Vice President, Information Technology And Chief Information Officer

Department: Information Technology

Job Category: Administrative or Professional Faculty

Job Type: Full-Time

Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)

Location: Fairfax, VA

Telework Friendly: Hybrid Eligible

Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience

Criminal Background Check: Yes

Financial Background Check: Yes

About the Department:

Mason's Information Technology Services (ITS) organization provides Information Technology resources, systems, services, tools, and training to the university community. ITS's mission is to advance Mason’s strategic goals, support learning, enable scholarly endeavors, and improve institutional management by effectively leveraging the resources of ITS's supporting groups. The organization consists of seven groups: Academic Strategies; Enterprise Applications; Enterprise Infrastructure Services; IT Security; Learning Support Services; Enterprise Infrastructure Services; and Enterprise Service Delivery (Marketing and Communications, Finance, Human Resources, Process and Planning, Project Management Office, Technology Support Services, and Systems Integration).

About the Position:

The Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (VPIT/CIO) will provide leadership, planning, integrative management, and strategic direction for the university's central and distributed information technologies platforms and infrastructure. This includes institution-wide strategic planning, budgeting and coordination and integration of IT across the university. The VPIT/CIO will lead a cross functional comprehensive effort to optimize and strengthen IT operations, security, and services across the university and all their locations. The VPIT/CIO reports to the Senior Vice President, Operations & Business Services and serves as a member of the President's Council.

Responsibilities:

• Leads the design, implementation, and responsiveness of the IT organizational structure and staffing required to effectively accomplish key goals and objectives;
• Recruits, mentors, motivates, and retains a diverse, high performing team of highly qualified IT leaders and staff;
• Responsible for
  • setting goals for performance and deadlines in ways that comply with the university’s plans and vision and communicate them to subordinates;
  • organizing workflow and ensuring that employees understand their duties or delegated tasks;
  • monitoring employee productivity and providing constructive feedback and coaching;
  • receiving complaints and resolving problems; maintaining timekeeping and personnel records;
  • passing on information from upper management to employees and vice versa;
  • preparing and submitting performance evaluations;
  • deciding on rewards and promotions based on performance;
  • hiring and training new employees; and
  • ensuring adherence to legal and University policies and procedures and undertaking disciplinary actions if the need arises.
• Collaboratively develops, communicates, and executes a vision and strategy for IT across the university in support of George Mason’s education, research, and outreach mission;
• Leads and coordinates the optimization, development, and implementation of integrated IT plans, practices, and policies that support the strategic plan;
• Provides institution-wide leadership and direction in the management and integration of the operation of Information Technology services across the university to sustain maximum institution-wide synergies and efficiencies;
• Ensures that the IT governance structure is effective and includes stakeholders at all levels of the institution;
• Oversees the development and implementation of a proactive security strategy that protects the information of students, faculty, researchers, and staff and meets growing security compliance requirements while identifying opportunities for continued improvement of systems and processes;
• Coordinates identification and prioritization of IT initiatives among various primary operating units in alignment with IT governance that leads to a multi-year funding model to include total cost of ownership visibility;
• Proactively manages vendor relationships, contracts, and the support of core systems;
• Oversees the institutional Information Technology budgeting process and provides leadership in cost and productivity analyses;
• Grows and maintains professional contacts with other universities, external research entities, vendors, and professional organizations concerning existing and developing information technologies and best practices;
• Represents George Mason in university and external partnerships; and
• Keeps current with trends and issues in the IT industry, including current and emerging technologies.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field;
• Progressively responsible professional experience, including significant management experience, with a proven record of leadership in a complex Information Technology organization;
• Knowledge of IT related best practices, financial analysis techniques and understanding of the current and developing strategic Information Technology requirements in research;
• Demonstrated experience providing budget oversight, fiscal management, and initiative modeling;
• Experience and commitment to recruiting and retaining talent and building inclusive and diverse high performing teams to successfully deliver IT programs and services;
• Experience providing strategic direction to staff prioritizing requests and evaluating proposals for Information Technology hardware, software, and services;
• Significant experience and success leading major system implementations; a track record of maximizing return on investment in systems and services;
• Substantial knowledge and understanding of cybersecurity;
• Demonstrated grasp of the spectrum of information-technology systems and services; a keen sense of the emerging technologies that will shape education, research, outreach, and operations in coming years;
• Ability to develop requests and evaluate proposals for Information Technology hardware, software, and services;
• Communicates clearly and effectively to all stakeholders across the university; works to understand the needs of all constituencies, including students, faculty, staff, researchers, and administrators; transparent and direct; good listener; possesses effective executive presentation skills;
• Ability to determine the best course(s) of action and to make decisions at an appropriate pace;
• Ability to be a consensus-driven leader who works through influence, involving the right constituents to effect change; politically savvy;
• Ability to analyze, investigate, and interpret data, issues, and situations by problem solving using a logical, systematic, sequential approach; and
• Demonstrates the skills and ability to be ethical; maintains high standards of personal integrity; works according to professional and organizational values.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree preferred or equivalent training and work experience at a level that equates to an advanced degree;
• Experience in high-end computing environments and in the role of computing in research;
• Previous ERP implementation experience;
• Visionary leader who is creative, influential, highly visible, and able to champion the IT strategic plan;
• Demonstrates support for innovation and for organizational changes needed to improve operational effectiveness; experience in effectively leading and facilitating change in a way that inspires people and garners buy-in; and
• Ability to be an inspiring mentor who can lead, facilitate, coach, and manage, effectively building a customer service-oriented team; a strong proponent of the university's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion with a commitment to fostering and advancing a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Instructions to Applicants:

For full consideration, applicants must apply for the Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at https://jobs.gmu.edu/; complete and submit the online application; and provide a cover letter and resume.

OPUS Partners will be conducting this search on behalf of George Mason University. Please direct all questions related to this position directly to katie.dean@opuspartners.net.

Posting Open Date: January 9, 2024

For Full Consideration, Apply by: February 16, 2024

Open Until Filled?: Yes