Director of Information Technology, Kersten Institute

University of Chicago•Chicago, IL

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Information Technology leads technology operations, information security, and research computing support for the Kersten Institute for Urban Education, a research institute that collects and analyzes sensitive educational data under data-use agreements with district and state partners. Reporting to the Crown Senior IT Director, with a dotted line to the Sr. Associate Dean of Administration, the Director is Kersten’s technology leader, combining hands-on technical work with team oversight and research partnership. The role is accountable for the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Kersten data and for the systems and staff computing environment that support it. The Director identifies and implements technological improvements to streamline operations for Kersten employees and identifies opportunities for broader adoption across Crown. Working within Crown’s IT structure and standards, the Director addresses the distinct technical and compliance needs of Kersten’s data-intensive research environment. In collaboration with the Senior IT Director, the Director sets the direction for technical support, owns Kersten’s compliance posture with University policy and external regulatory obligations, and bridges Kersten and Crown IT teams. The Director supervises one desktop support specialist and two systems administration specialists, supporting more than 100 Kersten employees, including education researchers, practitioners, and affiliates across multiple projects and funding streams. The role manages Kersten’s IT infrastructure, including on-premises servers and hypervisors, cloud accounts, virtual desktop infrastructure, database servers, and web application platforms. It also leads security and compliance activities, endpoint and identity management, research computing partnership, institutional representation, and technology vendor, licensing, and budget support. The position is a people-manager role with a hybrid work schedule on-site at the Hyde Park campus in Chicago. It is a 40-hour-per-week salaried, exempt position. The listed pay range is $140,000–$155,000. Benefits eligible employees may access University benefits, including health, retirement, and paid time off.

Requirements

College or university degree in a related field.
At least 7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.
Seven or more years of progressively responsible information technology experience.
At least three years of direct supervisory responsibility for technical staff.
Demonstrated ownership of an information security program, including risk assessment, incident response, and audit or assessment response.
Experience managing technology budgets, vendor relationships, and software licensing.
Experience handling restricted human-subjects or educational data under data-use agreements, such as FERPA, IRB protocols, or district or state data agreements.
Familiarity with a recognized security framework, such as NIST 800-171, NIST CSF, or a comparable framework.
Experience in a federated IT environment where central and local IT share responsibility.
Ability to translate policy and regulatory requirements into operational controls.
Effective communication with non-technical senior stakeholders and credible collaboration with research or academic staff.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience combined with an Associate’s degree.
Advanced degree, or research experience sufficient to engage substantively with research staff on methods and data.
Experience in a higher education, research institute, or research computing environment.
Experience introducing and implementing new technology or technological processes within a large organization.
Demonstrated ability to act as a change agent for new technology and process improvements.
Hands-on competence across systems administration, endpoint management, and identity and access management in a mixed Windows, macOS, and Linux environment.
Working knowledge of infrastructure-as-code, scripting, and API-driven administration.

Responsibilities

Manage day-to-day operations and existing architecture for Kersten’s IT infrastructure, including on-premises servers and hypervisors, cloud accounts, virtual desktop infrastructure, database servers, and web application platforms.
Supervise Kersten’s technical specialists, including responsibility for hiring, onboarding, work assignment, performance management, and professional development.
Set priorities across competing project and service demands, and maintain work-tracking and documentation systems such as issue templates, wikis, and operational runbooks.
Establish and maintain standard processes with Crown IT for new-hire technical setup, device provisioning, and account lifecycle management, including employee offboarding.
Serve as the top escalation point for complex systems administration, database administration, and network infrastructure issues as a working technical lead.
Lead Kersten’s information security program in coordination with Crown’s security framework and standards.
Conduct Kersten’s annual security framework assessment and coordinate responses to University and external audit findings in consultation with the Sr. IT Director.
Administer security training for core, privileged, and research-user tiers, and work toward consolidating the program for Crown-wide adoption.
Direct incident response for endpoint detection alerts, vulnerability findings, and exposure events, including triage, remediation, and after-action documentation; update the Sr. IT Director when warranted.
Review data security agreements and vendor security assessments for Kersten projects.
Maintain controls appropriate to the sensitivity of Kersten data, including endpoint encryption, privileged access management, backup and recovery, and vulnerability scanning.
Monitor emerging regulatory obligations affecting research and administrative systems and translate them into unit-level actions in collaboration with the Sr. IT Director.
Administer endpoint and identity management across Windows, macOS, and Linux environments.
Evaluate capacity and update Kersten IT continuity and disaster-recovery plans, including dependencies on data center facilities outside Kersten’s control.
Coordinate with external web and application development vendors whose work runs on Kersten infrastructure.
Set standards and oversee the managed staff computing fleet across Windows, macOS, and Linux, including enterprise mobility management, operating system and third-party patch management, configuration baselines, and hardware refresh cycles.
Own identity and access administration, including group-based entitlement management, single sign-on integrations, and enterprise password management.
Partner with Kersten research staff on computing needs for data collection, analysis, and dissemination, including secure handling of restricted datasets and support for statistical and survey platforms.
Resolve escalated issues affecting Kersten research operations.
Represent Kersten in Crown IT planning processes and University IT Leadership Council and equivalent University-wide bodies, in partnership with the Sr. IT Director.
Convene and chair Kersten’s Technology Leadership Committee, a standing forum for technology priorities, staffing changes, and policy decisions.
Translate central initiatives, including identity modernization, enterprise platform changes, and AI governance, into Kersten planning in collaboration with Crown IT.
Partner with the Sr. IT Director to develop and implement acceptable-use guidance for emerging technologies, including agentic AI tooling, and serve as Kersten’s designated contact for University compliance inventories.
Maintain working relationships with University IT organizations and external vendors relevant to Kersten’s research mission.
Partner with the Sr. IT Director on infrastructure design and capital planning.
Manage Kersten’s technology budget with the Sr. IT Director, including hardware procurement, annual software license renewals, recurring cloud and service charges, and equipment disposition.
Evaluate, select, and manage vendors and service contracts.
Prepare budget justifications and effort documentation for grant proposals and sponsored-project reporting.
Manage employees by establishing annual performance goals, allocating resources, assessing annual performance, and determining individual merit, incentive, and/or promotional increases.
Interpret University initiatives to create plans for the design, installation, modification, and operation of information systems.
Prepare long- and short-range plans for application selection, software systems development, systems maintenance, production activities, and necessary support resources.
Perform other related work as needed.