Interim CIO Search Brief

No 3rd party candidates please, It's strictly W2

Overview:

A Healthcare services company operating a multi-site behavioral health / substance use disorder treatment network. 138 clinical locations across 9 states. HQ in Mount Laurel, NJ, with a satellite corporate office in the LA area that leadership intends to consolidate or close. In-house IT organization of roughly 30 people covering help desk/service desk, infrastructure, data/BI, business systems, and security. Three EHR/EMR platforms in use, including one proprietary system built in-house that came in through an acquisition; also runs Salesforce and a call center platform. Subject to HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2 (a stricter standard than HIPAA, given the SUD population). An annual third-party security assessment is performed, but documentation of safeguards, penetration testing, and broader cyber testing has gaps. The organization is mid-migration of its core proprietary clinical system to the cloud, targeting no on-prem servers by year end, and relies on a handful of outside vendors for network security and infrastructure support.

Why the Need

The current CIO, a long-tenured leader who built one of the organization's core clinical systems, has given notice and is departing. The company needs interim leadership to start within 7 to 10 days while it runs a permanent CIO search in parallel. Because a significant amount of institutional and technical knowledge sits with the departing leader, capturing that knowledge is the top early priority, not just steady-state operations. Leadership believes day-to-day IT is fairly stable, but there's real uncertainty about how much undocumented risk sits underneath that.

Role Requirements

• Ability to travel in month one, including to the LA-area office as the company works through a planned consolidation there
• Prior experience leading IT for a multi-site healthcare or clinical services organization (100 locations strongly preferred)
• Comfortable running a ~30-person IT team across help desk, infrastructure, data/BI, business systems, and security
• EHR/EMR experience, ideally including a system consolidation or migration
• Working knowledge of HIPAA; 42 CFR Part 2 experience is a strong plus
• Able to operate in a low-documentation environment and drive a structured knowledge-capture and current-state read in the first 30 to 60 days
• Experience with cloud migrations and coordinating third-party security/cyber assessments
• Executive presence to work directly with the C-suite and PE sponsor stakeholders

Engagement Shape

• Interim
• Start needed within 7 to 10 days
• Bridge coverage through a permanent CIO search (typically several months)
• Reports to the CEO, with visibility to the sponsor's operating team