Chief Information Officer

Reports to	Vice Chancellor and Dean
Employment fraction	1.0 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
Location	NewMed office (currently at Hamilton, Queensland), and the option of some virtual work from home.

About New Medical Education Pty Ltd

New Medical Education Australia Pty Ltd (NewMed) is an exciting venture aspiring to be a new Australian medical school offering an innovative hybrid medical course, subject to successful registration with the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and accreditation with the Australian Medical Council (AMC).

About the position

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a highly motivated and experienced technology manager who provides leadership and hands on support services for technologies underpinning administrative, teaching and learning, and student engagement functions of the organisation. 

This  incumbent will play a pivotal role in the establishment and operations of the proposed University College. Experience in tertiary education, particularly medical education would be an advantage. The primary focus of the role is to curate and execute NewMed’s technology strategy, primarily through the adoption of a licensed Software as a Service (SaaS) Student Information System (SIS) and Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) hosted on AWS. Additionally, the CIO will provide guidance on incorporating cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and other advanced technologies, relevant to NewMed’s curriculum and operational framework.

Key responsibilities

NewMed is a start-up organisation with a passion to create an innovative new medical school for Australia. As such, the CIO responsibilities encompass people leadership, technology strategy and hands-on system administration for various software platforms, acting as the liaison both internally between leadership, teaching, administration and operational teams on technology matters, and externally between the organisation and its vendors. The key responsibilities of the CIO are:

1. Leadership

• Proactively engage with the Leadership team and all NewMed staff and stakeholders.
• Live the NewMed values in leading the small technology team. Foster a culture of service excellence to all stakeholders.

2. Plan and guide the NewMed technology roadmap

• Augment the technology roadmap to address business challenges and opportunities.
• Gather feedback from stakeholders, define business rules, and communicate effectively with the SaaS platform licensor to scope potential enhancements
• Monitor market developments in hybrid (medical) education, recommending commercially robust solutions for potential inclusion in the NewMed offering, including across Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and other options.

3. Platform Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact between NewMed and the SaaS platform provider. Collaborate with the SaaS platform provider to address any technical issues, upgrades, or enhancements as needed.
• Monitor the integration of the SaaS platform with third-party applications, ensuring seamless data flow and interoperability. Troubleshoot integration issues and coordinate with relevant stakeholders for resolution.

4. System Configuration, Customisation and Development

• Lead the implementation of core application systems to meet NewMed business requirements. Document necessary enhancements, and plan implementation with vendors.
• Develop and maintain associated and integrating applications, including the NewMed web site.

5. System Administration

• Manage user access, permissions, and configurations.
• System administration of software applications including SIS, Moodle LMS, ExamSoft, MyProgress, Google Workspace, Zoom, Hubspot CRM, Slack, and others, ensuring smooth operation and adherence to security protocols.
• Monitor system health, performance, usage, compliance and security, proactively identifying and addressing any issues that may arise.
• Ensure compliance with information management governance and regulatory requirements.

6. Training and Support

• Act as the liaison between technical teams, professional and academic staff, facilitating communication and understanding of system capabilities and requirements.
• Provide training and support to users on software applications, including onboarding new users and conducting periodic training sessions.
• Manage and oversee the provision of Tier 1 user support
• Serve as the primary point of contact for Tier 2 support, escalating issues to the SaaS platform licensor when necessary.

Required qualifications and experience

Required qualifications and experience include:

• Ideally a Master qualification and significant experience in information management and the provision of technology support services.
• Demonstrated effective leadership of a technical team, and as the technology leader, across the organisation.
• Constructive interpersonal and written communication skills. The ability to effectively convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience delivering support services aligned to a recognised Information Technology Service Management Framework (ITIL, COBIT, MOF or similar).
• Demonstrated experience securely delivering support services, delivering and operating infrastructure within a recognised Information Security Management System, particularly ISO 27001. Sound understanding of the AWS service offerings both IaaS and PaaS along with security infrastructure and security monitoring solutions
• Demonstrated project, vendor and contract management abilities.
• Familiarity with complex software platforms and experience in overseeing their integration and usage within an educational setting.
• Experience with Learning Management Systems, ideally Moodle.
• Proven experience in system administration with proficiency in managing SaaS platforms and software applications.
• Excellent problem-solving with a proactive approach to identifying and addressing issues.
• Experience in the education sector, particularly in a distance learning environment.
• Basic familiarity with modern full-stack web development. Key technologies include SQL, PHP, Go, HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
• Understanding of Authentication frameworks and specifications including OIDC, OAuth2, SAML2 and JWT for single-sign on, federated and/or brokered identity.
• Knowledge of network standards and protocols relevant to the delivery of highly available, secure web applications including HTTP, DNS, TLS and PKI.

Personal attributes:

• Strong leadership, interpersonal skills, and the ability to negotiate proactively with external and internal stakeholders.
• Positive outlook and ability to build a culture of service excellence.
• Flexibility, resilience, integrity and ethical conduct.
• Ability to engage with a broad stakeholder group and positively represent NewMed.

We seek an outstanding individual to help drive the establishment, operations and bring innovations to a new medical school. This role will suit a highly capable mid career CIO. It is truly an exciting opportunity. NewMed will provide competitive remuneration.

For confidential discussions, please contact NewMed Chief Operating Officer, Mr Bob O’Connor, by email bob.oconnor@newmedschool.com

Please apply by 31/08/2024, emailing:

• a professional overview
• a paragraph or two addressing each of the ‘Required Qualifications and Experience (in the context of the Key Responsibilities) and
• attach a current CV.