WDVA Technology Business Manager, Full-Time Permanent, Central Office, Olympia

State of Washington • Thurston County – Olympia, WA

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking a strategic and detail-oriented Technology Business Manager to join our IT Division. This position plays a key role in helping WDVA make informed, transparent, and sustainable technology decisions. Reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the Technology Business Manager leads core business functions for the IT Division, including Technology Business Management, IT financial transparency, contract and vendor management, technology asset lifecycle planning, large technology procurements, staff supervision, and portfolio support. This position helps connect technology spending, business needs, compliance requirements, procurement strategy, and long-term planning so agency leaders can better understand what we are buying, why we are buying it, and how those investments support WDVA’s mission of Serving Those Who Served. This position supervises one staff member and is responsible for setting expectations, assigning work, coaching performance, supporting professional development, and ensuring assigned IT business operations work is completed accurately and on time. This position also serves as the Contract Manager/Monitor for approximately 40 IT contracts, including hardware, software, SaaS/subscription services, maintenance agreements, and professional services. The position ensures vendor performance, deliverables, invoice accuracy, compliance, renewals, amendments, procurements, and lifecycle planning are actively managed. For major technology purchases, this position leads the IT Division’s procurement planning and coordination. This includes helping develop requirements, supporting market research, coordinating with Procurement and program areas, leading IT’s role in RFPs and other formal solicitations, supporting evaluations, managing procurement timelines, and ensuring technology purchases are aligned with agency needs, budget realities, statewide requirements, security expectations, and long-term support considerations. The Technology Business Manager also serves as WDVA’s lead for engagement with the statewide WaTech Technology Business Management program and helps ensure the agency’s IT spending, reporting, and investment practices align with statewide expectations, policies, standards, and processes.

Requirements

• 11 years of full-time work experience in Information Technology with IT professional experience. OR Associates Degree and 9 years of IT relative experience, OR Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or relatable degree, and 7 years of IT relative experience, OR Master’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or relatable degree, and 5 years of IT relative experience.
• Five years of experience in IT management and/or governmental IT budgeting/accounting.
• Five years of experience performing advanced system management and integration of disparate data sets.
• IT relative experience includes consulting, analyzing, designing, programming, installing and/or maintaining computer software applications, hardware, telecommunications, or network infrastructure equipment; directing projects, providing customer or technical support in information technology; or administering and supervising/leading staff who performed work in any of these information technology disciplines.
• Must be proficient in the English language.
• The ability to take action to learn and grow.
• The ability to take action to meet the needs of others.
• Must be able to pass a DSHS BCCU Background Check every two (2) years in accordance with WDVA Policy 615.000 Background Checks.
• Must maintain regular and reliable attendance and be willing to work as needed.
• Must successfully complete, within mandated timeframes, employee orientation and all other mandatory annual, in-service, and other required training.
• Must become familiar and comply with all DVA policies and procedures and Collective Bargaining Agreements as applicable.
• Must sign the confidentiality statement for all employees.
• Positions requiring travel must have a valid unrestricted driver's license and must be insured if driving a privately owned vehicle on state business.
• Candidates who are offered a job with WDVA must possess work authorization which does not require sponsorship by the employer for a visa now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

• Preferred certifications in ITIL, Project Management, Change Management, Business Analysis, CPA, PGMP, PFMP, or PMP certification.
• Prior experience with Technology Business Management (TBM)
• CPA, MPA, or, MBA with a focus on Information Technology, Budget and/or Accounting.
• Professional experience navigating the WA State budget development and legislative processes and procedures.
• Experience with Apptio data mapping and reporting.
• Professional experience using WA State financial applications, including AFRS, SAP, and Enterprise Reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead WDVA’s Technology Business Management program and serve as the agency’s primary liaison with WaTech TBM.
• Supervise one staff member, including assigning work, setting expectations, providing coaching, supporting performance, and helping ensure quality and timeliness of work.
• Lead IT’s role in major technology procurements, including RFPs, large renewals, major software selections, and enterprise technology purchases.
• Coordinate with Procurement, Finance, Budget, program areas, and IT leadership to plan technology purchases, develop requirements, manage timelines, and support vendor selection.
• Help ensure technology purchases are reviewed for cost, business need, security, accessibility, contract terms, lifecycle support, implementation impacts, and long-term sustainability.
• Build and maintain internal TBM governance, including program documentation, roles and responsibilities, reporting cadence, and escalation paths.
• Manage IT contract monitoring, vendor performance, renewals, amendments, procurements, invoice review, and lifecycle planning.
• Maintain and improve the agency’s IT cost model, including allocation rules, shared cost treatment, taxonomy mapping, and data-quality checks.
• Collect, validate, clean, and organize IT financial, labor, contract, procurement, and service data for internal and statewide reporting.
• Translate complex technology, financial, contract, and procurement information into plain-language reports, briefings, and recommendations for agency leaders.
• Support budget development, decision packages, portfolio planning, and investment decisions with reliable data and clear analysis.
• Identify opportunities to improve IT financial transparency, contract management, procurement planning, cost modeling, reporting, and long-term technology planning.
• Coordinate, supervise and administer all activities related to technology business management within the IT program.
• TBM program ownership and governance -Serve as the agency TBM program lead and primary liaison to WaTech/OCIO TBM.
• Establish and run internal TBM governance (cadence, decision rights, escalation path).
• Coordinate with Finance/Budget, Procurement, HR/payroll, and IT leadership to align on cost treatment and reporting expectations.
• Maintain TBM program documentation (charter, RACI, procedures, calendar, definitions).
• Cost model design and upkeep -Own the agency’s TBM cost model approach (what gets mapped, what allocation rules are used, how often updated).
• Define and maintain allocation drivers for shared costs (e.g., distributed infrastructure, licenses, network, security tools).
• Ensure consistent treatment of common gray areas (shared services, pass-through charges, projects vs ops, capitalization impacts if relevant).
• Identify “unmapped” spend/labor and drive fixes.
• Data acquisition and data quality management -Collect and validate required datasets (labor, non-labor spend, interagency charges, etc.)
• Perform data cleansing, normalization, and transformation needed for TBM submissions and internal reporting.
• Implement data-quality checks (completeness, duplication, correct coding, variance thresholds, audit trails).
• Taxonomy mapping and coding standards -Map agency expenses and labor to TBM taxonomy (cost pools, IT resource towers/subtowers).
• Create and maintain a “crosswalk” between: agency chart of accounts / object codes / cost centers, labor categories (positions, org units), TBM towers and cost pools.
• Train/support staff responsible for coding time or costs so inputs improve over time.
• Periodically review and update mappings as org structure, vendors, and services change.
• TBM tool administration and reporting -Manage access, roles, and configurations in the TBM reporting platform (as allowed).
• Produce standard program outputs and recurring reports for WaTech/OCIO requirements.
• Build internal executive views: IT spend by tower, trends, unit costs, run/grow/transform (if used), variances, and key drivers.
• Support “what-if” modeling for investment decisions (e.g., modernization impacts to tower costs).
• Stakeholder engagement and storytelling -Translate TBM outputs into plain language for executives and business partners (“what are we buying, why, and what’s driving cost?”).
• Prepare briefings for the CIO/CFO/Deputy Director/Director (monthly/quarterly).
• Support budget development and decision packages with TBM-backed cost justification.
• Partner with service owners to link cost to performance/consumption where feasible (tickets, devices, users, bandwidth, cloud usage, etc.).
• Compliance, auditability, and continuous improvement -Maintain evidence and audit trails for mappings, allocation rules, and reconciliations.
• Ensure alignment with WaTech policy/standards and agency internal controls.
• Identify improvement opportunities: better cost drivers, better labor coding practices, deeper app/service costing, improved automation.
• Track TBM maturity and lead the roadmap to “next level” capabilities (e.g., application TCO, business capability mapping).
• Establishes a working relationship with the enterprise TBM program office.

Benefits

• The work schedule will be 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, but some evening and weekend work may be required.
• An alternative work schedule and hybrid telework may be authorized based on mission requirements.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: Associate degree