Chief Information Officer/Associate Commissioner

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of New York City’s children and families by providing child welfare, juvenile justice, and early care and education services. In child welfare, ACS contracts with private nonprofit organizations to support and stabilize families through community-based supports and preventive services and provides foster care services for children not able to safely remain at home. The agency’s Division of Child Protection responds to all reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. In juvenile justice, ACS manages and funds services including community-based supports and alternatives for youth and families, detention, and placement. ACS is also a key part of NYCs early childhood and education continuum, providing child care assistance to thousands children so their families can access safe, affordable, quality care for them.
Reporting to the ACS Commissioner, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible and accountable for the effective implementation of information technology (IT) and information resources management; the agency’s technological strategic planning; development of IT standards and policies, management procedures; project management, maintenance of technology systems and services for all agency business functions; and excellent service delivery. The CIO will oversee the day-to-day operations of a unit consisting of more than 170 staff and consultants in an agency of over 6,500 employees with a special focus on building strong relationships with senior management and key stakeholders, driving innovation and IT strategy.

• Partners with the Commissioner and ACS leadership team to develop and implement a vision for utilizing technology to help achieve ACS’s mission to support families and protect children.

• Oversees the development of agency-wide information technology and information resource standards, governance processes and performance metrics to ensure OIT’s focus and deliverables are consistent with ACS’ priorities.

• Ensures adherence to regulations and guidelines for technological systems and safeguarding of information technology and information resources.

• Works closely with the agency’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to protect and secure the information resources of the agency.

• Directs teams of technical, professional and management staff in the successful fulfillment of IT service delivery commitments.

• Facilitates communication of technology needs and strategy across IT groups and the user community.

• Develops and manages strategic vendor right-sourcing and partnerships.

• Responsible for developing and implementing the processes for all annual and multi-year IT planning, programming and budgeting decisions.

• Collaborates with agency divisional leadership to review agency needs regarding information technology, balance the needs to address both current and future goals and objectives.

• Provides leadership in strategic planning and managing IT product and service development. Oversees the effective delivery of computer operations and production support, system and database administration, network operations, PC/desktop support and customer service.

• Implements IT continuous-improvement programs, developing standards and security/privacy policies.

• Identifies and implements best practices for optimizing infrastructure and operations costs, improving system performance, and ensuring service-level requirements are met.

• Defines metrics and processes to validate the benefits and value of proposed solutions to drive decision making for potential technology investments.

• Manages IT resource requirements to ensure an appropriate balance between tactical and strategic demands.

• Serves as the Agency’s IT expert and central liaison to various stakeholders in NYS agencies.

• Oversees the management and implementation of a Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP) in response to emergencies and system outages.

• Works closely with internal and external stakeholders in the bidding, selecting and managing of the agency’s IT vendor contracts.

• Performs other duties of a similar nature or level.

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and four years of satisfactory experience of a nature to qualify for the duties and responsibilities of the position, at least 18 months of which must have been in an administrative, managerial, consultative or executive capacity or supervising personnel performing activities related to the duties of the position; or
2. A combination of education and/or experience equivalent to "1" above. However, all candidates must have the 18 months of administrative, managerial, executive, consultative or supervisory experience described in "1" above.

The preferred candidate should possess at least 10 (ten) years of IT experience, at least 5 (five) of which should be in a recent senior leadership position; significant experience working within governmental operations in the capacity of directing or managing large strategic technology initiatives and supporting a large, diverse, and decentralized user community.
Must have demonstrated ability to think strategically with top notch planning and relationship skills; and the ability to push forward projects and reorganize resources where necessary.
Experience managing and overseeing large IT budgets; ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline driven and frequently changing environment and experience developing internal IT talent and building succession planning.
Strong background in business process re-engineering and change management.
Must have a working knowledge of full IT operational support and experience overseeing complex network architectures and datacenters.
Possess technical capabilities coupled with analytical skills.

Section 424-A of the New York Social Services Law requires an authorized agency to inquire whether a candidate for employment with child-caring responsibilities has been the subject of a child abuse and maltreatment report.
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New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.