DescriptionSpecial instructions to applicants: This search is being conducted by the search firm Opus Partners. To be considered for the position, candidates must formally apply via Opus Partners and must provide a resume and a cover letter that addresses the responsibilities and qualifications of the AVP role. For additional information, please email Craig Smith, Senior Partner, at craig.smith@opuspartners.net and Thomas Lapierre, Senior Associate, at thomas.lapierre@opuspartners.net.
About Rice
Boasting a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has a 6-to-1 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio, and a residential college system, which supports students intellectually, emotionally and culturally through social events, intramural sports, student plays, lectures series, courses and student government. Developing close-knit, diverse college communities is a strong campus tradition, which is why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life and best value among private universities.
Rice is also a wonderful place to work. Rice faculty, staff, and students share values that are essential to our success as a healthy community. Those values guide our decisions and behaviors and shape Rice’s culture. They come through in how we treat each other and the welcome we extend to our visitors. These values can be recalled simply by our name — RICE — Responsibility, Integrity, Community and Excellence.
Position Summary
Reporting to the University’s Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer, this Associate Vice President (AVP) position is responsible for Platform Engineering & Infrastructure and Network & Connectivity. The AVP leads teams dedicated to technology and support services in two portfolios:
- Platform Engineering & Infrastructure: managing and modernizing platforms that improve OIT’s operation and service delivery, such as collaboration and email platform, storage, and compute.
- Network & Connectivity: maintaining the University network and sustaining connectivity, where resources include the data center, network infrastructure, and telecom.
Through these teams, the AVP is responsible for infrastructure architecture, performance, availability, incident, capacity, configuration, and change-management processes and for the tools to support 24x7 uptime and availability SLAs.
With a focus on reliability, efficiency, scalability, and sustainability, the AVP will pursue an optimal balance of innovation and standardization in the technology that enables Rice to operate and its constituents to accomplish their work. They will provide leadership in the design and development of network, storage, collaboration, and compute architectures, pinpoint problem areas, uphold product quality, and drive innovation and design with constant engagement across a variety of University stakeholders. First and foremost, they and their teams will engage the IT @ Rice community to understand, align, and advance.
While in many technology and service areas such as network infrastructure and telecom, OIT is the provider of institution-wide technologies, in other areas – notably in collaboration platforms such as email and calendaring – there are disparate systems supported by different user communities. By building trust and advancing conversations about sustainability, efficient support, and security within the framework of IT governance, the AVP will guide the ongoing integration of enterprise technology platforms and infrastructure, as OIT advances a value proposition measured by user experience.
The AVP will manage an expense budget of $6M and lead a staff of 40 FTEs comprising engineers, technicians, supervisor, and managers.
Qualifications and Competencies
The AVP is a leadership role that will touch all facets of infrastructure operations, partnering with colleagues across OIT, notably in Information Security, and with members of the IT @ Rice collaborative. Success in this role involves understanding user needs and aligning user expectations and experiences in a coherent, sustainable set of solutions and services that advance institutional goals in a constituent-rich environment. The AVP will succeed through their ability to align interests across the University’s IT ecosystem through their domain expertise, their ability to position their team as partners in and enablers of University operations, their awareness of the role IT plays in advancing the academic mission, and their sound business sense. An excellent leader in this context must be a visionary who can navigate the complexities of a university environment, while also being a pragmatic manager who ensures the smooth and efficient operation of IT services. The AVP will balance technical expertise with mature interpersonal and strategic skills.
The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of managing innovative, service-oriented, and collaborative teams as a creative thinker, problem solver, and leader. They will also have experience delivering large-scale, enterprise-class platforms and infrastructure in a decentralized or distributed organization.
Competencies
The qualities, competencies, and experiences candidates should bring will ideally include a combination of the following key characteristics:
- Technical Proficiency: a deep understanding of IT systems relevant to Rice and the ability to sustain continuous learning for themselves and their team.
- Strategic Vision: long-term planning to align IT strategy and investments with the University’s overall mission and goals, advanced through innovation and execution.
- Effective Communication: ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a range of audiences and soliciting and acknowledging the hopes and concerns of the University community and the OIT team.
- Focus on User Experience: prioritizing the needs of students, faculty, and staff in the design and implementation of IT services, ensuring that they are user-friendly and accessible; regularly seeking and acting on feedback from users across the University to continuously improve IT services.
- Collaboration and Relationship Building: sustaining open and reciprocal relationships with other departments to ensure IT initiatives support the broader goals of the University, and fostering a collaborative and trusting environment within Technology Platforms and the broader OIT organization.
- Ownership and Accountability: sustaining full responsibility for challenges that arise within the organization, whether they are technical issues, project delays, or unforeseen obstacles; establishing and supporting a culture of accountability and continuous improvement through their team; responding to adversity by focusing on the immediate problem while also seeking to address root causes.
- Decision-Making and Problem-Solving: making informed decisions based on data analysis and evidence, considering both immediate and long-term impacts, and effectively managing unexpected issues with focus on University security and operations.
- Adaptability and Flexibility: leading with agility and responding wisely to acute or chronic changes in the University enterprise and the IT landscape, and welcoming and supporting change that advances the University’s mission or enhances University operations.
- Ethical Leadership: upholding the highest standards of ethical behavior, especially in managing sensitive data and ensuring cybersecurity, and ensuring that IT policies and practices are fair and transparent and support the diverse needs of the University community.
- Mentorship and Development: investing in the professional development of the team, providing opportunities for training, mentoring, and career advancement; sustaining a commitment to personal and professional growth that sets an example for the team.
- Resilience: remaining calm and effective under stress, especially during critical situations such as system outages or security breaches; remaining determined to achieve key strategic and operating objectives.
- Proactive Problem Anticipation: looking ahead with colleagues and customers to identify potential future problems, monitoring agreed-upon KPIs, and regularly seeing customer feedback.
- Foresight: an excellent IT leader doesn’t just wait for problems to arise; they actively anticipate potential issues before they become critical; establishing policies that effectively guide issue resolution in the Platform Technologies technology and service library.
Qualifications
Minimum qualifications:
- An undergraduate degree and seven or more years of progressively responsible experience in strategic planning, process improvement, change management, or related activities, including proven experience in leading technical teams and implementing technology-based initiatives
- At least five years of experience leading and supervising personnel
- Experience in managing cross-functional teams and fostering a collaborative work environment
- Demonstrated understanding of infrastructure development best practices and methodologies to optimize for quality and efficiency
- Experience with various continuous integration/deployment models for large organizations, along with the acumen needed to adopt and integrate such practices into a dynamic academic environment
- A record of experience in technology support models and IT service management
- A demonstrated history of building and maintaining effective teams as well as successfully leading and driving strategic change in complex, distributed organizations
- A mature grasp of the principles of change management
Preferred/additional qualifications:
- Relevant credentials or certifications in service delivery, such as the ITIL Framework
- An advanced degree in a related technology or management field
- Technology leadership experience in higher education
- Professional activity at the national level
Rice University HR | Benefits: https://knowledgecafe.rice.edu/benefits
Rice Mission and Values: Mission and Values | Rice University
Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity at all levels and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status.
Rice University is committed to ensuring Equal Employment Opportunity and the full inclusion of all qualified persons in the workplace. This commitment includes providing reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities. For applicants with disabilities who require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please contact Rice University’s Disability Resource Center at 713-348-5841 or adarice@rice.edu for support.
