OVERALL DESCRIPTION

The Deputy Chief Technology Officer (DCTO) - Applications and Product Services drives the strategic planning, execution and management of SEPTA's application and product services portfolio. This portfolio includes digital workplace (DW), enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), operations applications, web, and mobile applications (WMA) and other applications used across SEPTA.
This role is critical to ensure that SEPTA's application technology solutions align with SEPTA's corporate strategy and enhance operational efficiency. As a key member of the senior IT management team, they collaborate closely with other leaders in IT and business units to spearhead digital transformation initiatives, optimize application value, and ensure the security and compliance of our application landscape. This leader actively leads the development of digital products and fosters a collaborative environment through regular communication with product stakeholders, and multiple groups.
They lead a team of diverse experts, including but not limited to software engineers, ERP specialists, program managers, product specialists, business analysts and ERP administrators. They stay actively engaged in DevOps, automated testing, and rapid deployment development strategies. Additionally, they manage and develop their team, attracting top talent. With a proven track record, they develop and execute a comprehensive application and product strategy aligned with the company's goals and objectives, gaining support across all organizational levels.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Develops and implements a comprehensive strategy for web, mobile, operational and enterprise applications that supports the organization's business goals and objectives.
2. Leads the analysis and collaboration with the software engineering team, carry out buy- build-customize analyses and develop plans to operationalize the results.
3. Owns, maintains, and promotes awareness of the application strategic roadmap.
4. Oversees the management, acquisition, design, build, test, deployment, and maintenance of SEPTA's enterprise applications portfolio, ensuring the solutions meet current and future business requirements.
5. Builds strong relationships, credibility, and trust with key business stakeholders to strengthen the data team's credibility within the organization.
6. Operates as a change agent to accelerate the journey of being a best-in-class technology product-development organization.
7. Identifies opportunities for innovation and improvement, while overseeing ongoing implementation of multiple, overlapping large application initiatives.
8. Leverages mobile application strategies and best practices, including guidelines for tailoring development methodologies to deliver products to meet organizational needs.
9. Develops productive relationships with business leaders across our organization to influence how applications can enable new sources of value.
10. Safeguards the reliability, availability, and performance of our enterprise applications.
11. Implements best practices for application life cycle management, including development, deployment, maintenance, and support.
12. Establishes and maintains strong relationships with key vendors and partners. Develops a nuanced understanding of strategic vendors' roadmaps and how these will support the SEPTA's business objectives.
13. Collaborates with IT sourcing and vendor management teams to strengthen the company's position when negotiating with software and service vendors.
14. Evaluates and prioritizes applications based on strategic alignment, return on investment, and risk.
15. Performs ongoing buy-build-customization analysis for current and future components of the portfolio. Identifies opportunities for system modernization, integration, automation, and rationalization.
16. Stays abreast of emerging technologies and practices including but not limited to AI, Machine Learning and Robotics Process Automation tools.
17. Leads, builds, and develops a motivated bench of technical talent in the software engineering group that works closely with the infrastructure, cyber and data teams.
18. Guides and empowers the product engineering team to scope, plan and deliver work, applying established delivery methodologies (e.g., agile methods) and best practices (e.g., reusability).
19. Collaborates with our internal governance team to ensure applications comply with all relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards.
20. Oversees risk management processes to identify, assess and mitigate risks associated with applications and database systems.
21. Additional responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Master's degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field and 15+ experience in data with growing complexity required.
• Minimum 10+ Years of leadership with progressively increased responsibility leading large scale, complex, and matrixed organizations required.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience leading web and mobile application development required.
• Proven track record of leading digital transformation initiatives and implementing large- scale IT projects required.
• Demonstrated experience in leading at least three full-life cycle ERP projects (i.e., SAP, Oracle, Workday, Salesforce) required.
• Strong understanding of next generation application practices required.
• Demonstrated track record of driving large-scale, cross-functional change programs and transformation initiatives through developing, articulating, and driving a strategy of where and how applications can create value and improve business performance, with proven results required.
• In-depth knowledge of enterprise application platforms, cloud computing and immersion technologies required.
• The ability to use strategic planning to translate business goals into technology solutions required.
• Experience managing a large portfolio of programs/projects and associated ongoing prioritization and resource allocation to ensure that the crucial business initiatives are delivered required.
• Proven experience leading large applications organizations with a customer-first mindset, seeking to reimagine customer/ end-user experience required.
• Experience building a culture around secure coding, governance and hygiene while bringing expertise and sensitivity to data security, risk, and compliance required.
• Experience leading a team responsible for web, mobile, and application programing interface (API) development required.
• Proven track record of building and scaling applications and mobile products that deliver quantifiable business results required.
• Experience in establishing a secure integration architecture framework in cloud, on- premises, and hybrid environment required.
• Demonstrated experience of various technology frameworks (i.e., ITIL, DevOps, NIST- CSF) required.
• Expertise with leveraging agile to facilitate product delivery emphasizing continuous and quality delivery required.