Deputy Chief Information Officer

State of Montana • Helena, MT

22h

About The Position

We are seeking an innovative and strategic technology leader to serve as the Deputy Chief Information Officer (Deputy CIO) within the State Information Technology Services Division (SITSD). This executive role is the principal strategic and operational partner to the State Chief Information Officer, helping drive Montana’s integrated IT transformation and modernize statewide technology service delivery. The Deputy CIO provides leadership across multiple IT offices, ensuring operational excellence, strong governance, and high impact workforce development and strategic planning initiatives that support agency missions and citizen services. This position also acts on behalf of the CIO when delegated or during absences, ensuring continuity of leadership and organizational effectiveness across the enterprise IT organization.

Requirements

• Executive IT leadership: Proven success leading large scale technology organizations and complex IT transformation, consolidation, or integration initiatives in large, complex, or multi organizational environments.
• Strategic and enterprise mindset: Strong strategic planning and business acumen, with the ability to align IT investments, product strategy, and service delivery with statewide priorities and agency business outcomes.
• Deep IT operations expertise: Demonstrated understanding of enterprise IT operations, including applications, infrastructure, security, and service delivery in highly regulated or government environments.
• Governance and architecture fluency: Experience with IT governance frameworks, portfolio management, and enterprise architecture principles, and the ability to drive consistency and maturity across technology domains.
• People and culture leadership: Ability to develop and mentor senior IT leaders, build high performing teams, and lead cultural transformation that emphasizes ownership, partnership, and collective success.
• AI and automation insight: Demonstrated understanding of artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation strategies, and AI governance frameworks, with the ability to guide responsible AI adoption and assess solution maturity at enterprise scale.
• Communication and influence: Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and consensus building skills, with the ability to effectively represent IT in executive forums, legislative settings, and cabinet level discussions.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate cross office strategic initiatives aligned with the Montana State IT Strategic Plan and the state’s IT integration effort, supporting the transition from decentralized to integrated IT service delivery.
• Direct the Office of Product Strategy, providing leadership for product portfolio management, lifecycle governance, mission critical applications, and alignment with enterprise architecture, technology roadmaps, and AI enabled capabilities.
• Oversee the Office of Technology Development to ensure high quality, secure, and standards aligned application and product development that meets agency expectations and supports modern digital services.
• Lead the Office of Enterprise Service Delivery, providing executive oversight of network, infrastructure, cloud, compute, storage, data center, and device management services to ensure reliable, secure, and efficient statewide IT operations.
• Champion workforce development and organizational excellence by leading workforce planning, succession planning, IT learning and development, and change management efforts that foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Lead enterprise AI workforce development initiatives by establishing AI competency frameworks and skill pathways, expanding AI literacy and training, and promoting a responsible AI culture focused on transparency, ethical use, and risk mitigation.
• Provide operational leadership and cross office coordination, partnering with the Chief of Staff and other leaders to manage day to day operations, resolve complex enterprise issues, and ensure compliance with applicable state and federal regulations, policies, and security requirements.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees