Information Technology Director - Luna Community College

Luna Community College is undergoing transformative initiatives to grow and bolster our Information Technology operations, enhancing how we strategically manage, support and align the College’s IT infrastructure across the institution. The Information Technology Director will be instrumental in the College’s Student Information System migration from legacy technology to Workday in partnership with The Collaboration for Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS).

Leadership
• Leads the strategic planning process for developing and implementing a comprehensive technology strategic plan aligned with Luna Community College’s mission and goals.
• Evaluates emerging technologies in support of current, as well as future academic and operational needs to enhance teaching, learning and administrative operations.
• Recruits and retains highly qualified IT staff and emphasizes professional development of staff.
• Manages daily operations of the IT department, ensuring efficient and effective support for students, faculty and staff, while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Develops and manages the technology budget including forecasting for future technology needs.
• Proactively identifies opportunities, drives innovation and cost-effective IT strategies that align with modern industry best practices.
• Oversees employee onboarding (and offboarding) ensuring network connectivity, appropriate security access and deployment of hardware and software.
• Fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaption to new technologies.
• Seeks and manages technology-related grants to supplement college resources
• Lead initiatives that promote a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, ensuring equitable opportunities for all employees and fostering an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and integrated into decision-making processes.

Information Systems Security
• Develops and ensures information security guidelines, policy, procedures and communications.
• Leads cybersecurity initiatives and oversees the implementation of security measures, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations
• Ensures business continuity and leads disaster recovery efforts

Systems Management
• Evaluates and directs the deployment of all hardware and software in terms of migration, rollout, customer satisfaction, performance and asset management.
• Manages vendor relationships and contracts for technology services and products; manages to ensure vendors meet performance metrics and deliverables.
• Manages the college’s network infrastructure, data centers and cloud services.
• Assists departments in addressing functional needs, purchasing equipment, networking/integration, providing appropriate hardware and software upgrades, managing installation, storage and data integrity.
• Provides effective and efficient data storage, retrieval, customization and archiving of data in accordance with data governance and compliance with relevant regulations.

Institutional Effectiveness
• Oversees Institutional Effectiveness and Research function ensuring the College’s data integrity and timely and accurate reporting.

Information Infrastructure Modernization

• Serves as Luna Community College Information Technology liaison with the Collaboration of Higher Education Shared Services Community.
• Leads the transition to an ERP system, Workday, ensuring stakeholder engagement and effective change management throughout the process.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
• Strong leadership skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to present ideas in business-friendly and user-friendly language
• Highly self-motivated and directed
• Proven analytical, evaluative and problem-solving abilities
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
• Exceptional customer service orientation
• Understanding of computer systems, security, network and systems administration, databases and data storage systems and telecommunications systems.
• Proficiency in Windows operating systems and hardware.
• Familiarity with cloud technologies and emerging trends like Ai and machine learning
• Knowledge of FERPA requirements.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
• Master’s degree in computer science, information technology or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience in technology troubleshooting and training.
• 5 + years’ experience managing IT staff members responsible for providing front-line support for hardware and IT systems
• Experience working in a higher education environment preferred
• Project management experience
• Experience building business case scenarios and working with technology allocation and budgets.
• Extensive experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Experience developing and supporting enterprise network services supporting diverse customer needs.