Director of Enterprise Applications

Director of Enterprise Applications Amherst College (https://www.amherst.edu), one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the nation, is located in Amherst, Massachusetts, a town of approximately 35,000 residents in the western part of the state. The college's community is composed of about 1,800 students from 48 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and 54 countries around the world, and about 1,000 staff and faculty. The college's scenic 1,000-acre campus includes a 500-acre wildlife sanctuary and the Book & Plow Farm; three museums: Emily Dickinson Museum, Beneski Museum of Natural History and Mead Art Museum; and multiple educational and cultural venues and resources through the Five College Consortium. The town of Amherst offers an amazing variety of coffee shops, restaurants and entertainment, and a very active outdoor life. In support of our institutional vision of expanded access and broad diversity across geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic dimensions, Amherst is committed to need-blind admission and generous need-based, no-loan financial aid for all students, domestic and international. Our vibrant campus, diverse community and beautiful surrounding, makes Amherst College and the Town of Amherst the perfect place to work, learn and live!

Director of Enterprise Applications
Reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the Director of Enterprise Applications leads a diverse, high performing team to strategically implement industry best practices, developing and implementing a culture of continuous improvement and building best-in-class business systems, with a focus on the user experience, collaboration and fostering a service culture. The incumbent will develop and utilize consistent and reliable means and methods in the identification, assessment, and coordination of digital business improvement processes; institute programmatic improvements to all levels of responsibility through analysis, development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), adoption of industry best practices; and embracing a “cloud-first” philosophy for service delivery. The Director of Enterprise Applications will be an integral part of a highly collaborative team of professionals, both within the departments and across IT leadership, and will contribute to efforts to continue to develop an intentionally inclusive work culture for all members of the team.

Information Technology at Amherst
Amherst College's Information Technology Division is in an exciting period of transformation in partnership with the college community it serves. The college has signed with Workday to replace its HR, Finance and Student Systems, and has begun a multi-year business process and systems modernization project. This work is built on a reorganization of the IT Division focused on service excellence, agility, and rigor in its project and process management, a cloud-first sourcing strategy, and a commitment to robust community engagement with communications to match. The incumbent will be well positioned to help lead the college's IT transformation and position it for its next century of excellence. For more information about Information Technology, visit https://www.amherst.edu/offices/it.

The Position
The Director of Enterprise Applications leads the enterprise applications group in Information Technology and is responsible for oversight of the College's administrative technology ecosystem. This includes management of the administrative technology services team, including College personnel and temporary/short-term staffing; strategic planning, management and assessment of the administrative IT services provided to the College community; selection, implementation, enhancement and management of the IT tools and systems that provide the technical foundation of these services; oversight of a suite of IT enhancement and development projects within and across technology teams; and continuous collaboration with service partners within IT and across the College. In this role, the Director consults and partners with a diverse set of colleagues across the College, from functional leadership (Associate CIO level) to front-line staff, to identify and take appropriate action on needed service improvements and strategic opportunities for new or enhanced information technology services and collaborations.

Core Responsibilities
The CIO's significant recasting of this position has resulted in a role that emphasizes leadership, collaboration, and operational effectiveness. The Director is responsible for a broad set of IT services; for shaping and satisfying institutional needs for robust, contemporary administrative systems across the College and its major divisions; for successful management of IT projects and their effective transition to ongoing support; and for contributing to cross-functional initiatives that address strategic institutional priorities such as a reinvention of college data governance and business intelligence capabilities, and the transition to Workday for the college's core administrative systems. This combination of strategic and operational foci includes the following:
Oversight of the portfolio of administrative technology services and associated projects and service roadmaps, with effective management of the Enterprise Applications staff, contractors, vendors, and effective engagement with the user networks associated with each service
Management of the overall Enterprise Applications group, ensuring effective technical, security, and service management practices in collaboration with other Information Technology team members. Direct supervision of the administrative technology management team, including priority and goal setting, performance management, mentoring, recognition, professional development, and setting an overall inclusive tone
Consultation and collaboration with IT colleagues and campus partners in the development, implementation and support of effective IT services
Management of administrative technology budget and development of annual and multi-year operational and project budgets
Regular assessment and analysis of administrative technology services, tools, projects, and practices; with appropriate and timely action in response to feedback and findings
Research, analysis, and recommendation of comprehensive (technical, staffing, and service model) approaches to meet campus administrative technology needs
Adoption and support of IT-wide portfolio, project, and service management practices
Production of regular and ad-hoc reports, plans, visualizations, recommendations, and stories related to administrative technology services, metrics, needs, and the value added by IT improvements and investments
Participation in IT leadership team activities and campus IT collaboration, advisory, and user groups
Participation in campus-wide professional development opportunities in the areas of leadership, diversity and inclusion, and other areas as identified by the CIO

In order to remain current on trends, risks, emerging opportunities, and industry best practices, the Director will maintain a healthy level of regional and national activity and will be an engaged partner locally in the Five College consortium, where opportunities exist to leverage the scale and diverse strengths of Amherst's neighboring institutions.

Qualifications and Competencies

A Bachelor's degree required, an advanced degree preferred. A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible management experience in information technology;
Experience implementing and managing cloud-based business applications;
Demonstrated track record of focus on user experience and effective service outcomes;
Demonstrated experience leading teams in the selection, implementation, support, and enhancement of complex IT systems across a variety of hosting environments (especially cloud-based), infrastructures, architectures, technical frameworks, and support models;
Demonstrated experience managing significant improvement and/or transformation of complex business processes and service models;
Demonstrated success managing and sustaining organizational change and transformation, with the empathy, inclusivity, and transparency needed to build trust and partnership within and across teams and units;
A grasp of emerging best practices in data stewardship and data governance along with measurable experience increasing an organization's use of data and analytics to support management decision-making;
Experience managing, prioritizing and building consensus for services and projects that increase strategic value and generate return on investment;
Experience successfully incorporating best practices in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion into leadership strategies
Demonstrated experience and facility in making decisions in real-world settings;
The ability to listen effectively, calibrate appropriately, and identify critical paths quickly
Excellent oral, written, interpersonal, organizational and problem-solving skills, plus the ability to work closely and effectively with faculty, students, staff, and senior College administrators in a distinctive culture that strongly values integrity and collegiality;
The ability to communicate complex technical concepts and context effectively to audiences with varying degrees of technical expertise and different levels of institutional responsibility (from front-line staff to governing boards);
Other intangible attributes necessary to succeed in a mission-focused institution;
Appreciation for the culture and mission of a residential liberal arts college is a must.

*** Amherst College has engaged Opus Partners (www.opuspartners.net) to support the recruitment of this position. Craig Smith, PhD, Partner and Monica Williams, Associate, are leading the search. Inquiries, applications, and nominations should be sent by email to Monica (monica.williams@opuspartners.net). Every effort will be made to ensure candidate confidentiality. A background check will be required of the selected candidate.

Amherst College does not discriminate in admission, employment, or administration of its programs and activities on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex or gender (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity), age, disability, genetic information, military service, or any other characteristic or class protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Amherst College complies with all state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Equal Pay Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Inquiries should be addressed to the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Amherst College, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000.

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