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Key State Department Recruits for Chief Information Officer

Agencies in state government are also seeking to fill positions including chief enterprise architect and IT manager.

The state agency charged with promoting and protecting one of California’s key industries is recruiting for a new chief information officer who will also serve as IT operations manager.

Recruitment began Friday for the CIO position (IT Manager II) by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), which manages and regulates the state’s food and agriculture industries and infrastructure.

The CIO should “enjoy leading efforts to significantly transform technology operations” and be “looking for an opportunity to be a highly visible contributor as an integral part of a small, fast-paced team who is modernizing many aspects of technology operations,” according to the job posting, which notes that the position is part of CDFA’s Office of Information Technology Services (OITS).

“The CIO/IT operations manager must have broad experience in IT activities and operations, to include application/systems development and support, IT project management and related CDT processes and oversight, statewide infrastructure operations, IT security and privacy, service desk operations, telecommunications, IT asset management, IT procurement, contracting, and budgeting, and process and staff management, development, and improvement,” the posting says. The CIO has “oversight over five CDFA IT sections, which include the Applications Development Services Section, Customer Support and Services Section, Infrastructure Operations Section, Technology Governance Section, and the Portfolio and Project Management Section, with a total of 64 full-time staff.”

The CIO reports to CDFA’s agency information officer, Rob Peterson, who told Industry Insider — California a little more about what the CIO position entails and what an ideal candidate brings to the table.

“Besides the daily management and team building responsibilities, the CIO is assigned additional responsibilities to directly manage high-visibility, high-criticality, and/or politically sensitive projects,” Peterson said via email. “As the recently published CDFA Technology Roadmap indicates, CDFA is on the road for a significant digital transformation that will involve organizational change; we’ve already started this transformation. The CIO will be in a critical role that will work with the business unit leaders to explain and promote the digital transformation and be in a key position to help address the organizational change.”

Peterson added: “This is a clear opportunity for someone to make a significant and long-lasting impact on a department and set it up for the information technology needs and challenges ahead. As described above, the CIO needs to have a broad background in many of the areas identified above and be a very good communicator, from both a speaking and listening perspective.”

Desirable qualifications include knowledge of:
  • Project management and California Department of Technology (CDT) requirements for project management, and the PAL process, including FAWs, market research, and all Stage Gate processes and requirements;
  • Balancing state information security requirements, defined by the AIO, with asset management and configuration, and customer service interactions;
  • IT procurement, contracting and delegated authority requirements to ensure alignment with DGS/PD, CDT/STPD, the SCM and PCC;
  • Budgeting, BCP development, DOF reporting, interfacing with the California Department of Finance, CDT and the Legislative Analyst’s Office on proposals.

More information is available in the duty statement. The monthly salary range for this position is $10,421 to $12,668, and the recruitment will continue until the position is filled.

The California Department of Technology is seeking a chief enterprise architect (IT Manager II) to be responsible for the development and maintenance of the state’s enterprise architecture framework and associated policy and standards, including standards for development of applications.

The chief enterprise architect “must have a strong background in the IT industry in order to provide direction to state employees and customers for IT architectural planning,” the job posting says. Desirable qualifications include:
  • Knowledge of business and technology architectural methodologies and standards used to design and structure functional business and IT environments and assist in the selection, acquisition and use of hardware and software solutions, platforms, databases and applications;
  • Knowledge of the principles of IT organizational and financial management;
  • Knowledge of the methods, processes and techniques of business and IT strategic planning;
  • Experience in negotiating terms and conditions of IT contracts;
  • Experience in seeking emerging IT solutions and evaluating industry trends. Ability to produce high-level frameworks, designs and concepts upon which application, infrastructure, data and security architectures can be built and standardized;
  • Ability to write comprehensively and communicate with all levels of management, including executives, peers, attorneys and external customers.

More information about the role can be found in the duty statement. The position has a monthly salary range of $10,421 to $12,668, and the application deadline is Sept. 4.

The California Office of Legislative Counsel is recruiting for an IT manager (IT Manager I) who can serve “at a mastery level with depth and breadth of legislative business knowledge and expertise, provides leadership, supervision, and support for all activities in policy management, customer relationship management, product and service management in support of computer systems and services that are critical to the business functions of the California state Legislature and member offices.”

“The California Legislature uses the Legislative Constituent Management System (LCMS) to track constituent requests, correspondence, issues, cases and opinions on potential legislation which is critical to the operations of the member offices,” the job posting says. “The members rely on this system for constituent communication regarding pending legislation and legislative activities to track and resolve voter issues and complaints. The outputs are sent to constituents on behalf of the legislators and errors in these communications may result in negative political consequence to the legislators and immediate unfavorable media attention. The quality of the services is critical and risks to legislators and the department are extreme; therefore, these products reflect directly on the performance of the Legislative Data Center (LDC).”

The manager “is responsible for the overall management comprised of the LCMS application, Constituent Communications Section, Training and Production Services,” according to the posting and the duty statement. “The incumbent will also be responsible for the implementation of new and/or emerging technologies and development efforts and has full management responsibility for directing the organization, coordinating and controlling all activities associated with these critical legislative applications for the Legislature and Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC).”

Desirable qualifications for this position include:
  • In-depth knowledge of the Legislature’s business processes to develop and support IT solutions that meet their business needs.
  • Knowledge of the legislative business cycle and calendar.
  • 10+ years of experience in customer relationship management, and consulting and support of the current technologies and industry trends in order to develop IT strategies that enhance services to meet customers’ business and IT needs.
  • 10+ years of experience leading and/or supervising IT professionals.
  • 10+ years of experience providing IT support to the California Legislature.

The position has a monthly salary range of $8,591 to $11,512, and the application deadline is Sept. 9.
Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.