The Employment Development Department (EDD) is seeking candidates for deputy director of the Information Technology Branch (Career Executive Assignment), who will also serve as EDD’s chief information officer, to provide IT leadership and policy direction for EDD’s programs, including Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, Workforce Services, and Tax.
That role is open because Rita Gass, who’s been EDD’s CIO since April 2020, is leaving state government to take the new position of chief technology and innovation officer for the city of Rancho Cordova, just outside Sacramento. Gass’ last day in the CIO role is Oct. 1, she told Industry Insider — California last week, and she begins her new role on Oct. 2.
The job posting for the vacancy says the deputy director/CIO “represents EDD’s information technology interests in statewide efforts led by the California Department of Technology and works collaboratively with other departments’ CIOs on statewide IT initiatives.”
In addition, “The CIO is responsible for the administration and technical aspects of information security, project management, hardware/software platforms, and infrastructure that support EDD’s business operations, while complying with applicable state and federal policies and regulations,” the posting says. “The CIO will partner with the EDDNext deputy director and project leadership team on the modernization of EDD and assist in implementation of EDDNext initiatives/solutions focused on the claimant experience.”
Desirable qualifications for the position include:
- Strong leadership and management experience demonstrating an ability to create a clear vision, set goals and expectations, encourage leadership, teamwork and initiative at all levels, and use sound judgment in managing complex and varied programs.
- Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships on behalf of the department with executive levels of industry, state and federal control agencies, the California Department of Technology, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Legislature and the vendor community.
- Experience with the planning, development, maintenance, installation, and support of large system applications in a multi-tier environment and familiarity with large, complex telecommunication and database management systems.
- Demonstrated knowledge of the technical requirements of large-scale automation projects (including hardware, software and personnel requirements) involving an extensive planning process. Experience in implementing and managing such large-scale (multimillion-dollar) automation projects over the course of multiple years, including vendor oversight.
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate policy decisions with multiple organizations affecting the service delivery systems of major programs.
Gass took the EDD role at the beginning of the pandemic and was immediately faced with the need to oversee the transition to a remote workforce, which required a lot of technology. The pandemic also spawned a wave of fraudsters, and it was hindered by outdated technology. Under Gass’ management, the department has transitioned to a hybrid model and has begun several large-scale modernization projects, including EDDNext.
The position has a monthly salary range of $12,328 to $13,998, and the application deadline is Oct. 21.
EDD is also recruiting for a data and reporting specialist (IT Specialist I) to work in the Business Intelligence (BI) Data Warehousing Group (DWG) as a BI data warehouse developer.
The incumbent will work under the direction of an IT supervisor and technical leads, performing most of their duties in the Software Engineering domain and serving as a technical specialist or lead to lower-level staff on complex systems or studies, the job posting says.
Responsibilities of the role include:
- Gathering analytics or reporting customer requirements and providing technical guidance for the design, development, test, implementation and maintenance of enterprise-wide BI initiatives.
- Coordinating the response to exceptional conditions, such as errors in incoming data sets, and overseeing top-level configuration management of outward-facing system components (defining users, organizations, categories, etc.).
- Performing complex data analysis and modeling and hands-on data integration package and report development.
- Completing data analysis using Structured Query Language (SQL) Python and Global Information Tracker (GIT) based on customer requirements.
- Building reports in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and visualization through Tableau dashboard.
More details about this role can be found in the duty statement. The monthly salary range is $5,960 to $9,643, and the application deadline is Oct. 22.
