State Agencies Recruiting for CIO, Chief of Infrastructure

Two state departments are recruiting to fill senior positions — one a Chief Information Officer, and the other a Chief of Infrastructure.

The state Employment Development Department is seeking to fill the CIO position, which is billed as Deputy Director of the IT Branch (C.E.A.). The position has been held since 2012 by Gail Overhouse, an award-winning IT veteran who’s worked in state service for more than 30 years. Overhouse is retiring, an EDD spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

EDD’s IT Branch handles project planning, policy development, system maintenance, support, operations and oversight of automated solutions within EDD.

“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 job posting says. The 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,” it says. The position has a monthly salary range of $11,505 to $13,063, and the application deadline is Feb. 6.

Overhouse won an IT Leadership Award at the 2018 Public Sector CIO Academy, an acknowledgement of her work for the department, which had an IT budget of more than $14 billion in 2017.

Before working in EDD, Overhouse served as the project director of the California Child Support Automation System (CCSAS). She also spent several years as deputy director of Statewide Telecommunications in the Office of Technology Services. In this position, she was responsible for implementing the state’s telecommunication strategy and vision.

The second state recruitment is for a Chief of Infrastructure (IT Manager I) for the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The person chosen will be responsible for “planning, organizing, coordinating, directing and reviewing network and client services activities” and independently performing a variety of analytical, procedural and programming tasks. Specific duties include the following:

• Infrastructure management
• Client services management
• Personnel management
• Information security
• Infrastructure research and innovation

The position’s primary domain is System Engineering, according to the job posting, and the secondary domain is Client Services.

The monthly salary range is $7,634 to $10,230, and the application deadline is Jan. 22.