy to reduce the number of customizations in applications such as the ERP system and web site.

• Designing services and developing infrastructure plans to meet the unique needs of the Westminster community.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
This position's primary responsibilities include;

• Establishing overall leadership, strategic direction and operational management of Westminster College's Office of Information Services (IS). This includes promoting a service-oriented culture that embraces change and fosters innovation to support the institution's overall mission and IS department performance monitoring in consultation with a diverse set of stakeholders.

• Collaborating with academic and administrative units to create a technology environment that provides the institution with a sustainable, competitive advantage. 

• Assessing and improving server virtualization, wireless networking, cloud services, business continuity, and disaster recovery profile, identity and access control, and other areas.

• Negotiating favorable contracts and relationships with external vendors, partner organizations and government agencies. 

• Identifying, spearheading and negotiating opportunities for investment in areas that leverage technology and expand institutional capabilities while reducing expenses. This includes managing capital and operating investments in close coordination with academic and administrative leadership. 

• Establishing collaborative, supportive relationships across stakeholder groups. 

• Expanding IS expertise throughout the college to support the institution's unique mix of liberal arts and professional programs. 

• Implementing and overseeing the institution's data and network security policies, practices and training in a decentralized yet highly regulated environment including confidential financial, FERPA and HIPPA protected data. 

• Establishing technology policies, standards and guidelines for the college through a collaborative process with the campus community. Establishing measures to ensure adherence to policies, standards, and guidelines. 

• Implementing technology and data governance practices and procedures.

Requirements: 

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration with an emphasis on information systems or other related field is required. 

• A minimum of seven to ten years of professional experience in IS leadership and management (people, projects, processes, technology, data, and finance) along with experience identifying and implementing new and innovative information technologies.

• Experience in higher education institutions in a liberal arts setting preferred.

Qualifications: 
Management and Leadership

• Ability to develop and promote collaboration around a shared vision for the use of information, and educational technology within the college.

• Ability to develop and successfully execute tactical and strategic technology plans that promote the college's overall strategic directions and effectively manage operational capital, and other financial resources. 

• Ability to analyze and resolve complex issues, both logical and interpersonal, conduct and communicate cost-benefit and return-on-investment analyses.

• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects, which includes being able to define and articulate the impact of projects on resources (including human resources) and workload. 

• Capacity to develop technical teams through coaching, mentoring, skill building and continual performance feedback.

• Ability to translate IT plans, business processes and information needs between IT professionals, end users, and decision makers. 

• Client-centered orientation and strong oral and written communication skills.

• Ability to communicate highly complex technical information to a wide range of audiences.

• Ability to successfully manage IT services vendors, software providers, and contractors. 

• Ability to lead complex projects, business process improvement initiatives, major system migrations, and other technology related projects. 

• Ability to lead information technology department continual improvement methodologies such as ITIL. 

• Ability to build, support, and implement effective IT governance.

• Understands the academic enterprise and contributes to or has led IT strategies to support student success, teaching and learning, and research.

• Ability to create and maintain a service-oriented culture.

Information Technology

• Thorough understanding of technology trends, applications, current developments, and best practices, particularly in areas of educational technology and how to apply them in a growing institution.

• Possess a clear vision of the role technology will play in higher education in the future.

• Ability to prioritize competing IT needs in a highly dynamic and rapidly changing environment.

• Strong understanding of and experience leading the implementation and adoption of administrative/ERP systems, with a preference for experience managing Ellucian's Colleague system.

• Strong knowledge of data center operations, servers, storage devices, networking systems, and cloud computing. 

• Working knowledge of software development processes, programming languages, and change management.

• Thorough understanding of network and data security practices and policies in a complex, multi-site organization. Ability to establish and maintain suitable network defensive measures and controls.

• Thorough understanding of confidentiality and privacy protection practices including but not limited to FERPA, HIPAA, and other state and federal regulations.

Other duties

• Ability to work nights and weekends as needed 

Statements of interest, CVs, and names of three references should be submitted to Julie Freestone, Executive Director of Human Resources (jfreestone@westminstercollege.edu) by March 22, 2019 for priority consideration. References will remain confidential and not be contacted without candidate permission. Applications will be considered until position is filled.