The Executive Director, Cloud Services reports to the VP/Chief Information Officer (VP/CIO) and is responsible for guiding a multi-year effort to migrate data and application infrastructures to the AWS public cloud platform. The Executive Director will work closely with the CIO and IT leadership in transforming the IT organization to align with a cloud-first strategy. The incumbent will work closely with the Chief Data Officer, the Director of IT Portfolio and Program Management and business leaders, especially the VP of Business Solutions as well as the VP of Solutions to lead the migration of services to AWS. The incumbent will work closely with the VP/CIO to influence Service Delivery and their project teams responsible for delivery of service lines as they migrate to AWS. The incumbent develops strong partnerships with business units and collaborates closely with Enterprise Architecture and the CISO to meet functional, compliance and security requirements. The Executive Director will be a contributing member of the senior IT leadership team in setting IT strategy and IT strategic roadmaps. The incumbent will work with the senior IT leadership team to assess, design, and implement an IT organizational structure that ensures short and long-term organizational effectiveness during and after the cloud migration.

 

The successful candidate will also be responsible for IT Infrastructure & Operations (I&O). In this role, the candidate will be responsible for managing the hardware, system software, operating systems, connectivity, and network devices in multiple environments that form the backbone for all systems. The incumbent to this position provides leadership and direction in managing the components of development, QA, production, and staging environments in a hybrid multi-cloud environment. The incumbent will also lead the transformation of I&O and related services to support a cloud-first strategy.

Leadership Competencies:

• Demonstrate competencies, which align with our corporate values. Manager will provide more detail to candidates as needed. 
  • Senior Leadership Competencies include: Balances Stakeholders, Cultivates Innovation, Drives Vision and Purpose, Strategic Mindset, and Understanding the Business.

     

    Balances Stakeholders:

    • Deal effectively with conflict, reach agreement without damaging relationships and find win-win solutions.
    • Develop and foster a partnership relationship with a diverse group of stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
    • Pragmatically and proactively partner with stakeholders, balance the needs of stakeholders without overcommitting and underdelivering, focusing on delivering value added solutions and services.

       

      Cultivates Innovation:

      • Work closely, drive, and lead key internal resources that will drive new business/solutions.
      • Encourage and support creativity, ideation and innovated thinking by staff and proof of concept work that is well thought out and grounded. Views failures as opportunity to learn.
      • Move beyond traditional ways of doing things and pushes past status quo.

         

        Drives Vision and Purpose:

        • Is a visionary and able to articulately paint a vision of future possibilities.
        • Communicate the vision with a sense of purpose about the future and instill energy in the organization for what is possible.
        • Lead by example with a high level of emotional intelligence and demonstrate a positive and intellectually curious demeanor about the Clearinghouse’s mission, vision, values, and opportunities for the Clearinghouse to provide value to the education community and learners.
        • Demonstrate and instill our cultural values and transparent communication philosophies.

           

          Strategic Mindset:

        • Formulate a clear strategy and maps the steps that will clearly accelerate the organization toward its strategic goals.
        • Embrace the unknown and formulate projections and possibilities for an unclear landscape.
        • Review trends, anticipate future needs, and create a vision of possibilities for sustainable value and opportunities.
        • See the big picture, constantly imagine future scenarios, and create strategies to sustain competitive advantage.
        • Communicate the strategy to staff in a clear, relatable, and optimistic manner.

           

          Understanding the Business:

        • Develop, maintain, and demonstrate a strong working knowledge of the company, its environment, including its mission, services, and key stakeholders and how each organizational unit contributes to that mission.
        • Actively seek opportunities for efficiencies and cost-effective technologies that reduce costs and optimize investments.
        • Act as the primary contract owner and manage contractual obligations of each party and provide continual review to ensure that all terms and conditions are met to mitigate potential risk.
        • Expertly represent the company externally.

           

          How You Contribute:

          Strategic Management

          • Collaborates with the CIO, CISO, and direct reports in formulating and executing the IT strategic plan.
          • Collaborates with Enterprise Architecture in Identifying, comparing, selecting, and implementing technology solutions to meet Project Fusion needs.
          • Collaborates with the CIO and CDO in defining and overseeing the company’s present and future technology needs, including application technology stacks, datacenter/infrastructure and cloud services.
          • Takes initiative in thought leadership, innovation, and creativity.
          • Actively seeks opportunities for acquiring and enabling efficient and cost-effective technologies that reduce costs and optimize investments in the AWS environment.
          • Contributes to guiding staff and other leaders on how they will fulfill the company mission and vision.

             

            Workflow Management

          • Manage staff, contractors, third parties, cloud services providers, and vendors, to perform the installation, configuration, testing, monitoring, maintenance, and support of Clearinghouse infrastructure that supports each line of business.
          • Responsible for the technology assets using the Configuration Management Database.
          • Maintain Disaster Recovery infrastructure and documentation, ensuring systems and applications are adequately protected according to their SLAs, and execute an annual Disaster Recovery test.
          • Actively seeks opportunities for efficiencies and cost-effective technologies that reduce costs and optimize investments.
          • Creates new and innovative I&O policies and procedures that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of individuals and teams.

             

            Workforce Management

            • In collaboration with HR, develops a workforce plan that helps employees see their future careers with the company.
              • Build a team-based environment that aligns with company values, ways of working, and competencies.
              • Recruit and select the best talent to help optimize skills and experiences and motivate and manage staff to maximize productivity and efficiency.
              • Develop and manage career development and advancement opportunities at the Clearinghouse through MAPS conversations, developing and reporting on performance and goals, and defining and monitoring training and development plans to ensure job and career satisfaction.
• Ensure staff is adequately trained and provide guidance as needed.
• Monitor employee performance and conduct appraisals.
• Reward employees using formal and informal methods.

 

Position may be required to perform other duties as required.

 

These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science or engineering. A combination of education and experience, including military service will also be considered.
• 20+ years of professional experience in the Information Technology field including at the director level.
• 15+ years of leadership responsibilities managing multiple, cross-functional teams or projects, and influencing senior-level management and key stakeholders.
• Proven experience in leading major cloud migration projects.
  • Knowledge of the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) best-practice framework to enhance processes and procedures for delivering high quality services that are aligned with business needs and objectives.
  • • Talented at the Management competencies:
      • Making complex decisions - Experience in establishing the mission and vision of the I&O organization to foster a business-oriented culture and mindset driven by continual service improvement techniques.
      • Being flexible and adaptable - Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced working environment and work in a diplomatic and tactful manner with others. 
      • Building collaborative relationships and optimizing diverse talent – Positive and professional attitude with the demonstrated ability to adapt to a dynamic, fast paced industry and environment.
      • Focusing on performance - Demonstrated ability to develop the I&O strategy/roadmap and ensures it is consistent with the overall IT and strategic plans.
• Live within a commutable distance of Herndon, VA.

 

Additional Desired Requirements:

• Advanced degree.

Posted On: Wednesday, January 5, 2022