Chief Information Officer
Reports to
: Chief Administrations Officer
Responsibilities - Leading Team Of IT Professionals Accountable For
Providing IT strategic direction in support of the company's business strategy
- Knowledge of best practices in IT & implementing a strategy needed to accommodate the company's aggressive growth plans
- Presenting the case for purchasing technology that will facilitate the company realizing its growth plans and computing the ROI on each of those projects & presenting that information to the Executive Team
Identifying, proposing & delivering IT solutions to facilitate accomplishing the company's business objectives by capturing, storing, processing, retrieving & disseminating information
- Identifying the factors most critical to effectively running the business & providing relevant, understandable & useful information to assist in decision making
- Creating an employee training platform for standard operating software in order to provide a common usage across the company
- Understanding and maintaining the IT data warehouse systems and offering reporting and analytical solutions to end users to facilitate access to and dissemination of data
- Selecting & installing a merchandising system that will report rates of sale & inventory while identifying stock requirement and purchasing needs
- Accommodating the needs of consumers who have expectations for obtaining information via the internet
Evaluating & monitoring the company's information processing environment - in order to determine proficiency levels & implement initiatives to enhance the dissemination of information
- Assessing each department's functions & resources to determine the IT department's ability to meet the company's current & future needs
- Conducting a data security audit to identify which employees corporate-wide need what information & the appropriate security access levels with a process for adjusting security levels
Leading, coaching & developing the IT staff
- Assessing the competencies of the current IT staff
- Determining the appropriate IT staffing levels & preparing for the department's retirements within the next 3-4 years
- Insuring that the IT staff become students of the business & are continually being trained & exposed to the latest, relevant technology
Developing a plan for the maintenance & acquisition of hardware & software according to needs, fiscal constraints & compatibility with existing IT networks
- Insuring the systems in place - including the store operating system - continue to operate with minimum budget & maximum efficiency
- Making decisions as to whether to develop solutions in-house or go outside
- Identifying where system upgrades are needed & enabling the Executive Team to understand those needs
- Sourcing vendors, creating capital requests & determining the justification & ROI whenever purchasing software or hardware
- Sunsetting systems where necessary in order to project forward based on business needs vs. reacting as systems fail
- Maintaining data integrity & security within the IT network
Ensuring the security, business continuity & confidentiality of data by devising, implementing & maintaining protective & disaster recovery & contingency strategies
- Developing & implementing a corporate IT security policy
- Insuring that stored information corporate-wide is protected from external & internal threats
- Insuring redundancy with backups not being stored in the same facility as originals
- Storing certain data in Cloud
Maintaining an internal customer service focus by identifying users' needs and resolving their IT issues
- Structuring the IT department to best support the company's needs - adding to, downsizing and/or outsourcing as is needed
- Initially obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the workings of each dept. by asking each VP & dept. head to outline their department's functions, their current needs for information & identifying the data to which employees have access
Maintaining effective vendor relationships & managing vendor contract negotiations for the purchase & maintenance of IT hardware & software
- Understanding of the hardware & software system offerings available within the IT marketplace
- Vendor management and new RFPs where needed
Experience Requirements & Preferences
- 7 - 20 years of IT experience including 5-6 years in an IT leadership role
- multi-store retail experience
- consumer finance experience - a plus
- merchandising, logistics/distribution & advertising/marketing experience
Educational Requirement
Bachelors in Computer Science or Information Systems with a minor in Accounting/Business Administration or an MBA
Desired Competencies & Personality Traits Facilitating Working With The
Leadership Team
- IT technical skills including an extensive knowledge of Microsoft Products including Windows, Office, Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, Reporting Services
- Willing to obtain a systematic understanding of the business - down to the consumer level
- Competent in data & predictive analytics
Dept. Heads, Field & Store Managers
IT Team
- Deliver a consistent & understandable message
- Build relationships & improve the quality of life for the people in the dept.
- Place staff members in the proper roles in order to re-energize them, develop them & enhance their productivity
