Assistant to Executive Vice President, Strategic Technology Projects

Location: Bowling Green, KY Category: Staff Job Type: Part-time Posted On: Tue Nov 10 2026 Job Description:

The Assistant to the Executive Vice President for Strategic Technology Projects will concentrate on institutional priorities, including projects supported by focused funding opportunities, and will help move selected initiatives from problem definition through implementation and transition to permanent University teams. The role combines enterprise architecture, hands-on project leadership, process analysis, solution design, due diligence, and executive decision support. It is intended to expand WKU's capacity for high-value project work without recreating the operational or personnel-management responsibilities of a full-time executive position. This a temporary part-time position lasting up to one year. Continuation is dependent upon funding/need.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Enterprise Technology Architecture and Strategy

• Evaluate existing and proposed enterprise technology architectures across infrastructure, networking, cloud and data center services, enterprise applications, cybersecurity, identity and access management, integration, automation, data, telecommunications, audiovisual systems, and physical security technologies.

- Develop practical current-state assessments, target-state architectures, technical standards, decision frameworks, and sequenced modernization roadmaps. - Translate institutional objectives and operational problems into clear technology options, including costs, risks, dependencies, staffing implications, implementation complexity, and expected outcomes. - Identify opportunities to simplify the environment, reduce unnecessary duplication or customization, improve resilience, and make better use of existing investments. - Provide independent technical judgment on high-impact or cross-functional decisions while respecting the authority of existing University executives, ITS leaders, system owners, and governance bodies.

Project Initiatives and Leadership

• Serve as solution architect for selected initiatives supported by one-time state funding or other time-limited resources.

- Convert broad funding objectives into defined projects with clear scope, outcomes, deliverables, schedules, budgets, dependencies, decision rights, success measures, and transition plans. - Coordinate work among technical teams, functional offices, executive sponsors, vendors, procurement, and other stakeholders without assuming routine personnel-management responsibility. - Help ensure that funding opportunities produce durable institutional value and does not create unsupported systems, hidden recurring costs, fragmented ownership, or avoidable technical debt. - Lead selected projects through discovery, procurement support, design, implementation oversight, acceptance, operational transition, and post-implementation review, as assigned.

Business Process Review and Solution Design

• Work with functional offices and technical teams to document current processes, clarify desired outcomes, identify bottlenecks and control gaps, and distinguish underlying problems from symptoms.

- Challenge unnecessary steps, duplicate data entry, manual handoffs, inconsistent rules, excess customization, and workarounds that have accumulated over time. - Design improved future-state processes before selecting or configuring technology, recognizing that the appropriate solution may involve policy, role clarity, workflow redesign, integration, automation, better use of an existing platform, or new technology. - Develop practical solution designs that define process ownership, user roles, data flows, integrations, security and privacy controls, exception handling, reporting needs, support requirements, and measures of success. - Create limited prototypes, proofs of concept, process models, or reference architectures when they provide an efficient way to test feasibility, improve stakeholder understanding, or reduce implementation risk. - Ensure that proposed solutions are understandable and maintainable by the people who will own them after the assignment is completed and transitioned.

Technology Investment and Vendor Guidance

• Review significant technology proposals, licensing models, contract structures, implementation plans, and vendor claims.

- Evaluate total cost of ownership, recurring financial commitments, operational sustainability, integration requirements, security implications, institutional capacity, and long-term value. - Participate in selected vendor discussions, technical evaluations, procurement planning, contract-renewal preparation, and escalation efforts. - Prepare concise business cases, comparison models, architecture recommendations, or decision memoranda for major technology investments.

Job Requirements:

- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution. - At least 12 years of progressively responsible professional experience in enterprise information technology. - At least 5 years of experience in senior technology leadership, enterprise architecture, technology strategy, complex project leadership, or a comparable advisory role. - Demonstrated experience across multiple enterprise technology domains, such as infrastructure, networking, data centers or cloud services, enterprise applications, cybersecurity, identity and access management, systems integration, automation, service management, telecommunications, audiovisual systems, or physical security technology. - Demonstrated experience leading or evaluating major technology initiatives in a complex organization and working across technical and functional boundaries. - Experience conducting business-process reviews and translating operational needs into improved processes and practical technology solutions. - Experience developing project plans, architecture recommendations, roadmaps, business cases, technical assessments, or executive decision materials. - Experience collaborating with executive leaders, operational stakeholders, vendors, procurement personnel, and technical professionals.

Additional Information:

Kentucky state law requires all public institutions of postsecondary education to conduct pre-employment criminal background checks to determine suitability for employment.

Western Kentucky University (WKU) is committed to a policy and practice of providing equal employment and educational opportunities to all individuals. In accordance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Revised 1992, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, no form of discrimination or harassment will be tolerated at WKU on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, marital status, age, uniformed services, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, or physical or mental disability in admission to career and technical education programs and/or activities, or employment practices.

Persons with disabilities, who need reasonable accommodations to participate in the application and/or selection process, may contact the Office of Institutional Equity at 270-745-5121 for assistance. To report concerns related to WKU's Discrimination and Harassment Policy, No. 0.2040 and/or WKU's Sex and Gender-Based Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation Policy, No. 0.2070, please complete the Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation Reporting Form. Additional information regarding Title IX, including contact information for the Title IX Coordinator and reporting options, is available on WKU's Title IX website.

Information concerning educational programs offered by WKU are provided at: https://www.wku.edu/academics/

For information related to job postings, application status, or the hiring process, please email employment@wku.edu.