Multnomah County's Department of County Assets (DCA) is seeking an experienced and visionary Deputy Chief Information Officer (Deputy CIO). We are looking for a high-impact IT leader who is deeply committed to organizational excellence and brings a demonstrated ability to successfully navigate organizational evolution from traditional IT structures to modern, agile, service-centric operating models.
This is a pivotal senior leadership position, reporting directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The Deputy CIO will move beyond traditional IT administration to champion a human-centered, outcome-focused culture. You will oversee a significant scope of responsibility, managing a $12 million budget and a robust portfolio—currently involving 349 annual projects with 140 active at any one time. Your opportunity is to leverage this scale to drive strategic value, evolving the focus from volume to measurable public impact. Your primary mission is to serve as a strategic thought partner and collaborator to our internal Departments, integrating their business needs with our technical capabilities. By aligning technology investments with the operational realities of our partners, you will help the County deliver on its promise to the community. The IT Division operates under a 2025-2028 Digital Strategy founded on principles of Partnership, Innovation, Stewardship, and IT Excellence. We encourage applications from leaders with a civic tech mindset who understand that "delivery is the strategy.”
Beyond strategy, the Deputy CIO plays a critical role in strengthening the DCA culture and leading a talented team of five IT managers and approximately 45 staff. This role requires highly effective influencing skills and the strategic capacity to manage complex initiatives while also stepping in to assume full operational responsibility during the CIO's absence.
If you are ready to use your strategic planning experience and leadership to guide technology innovation for one of the most diverse and dynamic communities in the region, this is where your work will have the greatest impact. We look forward to welcoming a leader who is passionate about making a difference.
Essential Job Functions
- Cultivate Strategic Partnerships. Position the Portfolio function as the strategic "thought partner" for our Departments. You will work side-by-side with Department leadership to translate their operational needs into technical possibilities. By shaping demand upstream, you ensure that our investments are not just funded requests, but strategic, outcome-focused solutions that directly support the mission-critical needs of our internal partners.
- Lead the Project Management Office to serve as the essential delivery leads for our large-scale efforts, partnering closely with our technical services and digital services teams to enable high-velocity delivery. You will guide the team to navigate the complex IT and County environment—coordinating cross-functional resources and ensuring operational readiness. You will measure success by organizational health and flow, ensuring that initiatives are not just "completed," but successfully landed and adopted.
- Work collaboratively as a member of the IT Senior Management Team, providing ongoing coaching and development for your direct reports and staff. You will manage a team of five IT managers, including one Manager responsible for the IT Project Management Office, and four IT Portfolio Managers.
- Contribute to and manage the development of DCA-wide strategic plans and initiatives, as well as the IT strategic plan and initiatives. You will monitor, measure and communicate status, initiating corrective action when needed to ensure goals and plans align with changing business objectives.
- Evaluate current processes and standards in delivering IT projects across the County and recommend and implement improvements. You will lead formal communication and review of performance with departments to manage customer expectations.
- Contribute to the Information Technology budget process forIT, including providing analysis of data for senior management to make better business decisions. You will also contribute to the annual internal service rate, monthly current year estimate (CYE), capital project and budget process for IT.
Core Competencies
We're looking for leaders who embody our core values, including:
- Advancing Fairness and Trust - Proactively dismantling obstacles and ensuring transparent, unbiased processes so that consistent actions and leadership build safety, trust and belonging for all.
- Acting with Integrity - Doing the right thing even if no one is watching. It's your ability to stay truthful, reliable, trustworthy and transparent even in challenging moments.
- Navigating Change - Successfully adapting to a complex, uncertain, and volatile environment by adopting new skills, embracing change as inevitable, and demonstrating emotional resilience while caring for oneself and supporting colleagues.
- Building Relationships - Cultivating mutual respect and understanding with all stakeholders by using self-awareness and emotional empathy to foster social harmony.
- Leadership - Demonstrating an understanding of the County's culture and political nature, leading by example, providing meaningful feedback, and showing respect for others' contributions.
- Creativity and Innovation - Seeking, advocating for, and implementing improved methods, systems, and approaches to meet changing organizational needs, and encouraging new ideas and critical thinking.
- Communication - Clear and timely sharing of essential information to encourage conversation and enable employees, partners, and community members to make informed decisions.
- Learning Agility - Consistent desire and ability to adapt one's skills and knowledge to changing workplace trends, actively seeking information and educating others to resolve problems and improve outcomes.
- Outcomes Oriented- Striving to fulfill commitments, holding oneself accountable for successful outcomes, and describing specific, measurable results.
To Qualify
We will consider any combination of relevant work experience, volunteering, education, and transferable skills as qualifying unless an item or section is labeled required. Please be clear and specific about how your background is relevant.
Minimum Qualifications/Transferable Skills:
- Bachelor's degree in a related field, or equivalent related experience
AND
- Six years of complex IT leadership experience, including directly managing large IT teams in a matrixed organizational structure.
- Four of those years must include direct supervisory experience, including supervising other supervisors.
- Proven project management experience with responsibility for multi-year projects, business relationship management, and a comprehensive understanding of technology platforms and architectures, including servers, databases, business applications, and cloud services.
- Experience coaching and mentoring management staff.
- Experience managing and working in a Union (represented) environment.
- Experience communicating complex information clearly and persuasively through presentations to various stakeholders, ranging from staff-level colleagues to external partners and the Board of Commissioners.
- Demonstrated ability to successfully deliver business outcomes, manage acceptable technology/financial risk, and build relationships. Examples include: strategic plans and roadmaps, cross-organizational governance and/or project management processes.
- Strong budget planning, financial management and resource management skills. Examples include: managing departmental, or capital project budgets and resources.
- Experience negotiating complex IT acquisition contracts, soliciting involvement and participation of other management team members.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technology solutions in business terms and influence stakeholders.
- Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) authorization is required prior to the start of this position, which includes a records check and fingerprinting upon acceptance of the employment offer.
Preferred Qualifications/Transferable Skills:
You do not need to have the following preferred qualifications/transferable skills to qualify. However, we may consider some or all of the following when identifying the most qualified candidates. Please clearly explain on your application how you meet any of the following preferred qualifications/transferable skills.
- Knowledge of the principles and practices of public administration and business management.
- Demonstrated experience managing staff and programs in a complex, political environment.
- Experienced in managing and coordinating over 30 indirect reports.
- Experience guiding organizations through the evolution from project-centric to product or service-centric operating models.
- Demonstrated experience applying Human-Centered Design (HCD) or Agile/Lean principles to high-level portfolio governance and strategic planning in a government or regulated environment.
- Experience applying Modern Service Management (MSM) or ITIL 4 concepts to balance service reliability with responsiveness.
- Demonstrated success using Agile, Lean, or Adaptive Project Management methodologies to manage complex portfolios and improve flow efficiency in a constrained environment. Project Management Professional (PMP) certified.
- Demonstrated success in process implementation and performance measurement.
