Associate CIO for Enterprise Platforms and Operations

UMass Boston•Boston, MA

About The Position

The Associate CIO for Enterprise Platforms and Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for the university’s core technology environment, including enterprise applications, integrations, infrastructure, network services, telephony, and related enterprise systems. This role is responsible for ensuring that enterprise platforms and supporting systems are reliable, secure, and aligned with institutional priorities. Reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the Associate CIO serves as a senior leader within IT, driving execution, coordination, and accountability across technical domains while ensuring strong alignment with institutional governance and priorities. This position plays a central role in connecting strategy to delivery, ensuring that technology initiatives are effectively implemented and sustained across the organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent combination of education and significant relevant experience
Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in IT, including leadership of enterprise systems, infrastructure, or operations
Demonstrated experience managing multiple technical domains (applications, infrastructure, networks, integrations, communications platforms, or similar)
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and drive execution in a complex environment
Strong understanding of enterprise systems, IT operations, and service delivery models
Experience working with governance structures and senior institutional leadership

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a related field strongly preferred
Extensive relevant experience (typically 20+ years in complex IT environments) may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree
Experience in higher education or similar complex, decentralized environments
Experience supporting or leading large-scale system implementations (e.g., ERP or SIS transformation)
Familiarity with modern infrastructure, cloud platforms, unified communications, and related enterprise technologies

Responsibilities

Provide leadership and oversight for enterprise applications, ensuring stability, performance, and alignment with institutional needs
Partner with academic, research, and administrative stakeholders to ensure enterprise systems effectively support teaching, research, and business operations
Partner with functional stakeholders to prioritize enhancements, manage system lifecycles, and support long-term platform strategy
Ensure enterprise systems are effectively integrated and supported across the technology ecosystem
Support institutional readiness for major system initiatives, including ERP and SIS transformation efforts
Oversee infrastructure, network, and telephony services to ensure high availability, resilience, and scalability
Lead the evolution of voice and communications platforms, including cloud-based and unified communications solutions
Establish and enforce operational standards across systems, networks, and communications environments
Ensure coordination across application, infrastructure, and network layers to support reliable service delivery
Ensure infrastructure and platform capabilities effectively support research computing needs, including performance, scalability, and integration with enterprise services
Partner with campus Public Safety and other stakeholders to support, modernize, and progressively align access control, CCTV, and related systems with enterprise IT standards and operations
Partner with Information Security to align operational practices with security and risk management requirements
Establish and maintain enterprise IT resilience strategies, including business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) planning, testing, and continuous improvement
Ensure critical systems and services have appropriate redundancy, recovery objectives (RTO/RPO), and failover capabilities
Lead IT operational response during major incidents, outages, and service disruptions, ensuring clear ownership, coordination, and communication
Partner with Information Security on incident response coordination, ensuring alignment between security events and operational recovery
Conduct post-incident reviews to identify root causes, drive corrective actions, and strengthen overall resilience
Collaborate with institutional leadership to ensure alignment between IT recovery capabilities and broader university continuity planning
Ensure effective integration between enterprise systems, enabling seamless data flow and interoperability
Promote standards and practices that reduce fragmentation and improve system cohesion
Work across teams to align technical implementation with enterprise architecture direction
Drive coordination across technical teams to ensure consistent and effective delivery of IT services
Remove silos between applications, infrastructure, network, communications, and related technology domains
Ensure operational issues are addressed with urgency, ownership, and clear communication
Coordinate across teams and stakeholders to ensure services supporting academic, research, and operational functions are delivered consistently and effectively
Act as a central point of coordination for complex, cross-functional initiatives and service challenges
Serve as a core IT leader within university governance structures, including ITEC and associated working committees
Actively participate in and support governance processes, ensuring that enterprise platforms, operational priorities, and service delivery decisions are aligned with institutional direction
Partner with functional and academic leaders to translate governance input into actionable plans and execution
Ensure transparency in prioritization, decision-making, and delivery across enterprise systems and operations
Provide operational insight and recommendations to inform governance discussions, planning, and investment decisions
Establish clear expectations, metrics, and reporting for system performance, service delivery, and team outcomes
Drive a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement
Ensure consistent execution of work across teams, with visibility into priorities and progress
Identify and address operational gaps, risks, and inefficiencies
Oversee budgets and resource allocation across enterprise platforms and operations
Manage vendor relationships and ensure effective contract and service oversight
Support strategic investment planning aligned with institutional priorities
Provide direct leadership to managers and technical leads across applications, integrations, systems, network, telephony, and related technology functions
Foster collaboration across IT functions, including security, client services, academic technology, emerging technologies, and research computing
Engage with campus partners across academic, research, and administrative units to ensure alignment between technology services and institutional needs
Serve as a key escalation point for operational and service-related issues
Ensure alignment and coordination across all IT functional areas to support institutional outcomes