Position Summary:

As an IT senior management team member, the Director of Enterprise Systems participates in strategic planning for the IT department, and plans, budgets, and manages development and maintenance of Skidmore's technical enterprise environment. This position provides leadership, direction, and vision to ensure the information systems environment is designed, installed, maintained, monitored and enhanced as needed to support the College's ongoing and efficient operation. The Director also is responsible for overall project management of many of the initiatives related to improving the College's IT and is an IT department and college liaison to various internal and external groups regarding current and future uses of IT technologies for various College constituents.

This position directs and supervises the Enterprise Systems team which is comprised of the Applications, Web Development and Database Administration units. In directing and supervising these staff, the Director ensures they recommend technologies that best help the College achieve its strategic goals while balancing available technical and financial resources.

Occasionally, the Director of Enterprise Systems directly provides the support services of any of the functions underneath it. This position routinely requires being "on call" outside of normal work hours, to address any emergency needs that arise impacting the 24/7 operations of the Systems. It also has a responsibility to respond to communications and requests related to general IT issues and needs that arise outside of normal work hours. On occasion, this position requires work outside of normal work hours, especially when system upgrades, changes, or outages are underway.

Job Duties:
1. Operations Management
a. Negotiates, secures, and manages contracts with vendors/contractors providing IT products and/or services
b. Measures, tracks, and reports on Systems and Enterprise Systems performance and results driving efficiency and continual process improvement
c. Identifies, trouble-shoots and eliminates operational roadblocks hindering the team's workflow and performance.
d. Implements process changes and improvements to maintain and/or enhance the quality of results.
e. Implements policies and procedures and ensures compliance with them.
f. Improves/streamlines procedures to maximize the use of available resources.

2. Supervision
a. Communicates strategic direction, objectives, goals, and performance expectations to team members. Provides team members regular updates on the IT department's progress with respect to plan (eg., via daily interaction and regular one-on-one and departmental meetings with team members). Sets "stretch" goals and performance standards. Determines and communicates/clarifies Infrastructure team workload priorities.
b. Ensure staff coverage in areas of support during the hours of service
c. Establishes a supportive work environment that meets the reasonable needs of the Enterprise Systems team members.
d. Ensures department is adequately staffed to achieve its goals. Recruits and hires Infrastructure staff members. Participates on IT selection committees to select and hire staff in other IT functional units.
e. Sets/approves team members' work schedules and assigns/delegates work to team members.
f. Works with IT staff to develop effective, responsive and proactive skills and practices to be used when consulting with the campus community. Encourages and assists staff in exploring innovative ways in which technology can be used to enhance the strategic mission of the College. Maintains a high level of understanding of the diverse technologies supported by the team, and the ways in which these technologies can be applied to achieve strategic goals. Ensures the ongoing professional development and mentoring of team members, including their technical and managerial skills, and general knowledge about the field and current practices in their various areas of expertise.
g. Monitors Enterprise Systems team members' performance and tracks results. Manages team member performance issues; determines and takes corrective action to address staff performance issues. Ensures Infrastructure staff compliance with policies and procedures.
h. Recommends and implements changes to the team structure and/or team members' roles.

3. Strategic Planning
a. Continuously identifies and remains aware of the systems needs by trouble shooting and addressing issues as they arise; attending and participating in meetings; managing IT projects; serving on committees, surveying, etc. Meets with a variety of College constituencies to improve institutional efficiency and/or quality, and enhance the use of IT; allocates resources strategically to pursue those opportunities.
b. Continuously researches and explores new technologies and their application (e.g., by benchmarking best-practices; reviewing blogs, journals, and industry publications; participating in professional organizations; attending industry-related conferences).
c. Advocates for upgrades/changes when needed, to build, maintain and improve operations and meet constituents' needs.
d. Understands Skidmore's strategic goals and how the IT department supports and promotes them.
e. Works with the IT senior management team to develop IT strategic plans, policies and procedures.
f. Develops strategic plans, policies, and procedures for Infrastructure. Where applicable, ensures that constituents' views/needs are considered and addressed in setting policies and procedures.
g. Leads and participates with project teams (IT and interdepartmental) in developing strategic plans to implement IT department and College initiatives. This can include Campus-wide technology initiatives such as the migration to new systems; and new building construction for academic and administrative spaces. Promotes and participates in shared decision making with constituents on key technology decisions.

4. Budget Development and Management
a. Analyzes budgetary historical data, researches and analyzes resource costs, and develops budgetary projections.
b. Develops, implements and manages the Enterprise Systems operating and capital budgets.
c. Has a significant hand in managing the renewals of software for the College
d. Develops and maintains effective relationships with vendors. Works with vendor representatives to develop cost estimates and pricing models.
e. Operates within the College's guidelines to develop, enhance, and manage budget issues including operating budgets, capital projects, and grants.
f. Works with the other IT senior management team members to develop, implement, and manage the IT department operating and capital budgets.

5. IT Department and Skidmore Liaison
a. Serves as a liaison of the IT department and/or College to various appropriate internal and external constituencies (e.g., IT systems development and implementation project teams; policy committees; Academic Staff Committee; EDUCAUSE; NERCOMP; SIGUCCS, UCTG, NY6, etc.).
b. Communicates and collaborates with various College constituents to identify and meet their academic, pedagogical, and other IT user needs, and to explore ways to enhance services.
c. Provides constituents instruction and consultation in the effective use of IT technology (e.g., by conducting one-on-one training or IT-sponsored workshops; orienting new faculty to the use of IT; developing and delivering customized training to meet specific IT user needs).
d. Assesses constituents' needs and investigates technologies that will help them achieve their goals.

Judgment, Discretion and Complexity
This position requires a high level of technical competency. It requires an understanding of and familiarity with SaaS, Databases, Reporting, Interfaces and Analytics technologies as well as latest trends and best practices. Knowledge of IT security as it applies to applications, procedures and system configurations is needed. The ability to design interconnected applications environments is required. The ability to plan strategically and at a High-level along with experience executing on strategic plans and training is a requirement. The ability to analyze technical problems and devise technical and/or procedural solutions is required. This position requires the ability to manage relationships with stakeholders as well as a user community comprised of faculty, staff and students. Complies with all College governance, standards, policies and procedures.

Relationships and Resource Management
Routine interactions with operational department heads such as the Director’s of Institutional Planning, Finance, Human Resources, Residence Life and Campus Safety. Regular interactions with other department heads looking for information about Enterprise Systems or its projects. Consistent interaction with the user community over Card Systems, ERP, HCM and reporting/analytics systems. Having the ability to plan for projects to take place during the times with decreased activity and manage the projects that need to take place yearly is necessary. The position will serve as the IT point of contact for many college system integration or implementation projects. The position will serve as the escalation point for issues that arise within the applications infrastructure. A dedication to maintaining customer service during and outside of standard business hours is required. An extremely high level of commitment and results-orientation is required to ensure best outcomes and to instill confidence of internal stakeholders.
Section 6: Qualifications and Competencies

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in IT or a related field from a regionally accredited institution is required. Advanced degree preferred. Familiarity with ERP solutions, SaaS and analytics/reporting systems highly desired.

Experience:

• Knowledge of SaaS required
• Knowledge of Interfaces
• Ability to design information systems environments highly desired
• Five (5) years of experience in IT required
• Two (2) years of formal management/leadership experience required
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required
• Experience in providing excellent customer service
• Experience providing data reporting and KPI’s measuring performance
• Knowledge of incident response desired
• Knowledge of IT Security best practices and protocols desired
• Experience managing service level agreements as a vendor or client
• Demonstrated initiative, and flexibility
• Demonstrated ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• Ability to manage a department with expectations of 24/7 uptimes

Salary:  Commensurate with experience

Required documents needed to apply:

• On-line application
• Cover Letter
• Resume
• List of Three References

In order to prevent or significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission at Skidmore College and protect all members of the College community from infection, successful candidates will be required to submit proof of full vaccination as a condition of employment, unless exempted as a reasonable accommodation of a medical condition or sincerely religious belief or practice.

EEO STATEMENT

Skidmore College is committed to being an inclusive campus community and, as an Equal Opportunity Employer, does not discriminate in its hiring or employment practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, age, national or ethnic origin, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, predisposition or carrier status, domestic violence victim status, familial status, dating violence, or stalking, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

Employment at Skidmore College is contingent upon an acceptable background check result.

CREATIVE THOUGHT MATTERS.