Senior IT Director - First Deputy Public Safety

Job Description

The First Deputy Public Safety provides vision, leadership, and execution on enterprise-class, technology solutions that support the City’s Public Safety agency’s technology needs.

In this role, they support City of Philadelphia Public Safety agencies to develop and execute strategic technology roadmaps to enhance and evolve their critical systems and operations.

The First Deputy Public Safety is responsible for the planning (strategic and tactical), technology evaluation and selection, implementation, delivery, and assessment of the Public Safety’s technology infrastructure systems and services.

They oversee all Public Safety budgets and grants and are responsible for addressing related questions and activities in collaboration with the D / CIO Public Safety.

They oversee the managers and directors of various Public Safety units, foster high-performing and agile teams, adopt modern and forward-looking technology and service strategies, and effectively utilize the department’s technological, financial, and human resources.

The First Deputy Public Safety will serve as a champion and advocate for Public Safety IT initiatives that benefit a 21st century city.

As a member of the Public Safety leadership team, the First Deputy Public Safety will help lead the division in realizing its mission and is expected to work with the D / CIO Public Safety and other OIT leaders to drive cultural and technological transformation within the Office of Innovation and Technology and promote a collaborative, human-centered, innovative, accountable, transparent, and inclusive culture within OIT.

Essential Functions

Planning & Budgeting

• Creates Public Safety roadmaps that leverage modern design principles and technologies that effectively meets both current and future agency needs.
• Leads strategic planning for new or enhanced IT program initiatives, including requirements gathering, user-centered design, implementation, assessment, and retirement of solutions.
• Participates in the management of the operating and capital budgets for the OIT Public Safety department including developing financial models and multi-year budget projections for equipment replacement and maintenance / refresh programs.
• Adds technical and strategic input during the planning phase of potential projects.
• Leads the evaluation of Public Safety solutions that meet short and long-term goals while developing business cases, TCO, and other analyses to help guide their selection.
• Determines priorities for the operations within their purview and allocates resources accordingly.
• Recommends IT enhancements and investments, where appropriate, to support the City’s Public Safety strategic goals and technology priorities, improve processes or user experience, and / or reduce costs.

Service Delivery & Optimization

• Directs the day-to-day operations for areas within their purview, including creating and managing strategies, plans, policies, and procedures.
• Ensures high availability and reliability of the IT infrastructure ecosystem.
• Oversees Public Safety program execution and solution delivery, coordinating with other areas within OIT for project scoping, planning, communication, and / or reporting.
• Identifies appropriate industry standards, legislative requirements, City policies, OIT procedures, and best practices for technology management and support, and ensures they are consistently implemented across the department.
• Continually assesses and improves departmental processes, services, and systems.
• Identifies and implements key metrics and service level agreements (SLAs) for Public Safety IT services (in coordination with other areas within OIT where appropriate) and tracks, analyzes, and reports on trends relative to key metrics and SLAs.
• Participates in internal and external audits, prioritize corrective actions, ensure successful remediation within requested timeframes, and report efforts to auditors, as appropriate.
• Provides oversight and manages Public Safety vendors holding them accountable to service level agreements and deliverables and manages contract renewals.

Management & Leadership

• Builds, supports, and expands a culture that is supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion where employees from all backgrounds can succeed and thrive.
• Trains, coaches, and mentors employees under their supervision. Plans and conducts performance appraisals of employees under their supervision.

Participates in or lead hiring processes, as needed.

• Builds strong and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders across the City and State by actively participating in City and State activities and initiatives.
• Cultivates, negotiates, and formalizes vendor relationships and external partnerships that support or enhance Public Safety initiatives.
• Maintains current knowledge of, and advises the Public Safety leadership on, best practices and future trends in all areas related to opportunities, strategies, solutions, and resources.
• Keeps the D / CIO Public Safety informed of current and potential issues, activities, operational outages, and any other risks that might jeopardize or degrade service delivery to the Public Safety community including external partners.
• Serves as a member of the Public Safety leadership team, and assists the D / CIO with divisional management, strategic planning, fostering a high-performing and innovative technology environment, and driving transformation at the City.

Additional Duties

Perform other duties as requested.

Competencies, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Required Skills and Abilities

• Experience in a management role, with proven leadership skills and demonstrated ability to manage high-performing teams, vendors, operations, and budgets.
• Expertise in one or more of the Public Safety technical domains, including : 911; Police; Prisons; Fire and OEM
• Commitment to continuous assessment and improvement with experience identifying, establishing, and reporting on key performance metrics.
• Experience leading organizational and / or technology change initiatives with a strong emphasis on relationship-building, collaboration, and shared stewardship.
• Strong written and oral communication skills (including ability to present ideas in user-friendly, business-friendly and technical language) and interpersonal skills with a focus on rapport-building, listening and questioning skills.
• Ability to build effective relationships and strong commitment to working collegially and collaboratively with constituents at all levels in a diverse and distributed environment.

Desirable Skills and Abilities

• Experience in IT planning, strategy, and architecture that supports an organization’s business needs and operations, with the ability to plan and execute technology infrastructure initiatives strategically, tactically, and expansively.
• Experience designing technology infrastructure to meet and support PCI, HIPAA, CJIS, and / or other compliance needs.
• Experience planning and leading IT implementation projects including deployment of physical, cloud, virtual, SaaS, and IaaS services, and / or significant conversion projects of legacy systems to modern technologies.
• Deep understanding of current and emerging Public Safety technologies, best practices for their use, and how other enterprises are employing them.
• Experience with budgeting, financial planning, and business operations.
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Demonstrated conflict resolution, influence, and / or consensus-building.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree or comparable Public Safety leadership and experience totaling at least 10 years is required. Additional job-related experience may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis.

Seven years of relevant experience in Public Safety IT programs, infrastructure, strategy, and / or leadership roles.