State of Iowa seeking CIO

SteveLord

CIO position open.

Big cheese position here. For what it’s worth, the last guy left in 2009 and had a salary between $149k-$164k.

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The Governor of the State of Iowa is seeking candidates for the position of Chief Information Officer. This position will be located in the Department of Management and will have shared reporting responsibility to the directors of the Department of Management and the Department of Administrative Services. This position is appointed by the governor to serve at the pleasure of the governor and is subject to confirmation by the senate.

This position is responsible for the Executive Branch (excluding Board of Regents) technology vision and leadership for strategic enterprise information technology services. This includes the responsibilities of an information technology strategic plan and subsequent operational roadmap. This will be a highly visible position in state government and have policy and operational responsibilities.

This position will be responsible for directing all information technology functions of the State of Iowa’s Executive Branch. The Chief Information Officer will lead the consolidation of all infrastructure service areas and enterprise level application supports. Duties will include providing advice and counsel to the Governor and the management and administrative directors on enterprise information technology service provisioning, lead and manage the acquisition and management of all information technology resources and assets and oversee the development of information technology policies and standards.
Minimum Qualifications
Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or Information Management Information Systems plus five years of senior-level experience in the field of information technology including financial management.

Master’s or MBA degree or equivalent is preferred.Post Close Date27-Jan-2012To Apply:Application and cover letter/resume: All applicants must submit a cover letter and resume by 4:30 pm (CST) on January 27, 2012.
Within the cover letter, applicants must demonstrate experience and information in the following areas:
1. Leading large scale IT organizations through change to consolidate dozens of disparate and autonomous IT operations to a centrally management service provisioning environment.
2. Experience with leading edge, next generation technology solutions to drive business value based decision making.
3. Highest level leadership experience within a large organization - Department and/or CEO level.
4. Salary Range: Submit salary requirements at the time submitting the application.

Applications and cover letters/resumes may be submitted in the following manners:

1. Mailed to:
Susan Churchill
State of Iowa
Department of Administrative Services - Human Resources Enterprise
Hoover State Office Building, Level A
Des Moines, IA 50319

2. Fax: Susan Churchill 515-242-6450

3. Apply online at: http://das.hre.iowa.gov/
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Good luck to anyone with the background that is interested.

powerfool

You see, I don't know about government positions like this. They could help in being a stepping stone in your career... or they could be a big let down for you, after you decide to move on. I have considered shooting for a position of this level for my city-county and for the state and I just don't know. I do have the proper connections, but I just think that I would have to stay in that arena because many folks aren't going to be impressed when you get back out into the private sector.

erpadmin

powerfool wrote: »

You see, I don't know about government positions like this. They could help in being a stepping stone in your career... or they could be a big let down for you, after you decide to move on. I have considered shooting for a position of this level for my city-county and for the state and I just don't know. I do have the proper connections, but I just think that I would have to stay in that arena because many folks aren't going to be impressed when you get back out into the private sector.

Stepping stone? Only if that means going to another CIO position...and believe it or not, many have gone to private or higher education (private or public)

No, when you play at this level, there really is no going back. I can tell you that the CIOs in the public sector that I know have gotten there by "playing the game." You gotta have face time with the correct people for the price of admission (and by face time, that can mean attending fundraisers.) That type of gig is extremely political, and I don't mean party politics, per se. You pretty much have to play ball with the other big players. But that type of job itself literally defines a career. They usually will manage implementation projects in the millions of dollars and then we read about the in the CIO rags, or other media related to that level.

Assuming Iowa does hire from outside the state, that new hire will either adapt quickly to the internal and external mechanisms of the state quickly and well, or bounce (like the last guy.)

It's jobs like this that made me want to finish school and pursue a Master's. Senior-level positions can be, at a minimum, department heads. Those guys have to not only manage people and technology, but also work within a given budget. As someone who has worked in both private and public sector, I can tell you that any preconceived notions of public sector employees are mostly for guys at the lower level. Private sector folks want to see that you know how to manage a budget and care about the bottom line.

SteveLord

The main piece in the description is that our state is currently going through a long IT consolidation process. They started with email, and that is pretty much, if not entirely centralized now. Now they are going agency by agency and soaking up their servers to put in the state's datacenter. The ultimate goal is to have a complete IT service provider out of 1 building (there has always been one, but never mandated to use them entirely). Thin clients are in limited use across agencies, but I am sure that is on the table as well. As for personnel...no one knows yet.


Here's a short article about the previous CIO.

Iowa CIO John Gillispie Resigns

Gillispie is leaving his post Jan. 8, 2010, to become executive director of The Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet), a unit operating within the university that provides Internet connectivity and technical support to Missouri's schools, higher education, state government and other public-sector organizations.