Herc-Higher Education Recruitment Consortium

Job Title:
Chief Information Officer

Department:
Information Services

Job Description:

Rhodes College seeks a creative, collaborative, and strategic information technology leader for the position of Chief Information Officer. The CIO works closely with President Collins and reports to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. This position has four direct reports and partners with faculty, staff, students, and administrators to design and implement a comprehensive and a forward-looking vision for leveraging information, data, space, and technology in support of the College's mission. The CIO will develop a clear strategic vision for information services and data management. This role the CIO serves on the Technology and Academic Space Committee (TASC) alongside five faculty members. The college strives for candidates who can play a critical and highly visible role in advancing the academic and administrative work of the College. The ideal candidate must have excellent communication and organizational management skills.

Opportunities and Challenges:

The next Chief Information Officer will have the opportunity to address the following priorities:

• Leading, mentoring, and growing a strong and highly respected team of information professionals. The CIO will lead a highly intelligent, talented, and dedicated IS staff that is committed to customer service. The CIO will empower the IS staff with the knowledge and authority to provide creative solutions and top-quality customer service. S/he will promote best practices by ensuring continued professional development opportunities. The CIO will also make strategic and impactful hiring decisions that will make best use of the College's investment in the IS division and continue to build upon the healthy and supportive collaborative culture of the unit.


• Working closely with the Director of the Paul Barret, Jr. Library, the CIO will support, provide forward-looking growth opportunities, and mentor on strategic issues in the support of faculty and students in teaching, learning, and research for the 21st century liberal arts college library.


• Working closely with the Director of Academic Technologies to partner with departments and divisions in Academic Affairs in enhancing the College's remote capabilities in teaching, learning, and research. In alignment with Academic Affairs, the CIO will focus more broadly on work with faculty and students regarding aspects of technology and pedagogy to help them:

- Achieve their learning objectives through consultation and the
services of Information Services;
- Ensure a seamless user experience;
- Provision scalable solutions and cost effective practices; and,
- Drive progress in institutional student success initiatives.

• Working closely with Human Resources and Finance/Business Affairs to support post-pandemic options for hybrid or remote work so that Rhodes can have access to the highest quality pool of candidates possible.

• Reviewing information technology throughout the College with the aim of further enhancing the academic mission. In collaboration with faculty and academic leaders across the College, the CIO will assess current policies and systems to determine whether they meet current and future needs, and to determine how they might be adjusted for optimum impact. The CIO will ensure that technology and libraryresources meet the needs of Rhodes' nationally recognized academic program, reflect best practices in pedagogy and scholarship, and demonstrably contribute to the student learning experience.

• Provide creative and innovative solutions for the challenge of evolving and transforming enterprise systems responsible for Rhodes' strategic processes. Rhodes utilizes a typically diverse collection of software platforms. The CIO will need to collaborate closely with academic and business units across campus to assess the performance of current systems and processes, identify gaps and needs, and develop elegant solutions.

• Continuing to grow established IS project and data governance practices that engage the community in transparent and inclusive processes to determine how information technology resources should be allocated. The CIO will serve as the public face of Information Services and continue to craft policies and processes to ensure that decision making is inclusive, efficient, and transparent. S/he will listen with an open mind to community members' diverse needs and will ensure that their input is considered as new policies are developed. The CIO will also be responsible for informing and educating faculty, staff, students, and community members once decisions are made and ensuring transitions happen smoothly.

• Ensuring data security and mitigating risk across the College. The CIO will play a crucial role in mitigating the institution's risk. They will safeguard the College's information and ensure that critical data and systems are protected from both internal and external threats. The CIO will ensure that processes and policies are regularly updated to reflect best practices in data security, risk management, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

• Growing and refining the structure of the IS division to reflect best practices and support the interdisciplinary and collaborative culture of the unit.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in related field, master's degree preferred


• Minimum of 5 years of experience in IT required, preferably in a leadership role


• Experience managing or being part of a team leading large, complex IT systems change, with familiarity with Workday.

Desired Qualities and Characteristics:

As an executive leader for the College, the Chief Information Officer will be a highly knowledgeable and collaborative professional with a track record of successful organizational and technical leadership within information technology. The CIO will have strong project management skills and intimate knowledge of Workday as an operating system. The CIO will be an excellent listener and an effective communicator with a commitment to supporting the mission, values, and strategic goals of Rhodes College. The ideal candidate will hold an advanced degree, have experience with IT change management, and bring many of the following complementary skills and experiences to their work:

Strategic Vision:

• Have a sophisticated understanding of the challenges facing residential liberal arts colleges in the 21st century and the ways impactful technology and data can support Rhodes as it further distinguishes itself in the crowded higher education liberal arts landscape; (particularly as we learn to navigate the post-pandemic opportunities to teach, research and work in increasingly diverse ways).

• The ability to formulate, articulate, and implement an innovative strategic vision for the use of information, data, and technology at Rhodes College that advances the educational and operational aims of the institution.

• An understanding of best practices in and strong technical knowledge of a range of IT areas with particular emphasis on the integration of systems in a higher education environment, including process improvement, enterprise management, information security, institutional research, and coordination of academic and administrative priorities through intelligent information and data management.

• Experience setting and achieving long-term strategic goals as well as the temperamental and intellectual agility to respond effectively to urgent items as they arise.

• The ability to plan, negotiate, and strategize sustainable business practices for a complex information services division with competing stakeholder priorities while keeping the needs of faculty, administrators, staff, and students at the heart of planned outcomes.

Communication:

• Demonstrated communication and listening skills, including an understanding of how and when to solicit input from a wide variety of stakeholders, how to effectively convey both potential solutions and tradeoffs in return, and how to ensure that critical information is relayed broadly, transparently, and proactively across all stakeholder groups.

• The ability to build relationships of trust and shared purpose across a wide range of stakeholders including faculty, students, staff, and administrators.

• The quantitative skills to make data-informed decisions regarding the institution's needs combined with the communication skills to present these findings persuasively to colleagues and stakeholders in a compelling narrative.

Organizational Management:

• Experience managing or being part of a team leading large, complex IT systems change, with strong preference for familiarity with Workday.

• A record of success in recruiting, mentoring, empowering, training, and retaining staff and enabling them to perform to the best of their abilities.

• Experience in organizational management, including assessing staffing, structure, policies, processes, and resource allocation to ensure the optimal functioning of the division.

• A commitment to fostering and maintaining a diverse and inclusive culture that values multiple perspectives and experiences.

• An understanding of the collaborative leadership structure within higher education, the nature of the academic enterprise, and a commitment to the mission, vision, and institutional priorities of Rhodes College.

Candidacy Process:

The search committee will begin reviewing applications by April 28, 2022. For full consideration, please submit a resume and letter of interest by that date, including a list of references. References will not be called until candidates have been named as finalists for the position. We expect that the start date for this position is Fall semester 2022. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Katherine Clay Bassard, Chair of Search Committee: bassardk@rhodes.edu .

Click Chief Information Officer for additional information about Rhodes College and the position.

Rhodes offers an excellent benefits package and a great working environment. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workforce.

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