The California Student Aid Commission seeks a CTO with hands-on tech skills and knowledge, as well as experience in managing vendors and contracts.
The roles that need to be filled are chief technology officer, strategy and product manager, and procurement and contract manager.
The other roles that departments are seeking to fill include product lead, specialist and developer.
Technology veteran Ken Ketsdever has held a series of leadership positions in state government, including chief information officer and chief information security officer.
Departments with recruitments include the California Student Aid Commission, the California Department of Transportation and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
California’s community college system has seen a rise in the enrollment of malicious bots — likely on a mission to facilitate financial aid fraud. The exact scope of the problem is unclear, however.
Two of the recruitments are new; the chief information officer position has been open since the summer, and that search has been extended.
The chief information officer will direct and manage six IT programs: System Requirements and Testing, Application Services, Service Management and Support Services, Enterprise Services/Configuration Management, the Information Security Office, and the coordination of contracted staff.
Officials with California’s 116-campus community college system say they are seeing a spike in cyberattacks since the pandemic, which they suspect is because the scammers are targeting federal COVID-19 relief grants along with traditional financial aid.
Gurinder Bains has a background in both the public and private sectors. He most recently served in state government as the chief information officer for the California Student Aid Commission.
