Director of Business Ownership of Technology

Essential Functions

• Serve as agency-wide business owner for technology systems/applications, possessing significant authority on behalf of the Assistant Secretary and the Secretary, to bind the agency to a course of action and to commit and reallocate agency resources of the various organizational entities involved, and to redirect resources to higher priority issues in partnership with the DoIT-IDEC CIO.
• Oversee Technology Change Management Team.
• Set agency-wide policy for business ownership and oversee Program-Embedded Business Owners, providing direction to program-embedded business owners in defining operational processes, program requirements, and required functions for each business application from initial development to inform procurement through delivery and ultimate adoption/continued maintenance.
• Lead stakeholder engagement, communication, and training planning for diverse stakeholder groups at all organizational levels.
• Establishment and maintenance of business ownership governance, including liaising with Fiscal and Operations Divisions, maintaining documentation, supporting definition of risk & compliance controls.
• Performs other duties as required or assigned, which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.

Minimum Qualifications

• Requires knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to the completion of four (4) years of college, preferably with coursework in public administration, business administration, management, project management, change management, organizational development, or a closely related field.
• Requires four (4) years of progressively responsible professional experience in change management, organizational transformation, program management, governance implementation, operational improvement, or related areas involving cross-functional leadership and agency-wide initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prefers two (2) years’ experience overseeing technology staff or vendors implementing large-scale technology systems within a public sector or complex, multi-division organization.
• Prefers three (3) years’ experience designing, implementing, and sustaining governance structures, including development of standard operating procedures and accountability frameworks.
• Prefers three (3) years’ experience evaluating and redesigning program workflows to improve operational efficiency, service delivery, and cross-divisional coordination.
• Prefers three (3) years’ experience providing executive-level communication and advisement to senior leadership and facilitating cross-functional decision-making.
• Prefers three (3) years’ experience applying formal change management methodologies and tools (e.g., ADKAR, Prosci, Lean, or similar frameworks) in an operational or governmental setting.
• Prefers three (3) years’ experience managing competing priorities, mitigating implementation risks, and leading cross-functional teams through complex organizational transitions.

Conditions of Employment

• Requires ability to travel in the performance of duties, with overnight stays as appropriate. Requires appropriate, valid driver’s license.
• Overtime is a condition of employment, and you may be requested or required/mandated to work overtime including scheduled, unscheduled, or last-minute overtime. This may require the ability to work evenings and weekends.
• Requires completion of a background check and self-disclosure of criminal history. 

*All conditions of employment listed are incorporated and related to any of the job duties as listed in the job description.

About the Agency:

The Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC) was signed into law in June of 2024 with the focus of making early childhood education and care services simpler, better and fairer for families with young children across the state. During fiscal years FY25 and FY26, IDEC will be working through transitioning data, programs and services from three state agencies – the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS), and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), – to IDEC in order to be fully operational by July 2026. Illinois strives to be the best state in the nation to raise a family with young children and IDEC is committed to continue putting children and families center while reducing complexities and finding efficiencies in the system and advancing equity.