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Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing approximately 50,000 staff, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.  In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Information and Technology Services (ITS) works to build the capacity of schools to use information and technology, maintain network infrastructure, security standards, and support other departments to meet district goals. ITS provides innovative technology solutions that improve the quality of education for students, reduce the administrative burden on educators, facilitate parent interaction, increase community engagement, and support CPS’ mission of transparency by focusing on the ease and equity of access to information. 

Job Summary: 

The Enterprise Information Architect will lead, develop, and execute data and information strategy to support the District’s goals and strategic initiatives for the CPS Information Technology Services (ITS) Department. This role involves the creation of a comprehensive vision for how data will be organized, managed, and utilized across the District, ensuring alignment with technological advancements and compliance with regulatory and privacy requirements. Reporting to the Manager of Enterprise Solutions Architecture, the Enterprise Information Architect will collaborate with stakeholders to define data requirements, design data models, and establish data governance policies to support student success and administrative efficiency across the district.

The Enterprise Information Architect will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Define and implement the enterprise information architecture (EIA) strategy, aligned with the organization's overall IT and business strategy.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive model of the organization's information systems and data flows, identifying opportunities for integration, centralization, and optimization.
• Collaborate with IT and business stakeholders to understand data usage, management challenges, and future needs to ensure the EIA supports operational and strategic requirements.
• Establish governance, standards, and guidelines for data modeling, data quality, metadata management, data storage, and data access to ensure consistency and security across the enterprise.
• Work with security teams to ensure that data governance and security policies are properly implemented across all data systems and processes.
• Lead the selection and implementation of tools and technologies for data management and analytics.
• Oversee the mapping of data sources, data movement, interfaces, and analytics, to ensure data quality.
• Lead data integration and migration projects to consolidate data sources and improve data accessibility for educators and administrators.
• Collaborate with IT teams to integrate and streamline data flows between educational systems, such as student information systems, learning management systems, and assessment platforms.
• Develop and apply standards and minimal viable architectures through the EA governance model, informed by the business strategy and corporate governance.
• Stay informed about emerging trends and technologies in K-12 education, data management, and analytics to drive continuous improvement and innovation.
• Other duties as assigned.

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Enterprise Information Architect must possess the following qualifications: 

Education Required: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field from an accredited college or university. 
• Relevant certifications such as The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), Zachman Framework, Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DODAF), Control Objectives for Information Technologies (COBIT), or IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), preferred

Experience Required:

• Minimum of six (6) years of relevant professional experience in progressively responsible ITS roles, including the following, is required: 
• • Experience performing definition and implementation of enterprise solutions using leading software and hardware platforms; 
  • Experience with backend integration to legacy applications and to SaaS 
  • Experience with vendor facilitation, management, and partnering
  • Experience with IT Systems Architectures, IT management tools and techniques
  • Experience in application systems, data design, deployment methodologies and techniques, or other architectural competencies, including security and infrastructure design and deployment.
• Integration experience in areas such as information, solution or technical architecture, application development, middleware, information analysis, database management, or operations in a hybrid environment (i.e. Cloud, on-prem), preferred.
• Certification in Enterprise Architecture (e.g., TOGAF) or Data Management (e.g., CDMP), preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills, including listening, consultative, and negotiation skills, and the ability to facilitate or lead presentations articulating new ideas and concepts to technical and non-technical audiences. 
• High levels of technical skill and IT expertise, integrity, honesty, humility, credibility, and the courage to make difficult yet necessary decisions
• Ability to lead and influence internal and external stakeholders across multiple levels of the organization 
• Effective strategic planning capabilities, including the ability to establish long-term vision and goals, and align/manage activities toward goal fulfillment; capable of thinking strategically and acting pragmatically
• Ability to build collaborative relationships with a variety of constituent groups, including external partners, to ensure the entire system operates in the most effective manner possible to support organizational success
• Knowledge of operations, budget/finance, management, and organizational development; capable of estimating, cost / benefit analysis, ROI, needs analysis, project scheduling, evaluation techniques, and understanding sales, service, and RFP processes, etc.
• Experience with data governance frameworks, data quality management, and regulatory compliance.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders, including educators, administrators, and IT professionals.
• Analytical mindset with a focus on problem-solving and continuous improvement.
• In-depth, up-to-date knowledge/understanding of the following:
• • Business ecosystems, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), ERP (i.e. SAP, Oracle), platform as a service (PaaS), APIs, Open data, Microservices, DevSecOps, Event-driven IT, Predictive analytics and AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning), etc.
  • Technology, trends, and techniques in the IT industry
  • All components of holistic enterprise architecture, as well as technology architecture theories, implementations, and technology solutions
  • Strategic planning techniques and principles
• Proficient in architecture methodologies, standards, practices, governance, reference patterns
• Ability to define problems, analyze data, and outline valid conclusions and action steps
• Familiarity with information management practices, system development life cycle management, IT services management, agile and lean methodologies, infrastructure and operations, and EA and ITIL frameworks.
• Capable of following Company policies and practices while representing CPS in an ethical and professional manner in all interactions with employees, governmental agencies, vendors, contractors, suppliers, students, and the Chicago community

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

• Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency -Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
• Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 -Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire. “Up-to-date” on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.