Job Description:
Brown University's new IT leader has the opportunity both to establish exciting directions for IT transformation and to strengthen the core value proposition of a central IT function in a world-class research university. A new IT leader is expected to lead a central IT division that will deliver reliable, secure, financially sustainable, and architecturally integrated technology solutions to faculty, staff, and students to advance education and research, while at the same time supporting lifelong engagement for Brown's alumni. As the University turns again to long-term planning and investment, the belief that wisely designed, sustainably architected, and suitably funded information technology can have a transformative impact on how Brown continues to pursue its distinctive future.
In leading well-conceived initiatives in digital transformation, Brown's new VPIT-CIO will have a broad and profound impact. Stakeholders across the University see many areas of opportunity at the start of the VPIT-CIO's tenure. These include:

• Establishing best-in-class service levels for academic, research, administrative, and student constituents.
• Providing access to digital information and services that are easy to use, engaging and personalized.
• Establishing a nimble governance framework for information technology that is suited to the University's ambitions, culture, and resources and that efficiently creates and sustains alignment with stakeholders around priorities, risks, and investments.
• Engaging OIT staff in robust organizational development to ensure OIT is a rewarding, responsive, professional environment that supports individual and team commitments to excellence.
• Partnering with units such as Office of General Counsel to ensure that the University's cybersecurity and data-privacy programs are designed, funded, implemented and monitored to effectively address current and future threats.
• Improving foundational capabilities to enhance operational effectiveness, including the remediation of technologies whose degradation hinders usability for the Brown community.
• Engaging research deans, research staff and faculty across the University to develop a technology roadmap for research-computing resources and services.
• Contributing to the University's efforts in data governance and analytics to advance institutional goals and build a strong culture of data quality, commitment to data security, information literacy, and data-informed decision-making.

Brown's new Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer must bring a highly collaborative style to the role and work proactively and inclusively with stakeholders to secure sustained commitment to these and other impactful initiatives. To do so, the VPIT-CIO will:

• Lead with emotional intelligence and apply that intelligence in continuing to build the OIT organization as a team of talented, committed IT professionals known for strategic problem-solving, client service, institutional focus, and resource stewardship.
• Apply organizational acumen to create shared commitment to the investments in staff, services, and technologies that will advance Brown's future.
• Inclusively develop a financial plan for investment in information technology that generates excitement among and attracts support from partners and sponsors such as alumni, donors, government and foundation funders, vendors, and development partners.
• Work briskly with Brown leadership and stakeholders to develop an IT governance framework that engages participation by efficiently clarifying needs and opportunities as well as aligning potentially competing interests to create a shared, institutional view of IT priorities.
• Advance a culture of data-driven decision-making enabling a university framework that establishes data as an institutional asset and improves the university's data consistency, integrity, accessibility and usability.
• Sustain and grow effective change-management processes and inculcate those standards - with training appropriate to sustaining them - across the OIT organization and with IT partners across the University.
• Engage University stakeholders in forward-looking, risk-based investments in cybersecurity policy and programs.
• Ensure that OIT is providing both foundational and leading-edge resources to support research computing across the University's schools, colleges, centers, and institutes.
• Advance best-in-class tools across a variety of functions ranging from digital transformation to workflow to core business-enterprise tools.
• Partner with other Brown leaders and stakeholders to develop an institutional culture that embraces enterprise solutions and advances continuous technological and digital transformation.

Competencies and Qualifications
Brown's VPIT-CIO will immerse themselves in a vibrant, complex, highly engaged academic community that remains aligned around the University's groundbreaking Open Curriculum and focus on student- centered learning, even as it continues to grow as a research institution.
The successful candidate will bring important skills, attributes, and competencies to this community. Chief among these are organizational and emotional intelligence, domain expertise, highly developed leadership skills, a commitment to disciplined, purposeful innovation in thought and practice, and experience advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. They will bring knowledge of the established and emerging technologies relevant to the work of a top-tier research university balanced with the experience and ability to think institutionally and make judicious and sustained investments. They will have the ability to earn the trust of colleagues at all levels so as to advise the Brown community on how information technology can best support and enhance teaching and learning, research, and administrative operations. They will have the empathy and interpersonal skills needed to lead, engage, and motivate a cadre of loyal, talented IT professionals who work in service to and partnership with clients and customers across and beyond campus.
The VPIT-CIO must therefore be a strategic and highly experienced technology leader with demonstrated success in cultivating partnerships and fostering collaboration and innovation while leading a large-scale IT organization that serves a complex enterprise with multiple centers of gravity. They will bring experience in developing strategy for a decentralized, multi-constituency organization and a track record of success working collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams to develop and obtain broad support for ambitious and innovative long-range plans. They must additionally bring a reputation for integrity and openness and a blend of expertise, demeanor, and discipline that inspires confidence at all levels.
Alongside these competencies and experiences, the VPIT-CIO will possess the following specific qualifications:
•An undergraduate degree from an accredited educational institution; a graduate degree is preferred but not required.
•10-years of leadership experience in complex, mission-driven organizations with multiple constituent groups and inclusive decision-making practices, including engagement with executive leadership and governance.
•The ability to maintain an institutional and strategic perspective while helping staff to prioritize and manage shorter-term activities.
•Substantial knowledge of cybersecurity and of risk-based information security programs and practices.
•Experience developing business cases for strategic and sustainable technology investments.
•Experience managing developing, presenting, and managing budgets comprising multiple funding sources.
•Experience building and leading a large IT service organization.
•Experience across at least a portion of the IT portfolio represented in OIT.
•Experience implementing and/or refining IT governance frameworks and change-management programs.
•Excellent interpersonal skills and highly effective written and oral communications.
•Experience in negotiating contracts and building innovative, mutually beneficial vendor relationships.
•Appreciation for the implications of operating in an organization subject to multiple regulatory frameworks.
Experience in a research university with an academic health system is preferred; candidates with a public-sector or corporate background that entails exposure to or engagement with teaching or research, or with patient care or large-scale data analytics, are welcome to apply. The VPIT-CIO is a full-time senior-level administrative position with established expectations of on-campus, in-person presence.
Brown University
Brown is a community that celebrates intellectual curiosity, creativity, and individuality; appreciates the power of collaboration among individuals with different perspectives, backgrounds, and areas of expertise; and fosters research and education that strive to have a positive influence on society.
Located in historic Providence, Rhode Island, and founded in 1764, Brown University is the seventh-oldest university in the United States. Brown is an independent, coeducational, Ivy League institution comprising undergraduate and graduate programs along with the Warren Alpert Medical School, School of Public Health, School of Engineering, School of Professional Studies, and a range of distinguished centers and institutes that bring scholars together across disciplinary boundaries.
Brown's vibrant, diverse community consists of over 7,000 undergraduates, more than 2,900 graduate students, 595 medical school students, 6,000 summer, visiting, and online students, over 800 regular faculty as well as more than 3,500 staff. 15% of undergraduates are the first generation in their family to attend college and 22% are from historically underrepresented groups. Brown is frequently recognized for its global reach, many arts and cultural events, numerous campus groups and activities, active community service programs, competitive athletics, and beautiful facilities located in a richly historic urban setting.
Brown's academic excellence is rooted in a student-centered model of learning. The undergraduate Open Curriculum is a flexible but rigorous approach to education that pushes students to be creative thinkers, intellectual risk-takers, and entrepreneurial problem-solvers. Brown's graduate and professional programs offer intensive learning and research experiences that respect and develop each scholar's interests and ideas within their intended specialty - equipping them with the tools they need to become the next generation of leaders in their fields.
For FY 2023, Brown reported operating revenues of $1.25B and a fiscal year end endowment value of $6.6B. The University's annual research expenditures grew to $282M in FY 2023.
Brown University has engaged Opus Partners to support the recruitment of this position. Craig Smith, Partner, and Abigail Maynard, Associate, are leading the search. Confidential inquiries, applications, and nominations should be submitted by email to Abigail at abigail.maynard@opuspartners.net.
A complete application will include a resume and cover letter. Brown University values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and seeks a leader who is committed to promoting these values throughout the organization. We encourage candidates to address in their cover letters how they might promote these values as the VPIT-CIO and to highlight past professional support of initiatives designed to remove barriers and to increase participation by groups historically under-represented in IT.
Background check satisfactory to Brown University.
Recruiting Start Date:
2024-01-08
Job Posting Title:
Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer
Department:
Office of the Executive Vice President Finance and Administration
Grade:
Ungraded Staff
Worker Type:
Employee
Worker Sub-Type :
Fixed Term (Fixed Term)
Time Type:
Full time
Scheduled Weekly Hours:
37.5
Position Work Location:
Onsite
Submission Guidelines:
Please note that in order to be considered an applicant for any staff position at Brown University you must submit an application form for each position for which you believe you are qualified. Applications are not kept on file for future positions. Please include a cover letter and resume with each position application.
Still Have Questions?
If you have any questions you may contact employment@brown.edu.
EEO Statement:
Brown University is an E-Verify Employer.
As an EEO/AA employer, Brown University provides equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon a person's race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other characteristic protected under applicable law, and caste, which is protected by our University policies.