Technical Director of Development and Operations

Appointed by the Director of Services and Shared Infrastructure as a 12-month position. Employment is subject to the terms and conditions of Colgate University Human Resources policy, consistent with the laws of New York state. Normal schedule is daily, Monday through Friday concurrent with the business hours of the office. Adjustments to the normal schedule to accommodate evening, overnight, weekend and holiday work as required for system and service maintenance and upgrades.

Accountable for having a strong technical foundation and effectively leading a group of programmer analysts and system engineers to drive continuous improvement of information systems across campus and providing technical leadership for enterprise systems, custom programming, and system administration. Accountable for integrating project management principles and leading staff through agile development methodologies, leading projects and handling technical hands-on duties as necessary. The split between hands-on technical work and leadership/management will approximate 50/50.

Specific accountabilities include:
Accountable for overseeing, collaboratively leading the planning of, and executing plans for the design and implementation of Colgate’s centrally-managed enterprise systems, applications and databases. Systems currently include Banner, Slate, Raiser’s Edge NXT, Salesforce, Moodle, AdviseStream, etc.

Accountable for the effective supervision of staff system engineers and programmer analysts, assigning responsibilities, projects and tasks. Maximize the effective use of team members to continually improve the effectiveness of the team and to further its mission. Responsible for the job evaluation, development and continued professional growth of all direct reports. Ensures selection and hiring of high quality employees; ensures appropriate distribution of work assignments and high quality of employee work product; ensures fair, accurate and timely performance assessments and feedback to include identifying areas for professional development and documenting and conducting disciplinary measures, as needed. Responsible for ensuring fair and accurate decisions regarding employment status (hire, promotion, salary increases, termination); ensures the creation of effective opportunities and programs for employee mentoring, development and sustained performance.

Accountable for the collaborative selection and implementation of formal development, system administration processes, and best practices necessary to ensure the reliability and sustainability of software, systems, and applications.

Accountable for developing, tracking, and managing assigned operating budget.

Accountable for effectively coordinating and communicating across teams and with other IT leaders to support ITS and Colgate.

Accountable, as appropriate, for assisting with research and recommended solutions, considering hosted and SaaS solutions.

Accountable for ensuring effective systems, application, and database backup/recovery procedures are in place and fully tested. Work with the entire ITS team to ensure a disaster recovery plan is in place for areas of responsibility.

Accountable for effectively communicating with customers and campus management.

Accountable for developing partnerships with vendors and negotiate effectively with vendors. Review and suggest changes to maintenance agreements and contracts. Work with IT and purchasing department colleagues on contracts.

Accountable for assisting ITS in the development of best practices and actively engage in improving ITS and its processes. Participating
in professional development activities and performing other related duties and projects as assigned.

Demonstrated knowledge of planning and project processes. Contributes to multiple projects simultaneously. Demonstrated ability to lead projects with 3+ staff resources, develop project plans, develop requirements, and coordinate across teams.

Demonstrated knowledge of Colgate managerial processes and requirements, to include:
• Demonstrated ability to fairly and accurately assess employee performance in accordance with university practices. Demonstrated understanding of federal and state regulations, as they apply to the university policies and guidelines related to human resources sufficient to effectively select new employees, recommend pay actions, determine employment status and initiate or approve employee changes in status.

Demonstrated ability to select, develop and retain high performing work teams, to include:
• Demonstrated ability to develop employee skills, performance, and behaviors. Demonstrated ability to effectively coach and communicate with employees on issues of pay, performance and development.

Demonstrated development expertise in object oriented programming languages with proficiency in two or more of the following preferred: Java, Javascript (ie. node.js), PHP, C#, VB.NET, Groovy and Grails.

Demonstrated experience managing major Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ie. Banner, Slate, Raiser’s Edge/NXT, etc.) supporting major academic functional areas such as finance, hr, student, development/advancement, admission, etc. preferred.

Able to independently and collaboratively gather user requirements to improve business processes, integrations between systems, and recommend the proper solution. Can run large discovery meetings and elicit functional needs.

Demonstrated knowledge of administering and deploying configuration management tools.

Demonstrated knowledge of patch management best practices to ensure that all software applications and systems are patched on a routine cycle.

Demonstrated knowledge in enterprise email administration to ensure user provisioning/deprovisioning, authentication, and Google application service settings are managed properly and updated routinely.

Demonstrated knowledge in Active Directory and single sign on solutions used by the campus (ie. CAS, Shibboleth). Responsible for making sure systems are secure and proper authentication protocols are up to date.

Demonstrated knowledge of deploying immutable infrastructure (ie. VM Templates, Docker, Kubernetes), traditional infrastructure, and cloud infrastructure (ie. Amazon, Azure, Google). Demonstrated knowledge of virtualization software to deploy new virtual servers.

Demonstrated knowledge managing all system integrations for responsible systems. Understands the holistic view of data and system integrations to the campus ERP and ancillary systems.

Demonstrated knowledge of database administration including backup and recovery for responsible systems.

Displays empathy and patience with users of all levels of sophistication. Can successfully support highest profile users on campus. Demonstrated ability to consistently follow through with solutions and information for all types of users. Demonstrated ability to diffuse the most challenging situations and remain calm and focused. Demonstrated ability to assess user sophistication and communicate (oral and written) with customers in an appropriate level of detail. Always conveys confidence to the user in ITS ability to solve issues.

Takes ownership and accountability for decisions, performance and outcomes and behaves in a responsible manner with a positive attitude related to area of responsibility.

Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills; communicates clearly and knowledgeably; shares information with others, seeks input from others; adapts communication to diverse audiences; protects private and confidential information.

Analyzes and prioritizes situations to identify and solve problems; solutions increase efficiency and improve quality; involves others in solving problems and making decisions; factors organizational goals into decisions; makes clear, transparent, timely decisions.

Responds positively to changing university initiatives and readily adapts behavior to maintain effective performance; understands the long term direction of the university and can relate this to one’s own departmental area; adapts to new methodologies, techniques and process steps for greater impact.

Applies skills and knowledge to achieve department and organizational goals; helps others perform at their best; self-aware and open to feedback; adds value; high quality work, understands and supports organizational goals; builds wide sphere of influence to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness; builds productive working relationships; cooperates and collaborates with colleagues; treats others with respect; resolves conflicts among team members; balances individual and team goals.

Thinks of and encourages new ideas, and is keen to experiment and see ideas implemented; finds new and innovative ways of creating value for the university at the division, department or function level.

Demonstrates respect for people and their differences; understands the benefits of a diverse workforce; is trusted and respected by others; includes and welcomes others; works to understand the perspective of others; promotes opportunities to experience diversity on campus.

Understands the impact of personal behavior in achieving the university’s commitment to a more fully sustainable and carbon neutral campus. Shows support for the university’s sustainability initiatives by personal behavior, and by influencing and encouraging others to use sustainable practices.

-10 or more years experience in information technology or related with preference to object oriented programming experience.
-3 or more years experience in a project leadership, supervisory or management role preferred
-Previous experience in managing a major Enterprise Resource Planning system.
-Experience in project management, specific to software life cycles or (agile) software development methodologies.
-Individual should be an effective collaborator and work well as a member of a team, or independently.
-Must be capable of working collegially with a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff on a daily basis.

-Experience in two or more of the following: Java, Javascript (ie. node.js), PHP, C#, VB.NET, Groovy and Grails.
-Experience with ERP – Banner, Slate, Raiser’s Edge/NXT preferred to support a major academic functional area.
-Experience with patch management tools such as SCCM.
-Experience with configuration management tools. 
-Experience in system and database administration (ie. MS SQL, Oracle).
-Experience managing Google Suite Applications (ie. Gmail, Drive, Calendar)
-Experience with managing authentication management systems (ie. Active Directory) and knowledge of single sign on technologies (ie. CAS, Shibboleth)
-Experience with virtualization platforms such as vmware.
-Broad understanding of deploying immutable infrastructure (ie. VM Templates, Docker, Kubernetes), traditional infrastructure, and cloud infrastructure (ie. Amazon, Azure, Google)
-Ability to understand and author Linux-based OS or Windows scripting.

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology or a related degree preferred