Minimum requirements
- NQF 8 Postgraduate Degree/Diploma
- Willingness for after-hours involvement
- 10 - 15 years related experience, including management/ supervisory experience
- Stakeholder management experience
- Familiarity with the higher education legislative environment
- Has demonstrated a track record of managing a Secretariat portfolio, running a unit of a reasonable size
- Has a successful record of leadership and teamwork
- Has the ability to mobilize and inspire others towards shared goals
- Understands the operations and affairs of a university environment
- Thinks strategically and operationalise this into plans and projects
- Plan and manage budgets
Duties and Responsibility
Strategic Planning
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of the institution’s business goals and objectives.
- Identify opportunities for leveraging technology to support and enhance business strategies.
- Collaborate with senior management and key stakeholders to formulate a cohesive IT strategy aligned with overall business objectives
Business Systems Architecture:
- Define the architecture and infrastructure required to support the organization's strategic objectives.
- Assess current systems and technologies to identify gaps and areas for improvement.
- Design scalable and flexible systems architecture to accommodate future growth and changes in university needs.
Technology Roadmap Development:
- Create a technology roadmap outlining the phased implementation of IT initiatives to support business goals.
- Prioritize projects based on their potential impact on the university's strategic objectives and resource availability.
- Ensure alignment between technology investments and business priorities.
Execution and Implementation:
- Oversee the execution of IT projects, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and according to specifications.
- Coordinate cross-functional teams involved in system development, integration, and deployment.
- Monitor project progress and address any issues or risks that may arise during implementation.
Change Management:
- Develop and implement change management strategies to facilitate the adoption of new technologies and processes within the university.
- Communicate with stakeholders to gain buy-in and support for IT initiatives.
- Provide training and support to end-users to ensure successful adoption of new systems and technologies.
Performance Measurement and Optimization:
- Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of IT initiatives in supporting the university objectives.
- Monitor and analyze system performance and user feedback to identify opportunities for optimisation and improvement.
- Continuously iterate on the IT strategy based on feedback and changing business requirements.
Vendor Management and Partnerships:
- Evaluate and select third-party vendors and technology partners to support the organization's IT initiatives.
- Negotiate contracts and service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure value for money and adherence to quality standards.
- Manage vendor relationships and hold vendors accountable for delivering on their commitments.
Risk Management and Compliance:
- Identify potential risks related to IT projects and develop mitigation strategies to minimize their impact on Institution operations.
- Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards governing data security, privacy, and IT governance.
Manage Systems Operations Oversight:
- Supervising the operation and maintenance of all business systems, including hardware, software, networks, databases, and applications.
- Ensuring the availability, reliability, and performance of IT systems to meet business requirements and service level agreements (SLAs).
- Implementing best practices and standards for system monitoring, incident management, and performance optimization.
Incident and Problem Management:
- Establishing processes and protocols for identifying, prioritizing, and resolving IT incidents and problems in a timely manner.
- Leading incident response efforts during critical outages or system failures, coordinating with technical teams to restore services promptly.
- Conducting root cause analysis to identify underlying issues and implement corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
Change and Release Management:
- Managing the process for implementing changes and releases to IT systems, ensuring minimal disruption to business operations.
- Coordinating with stakeholders to assess the impact of proposed changes, obtain approvals, and schedule deployments during appropriate maintenance windows.
- Monitoring the effectiveness of change management processes and making adjustments to improve efficiency and minimize risk.
Capacity Planning and Performance Monitoring:
- Conducting capacity planning assessments to anticipate future resource requirements and ensure scalability of IT infrastructure.
- Monitoring system performance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify trends, anticipate bottlenecks, and optimize resource utilization
- Collaborating with infrastructure and application teams to implement performance tuning and optimization strategies
IT Service Management (ITSM):
- Implementing IT service management frameworks such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) to standardize service delivery processes and improve operational efficiency.
- Establishing service level agreements (SLAs), operational level agreements (OLAs), and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and track IT service performance.
- Continuously evaluating and improving ITSM processes through feedback mechanisms and service reviews.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity:
- Developing and maintaining disaster recovery plans and business continuity strategies to ensure the resilience of critical IT systems and data.
- Conducting regular testing and simulations of disaster recovery procedures to validate effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
- Establishing communication protocols and escalation procedures to facilitate rapid response and recovery during emergencies.
Compliance and Security Management:
- Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, industry standards, and internal policies governing IT operations and security.
- Implementing security controls, access controls, and monitoring mechanisms to protect sensitive data and mitigate cyber threats.
- Conducting regular audits and assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of security measures and address any vulnerabilities or compliance gaps.
Vendor and Contract Management:
- Managing relationships with third-party vendors, service providers, and contractors involved in supporting IT operations.
- Negotiating contracts, service level agreements (SLAs), and license agreements to ensure cost-effectiveness and quality of service.
- Monitoring vendor performance and holding vendors accountable for meeting contractual obligations.
Policy Development:
- Collaborate with key stakeholders to identify needs and gaps in existing policies related to information systems and technology.
- Research industry best practices, regulations, and standards to inform the development of new policies.
- Draft comprehensive policies that address security, privacy, data management, system usage, and other relevant areas.
- Ensure policies are clear, concise, and aligned with organizational goals and values.
- Draft comprehensive policies that address security, privacy, data management, system usage, and other relevant areas.
- Ensure policies are clear, concise, and aligned with organizational goals and values.
Procedure Development:
- Translate policies into actionable procedures and guidelines that detail specific steps and processes for implementation.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts to document best practices and standardized workflows for key business processes.
- Ensure procedures are documented in a clear and accessible format, such as manuals, process maps, or online portals.
- Incorporate feedback from end-users to refine procedures and improve usability and effectiveness.
Quality Assurance
- Implementation of the quality assurance standards/ measures to meet both internally set standards and the requirements of external bodies
Risk management
- Provide risk reporting
- Implement plans for identified risks
- Oversee the identification and avoidance of all risk elements in the Directorate’s activities Safety, Health and Environmental Management
- Ensure compliance with SHE policies and procedures Resource Management: Human Resources
- Lead, manage and develop direct reports
- Review structures for its appropriateness to assist the Secretariat section in achieving its strategic priorities
- Develop the Section’s workforce plans together with HR to ensure adequate resource planning, budgeted and are aligned to transformation targets
- Provide oversight in the recruitment and selection process for direct reports
- Support the achievement of equity targets and the transformation of the institutional culture
- Oversee the induction and probation of all new staff
- Drive performance contracts and regular reviews for all staff.
- Provide oversight in the training of all staff on performance management process and system
- Implement performance contracts for all staff and ensure regular reviews.
- Drive the staff development conversations and development plans
- Develop a training budget for training needs
- Drive and promote sound employment relations Ø Human resource administration
- Manage staff leave as per SPU policy
- Sign off relevant documentation needed
- Develop the Section’s Budget and provide sound financial management
- Prepare and report on:
- Annual staffing and operating budget and capex
- Manage expenditure according to the approved annual budget
- Asset management
- Drive the effective implementation of reporting systems
- Monitor organisational health indicators, identify problem/ concern areas and communicate to relevant stakeholders
- Identify trends and issues in Portfolio Areas and communicate to relevant stakeholders
- Develop relevant operational and strategic reports as and when required
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