Director Of IT Servcies

3.       Position Description and Job Skill Set

Description of the job functions the contractor will be expected to perform. 

The State of Mississippi Division of Medicaid (DOM) administers the state's Medicaid program, providing healthcare coverage to eligible Mississippians. DOM's Office of Information Technology Management supports the agency's mission through enterprise technology services spanning cloud infrastructure, networking, service desk operations, cybersecurity, application integration, and vendor management.

DOM is undergoing a significant technology modernization effort that includes migration of enterprise workloads to cloud platforms, implementation of federal interoperability mandates, adoption of cloud-native services, and restructuring of IT service delivery operations. These concurrent transformation initiatives require sustained, seniorlevel technical leadership to ensure continuity of operations, effective vendor coordination, and successful execution of modernization objectives.

The purpose of this Statement of Work (SOW) is to procure staff augmentation services for one (1) Director of IT Services to provide executive-level leadership and operational oversight for DOM's enterprise IT Infrastructure Management (ITIM) and Delivery Services functions. The contractor shall serve as a key member of DOM's IT leadership team, reporting to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and/or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and shall be responsible for the day-to-day management of infrastructure operations, cloud services, vendor relationships, service desk operations, and technology modernization initiatives.

SCOPE OF SERVICES:

The contractor shall provide leadership and operational management across the following functional domains:

Enterprise Cloud Services; Network, Voice & Telecommunications; IT Service Desk & End-User Support; Infrastructure & Operations; Cyberscurity Partnership & Compliance; Vendor & Contract Management; and IT Services Management & Governance. The scope encompasses both ongoing operational responsibilities and active modernization initiatives.

Cybersecurity Partnership & Compliance

Partner with the CIO/CTO and cybersecurity teams to ensure infrastructure and services meet state and federal security requirements.

Ensure IT operations comply with HIPAA, CMS, and Mississippi ITS security policies.

Support implementation of security controls across cloud, network, infrastructure, and endpoint environments.

Participate in risk assessments, audits, compliance reviews, vulnerability remediation, and security initiatives.

Coordinate with the Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE) and ITS on shared security documentation and architecture standards.

Vendor & Contract Management

Provide executive oversight of technology vendors, managed service providers, and cloud partners.

Lead vendor coordination for active contracts and procurement activities, including SOW development, brand specification forms, and contract negotiations.

Monitor vendor performance, deliverables, financial commitments, and contractual compliance.

Manage vendor escalations and remediation of significant service issues.

Support IT procurement processes, including solicitation review, proposal evaluation, and vendor selection.

IT Service Management & Governance

Establish operational governance processes for incident, problem, change, configuration, request, and service-level management.

Develop and maintain an enterprise service catalog defining technology services, ownership, service levels, and support models.

Develop dashboards and executive-level reporting that communicate IT service health, risks, performance trends, and improvement initiatives.

Lead Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) development and maintenance for ITIM domains.

Facilitate weekly status reporting and leadership coordination meetings.

DOM TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT:

The contractor shall possess working knowledge and demonstrated proficiency with the following platforms, tools, and systems that comprise DOM's current and target-state technology environment.

Cloud & Infrastructure Platforms

Platform

Usage at DOM

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Primary enterprise cloud platform. Active migration from on-premises virtualization. Includes EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, Landing Zone, and multiple workload accounts.

Cohesity

Enterprise cloud backup, data management, and data protection services.

VMware

Legacy virtualization platform (active migration to AWS). Includes vSphere, vCenter, and related management tools.

Microsoft Azure / M365

Azure AD / Entra ID for identity services. Microsoft 365 for enterprise productivity, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams.

Monitoring, Observability & Security

Platform

Usage at DOM

Dynatrace

Enterprise application performance monitoring and observability platform.

Cloudflare

CDN, DDoS protection, and web application firewall services.

Microsoft Security

Monthly security update release management and distribution across DOM endpoints.

Networking & Identity

Platform

Usage at DOM

F5 BIG-IP

Load balancing, DNS provisioning, and application delivery for critical environments.

Auth0

Identity and authentication platform for API access management and portal authentication.

Cisco Meraki

Wireless access point infrastructure and lifecycle management.

Active Directory / Entra ID

Enterprise directory services and identity governance.

Applications, Databases & Integration

Platform

Usage at DOM

MarkLogic

NoSQL database for clinical and provider data management and integration.

GitLab

Source code management and CI/CD pipelines.

FHIR APIs

Federal interoperability APIs for Patient Access, Provider Directory, and Prior Authorization.

Cloverleaf

Integration engine for healthcare data exchange.

Collaboration & Service Management

Platform

Usage at DOM

ITS Service Center

Mississippi ITS enterprise ticketing system for cloud, hosted application, DNS, firewall, and account provisioning requests.

Smartsheet

Project tracking, scheduling, and workflow management.

Microsoft SharePoint

Document management for project artifacts, meeting recordings, and compliance documentation.

Lexmark Cloud Print

Enterprise cloud print management solution.

KEY DUTIES:

The contractor shall perform the following duties on an ongoing basis:

•       Manage daily IT infrastructure operations, ensuring availability and performance of all enterprise systems and services.

•       Triage, assign, and track service tickets submitted for DOM cloud, hosting, and network services.

•       Coordinate with network and systems administration teams on DNS changes, firewall rules, account provisioning, and access management.

•       Lead incident response for major technology outages and service disruptions, including root cause analysis and corrective action.

•       Manage vendor relationships through regular status calls, performance reviews, and escalation management.

•       Review and contribute to Statements of Work, procurement documents, and contract renewals.

•       Conduct interviews and manage hiring processes for infrastructure and client support positions.

•       Develop and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all ITIM service areas.

•       Prepare and deliver weekly status reports to IT leadership.

•       Manage bi-annual assessment artifact collection and compliance documentation.

REPORTING STRUCTURE:

•       The contractor shall report directly to the DOM Chief Information Officer (CIO) and/or Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

•       The contractor shall participate in DOM IT leadership meetings, weekly status report cadence, and executive briefings as required.

•       The contractor shall coordinate regularly with network administration, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, IT procurement, and application development teams.

SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS:

•       The contractor shall pass a background investigation as required by the State of Mississippi and DOM prior to commencing work.

•       The contractor shall comply with all HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule requirements, including safeguarding of Protected Health Information (PHI) and electronic PHI (ePHI).

•       The contractor shall comply with CMS Acceptable Risk Controls for Automated Medicaid Program Eligibility (ARC-AMPE) and all applicable federal security requirements.

•       The contractor shall adhere to Mississippi ITS security policies, standards, and procedures.

•       The contractor shall complete all required security awareness training within thirty (30) days of onboarding and annually thereafter.

•       The contractor shall execute a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and any additional confidentiality agreements required by DOM.

•       The contractor shall not remove, copy, or transmit DOM data, documents, or systems information without prior written authorization.

•       Upon termination or completion of the engagement, the contractor shall return all DOM property, credentials, and access shall be revoked within one (1) business day.

Required Skills/Experience

Provide the minimum required skills and/or experience the contractor must possess to qualify for this position.  These requirements will be transferred to the Score Sheet and candidates without these requirements reflected on their resume will NOT be presented to the manager for consideration.  

The successful resource will have five or more years of experience with the following skills: 

Qualification

Requirement

Experience with progressive information technology, including significant experience managing enterprise IT operations and infrastructure.

10 Years

Experience in leadership or management, including direct supervision of technical teams, managers, engineers, and support personnel.

8 Years

Demonstrated experience managing enterprise cloud environments, with specific experience in Amazon Web Services (AWS) including

EC2, S3, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, and Landing Zone architectures.

2 Years

Strong understanding of enterprise networking, including LAN/WAN, DNS, load balancing, wireless infrastructure, and telecommunications.

2 Years

Experience with enterprise monitoring and observability platforms.

2 Years

Experience managing IT service desk operations, including servicelevel management, incident management, and customer satisfaction measurement.

2 Years

Experience with IT vendor management, contract oversight, SOW development, and procurement support.

2 Years

Experience managing data protection and backup solutions.

2 Years

Strong understanding of cybersecurity principles, compliance frameworks, and IT governance in a regulated environment.

2 Years

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical issues into business-level communications for executive audiences.

2 Years

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or a related field; or equivalent work experience.

Bachelors or Higher

Preferred/Not Required

Provide any skills/experience that would be helpful for the candidate to possess but not required. Examples: Previous supervisory experience, WebLogic experience helpful, etc.

Business Skill Set

Requirement

Experience working in state or federal government IT environments, preferably within a Medicaid, healthcare, or human services agency.

No minimum requirement

Experience with CMS interoperability mandates, including FHIR APIs and federal healthcare data exchange standards.

No minimum requirement

AWS certifications: Solutions Architect, SysOps Administrator, or Cloud Practitioner.

No minimum requirement

ITIL v4 Foundation or higher certification.

No minimum requirement

Experience with identity and access management platforms.

No minimum requirement

Experience with NoSQL databases and healthcare integration engines.

No minimum requirement

Experience with infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps practices.

No minimum requirement

Experience managing technology migrations from on-premises data centers to cloud environments.

No minimum requirement

Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar certification.

No minimum requirement

Master's degree in a technology or management discipline.

No minimum requirement

Experience with HIPAA Security Rule compliance and CMS ARCAMPE security requirements.

No minimum requirement