Chief Information Officer

Join the Salish Kootenai College team. We are committed to bringing excellence in higher education with an environment that is student focused.

Qualified applicants should visit the employment listing below for a full position announcement on positions currently being offered at Salish Kootenai College.

All interested applicants must submit an SKC application, resume, and applicable transcripts by the closing date listed on the position announcement to:

Salish Kootenai College

Attn: Human Resources

P.O. Box 70, Pablo, MT 59855

Applications and supporting materials may be emailed:

HR@skc.edu

To apply you must submit an SKC application, resume and applicable transcripts to Human Resources, P.O. Box 70, Pablo, MT 59855 . Your application must include evidence that you have the skills, experiences and abilities indicated in this announcement (i.e., cover letter, resume and transcripts). Information you provide will be used as deciding factors in our employment process.

If you are selected for a position with SKC that has a degree requirement or required credentials, you will be required to submit OFFICIAL transcripts and credentials within 30 days of hire.

Chief Information Officer

Salish Kootenai College seeks applicants for the position of:

Chief Information Officer

Salary Range:

$74,724 - $85,073

Questions may be directed to:

Human Resources @ 406-275-4985/4977 or HR@skc.edu

Closing Date:

Tuesday, December 1, 2026

GENERAL SUMMARY:

The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Salish Kootenai College (SKC) is a senior executive leadership position tasked with managing the institution's overarching technology ecosystem, aligning IT operations with the College's mission, and safeguarding sensitive institutional data.

• Strategic Leadership & Advising: Serves as the primary technology strategist to the President, executive leadership, faculty, and administrative teams to advance student success, institutional effectiveness, and long-term college goals.
• Cultural & Tribal Data Sovereignty: Ensures technology strategies and data stewardship respect tribal sovereignty, protecting data related to tribal members, students, and community research within SKC’s unique cultural and community context.
• Personnel Supervision: Directs and develops the Information Technology Services Department. Direct reports include the IT Operations Manager, Systems Administrators (Network, Web, Jenzabar), and department technicians.
• Enterprise IT Operations: Oversees core infrastructure, network operations, cloud services, telecommunications, and high-availability enterprise software systems (such as the Jenzabar ERP).
• Cybersecurity & Compliance: Governs cybersecurity policies, identity and access management (IAM), business continuity, disaster recovery, and overall technology risk management.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Strategic Leadership & Governance
• Institutional Alignment: Develop and maintain an IT strategy and roadmaps aligned with SKC’s mission, priorities, sustainability, and budget.
• Executive Advising: Serve as the chief technology advisor to the President, executive leadership, and Board of Directors.
• Governance & Policy: Establish technology governance structures for IT investments; develop, enforce, and regularly update campus-wide IT policies and compliance standards.
• Planning & Accreditation: Participate in college-wide strategic planning, budgeting, accreditation activities, and major institutional initiatives.
• Enterprise Operations & Digital Transformation
• Daily Operations Oversight: Maintain reliable enterprise computing, servers, network/wireless infrastructure, telecommunications, audiovisual systems, and cloud services.
• Modernization: Drive digital transformation by transitioning legacy systems to SaaS, cloud services, automation, and AI.
• Service Management: Establish service standards, SLAs, incident management, problem management, and change management procedures.
• Cybersecurity & Identity Management (IAM)
• Cybersecurity Strategy: Maintain an institution-wide security strategy covering network, endpoint, user, and cloud security controls.
• Incident Response & Awareness: Lead security training, phishing prevention, and manage incident response for malware, ransomware, or data breaches.
• Identity Lifecycle: Oversee onboarding/offboarding, role-based access control (RBAC), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and single sign-on (SSO) while adhering to least-privilege principles.
• Enterprise Applications & Data Governance
• System Integration: Oversee management, integration, and performance of enterprise systems across academics, student services, HR, finance, and reporting platforms.
• Data Ownership & Quality: Establish standards for data stewardship, security, retention, quality, and administrative dashboards/analytics.
• Tribal Data Sovereignty: Ensure institutional and research data practices, handling, and external sharing align strictly with tribal data governance expectations and tribal sovereignty.
• Financial Management, Vendors & Risk Mitigation
• Budget & Funding: Manage the IT budget, develop multi-year replacement plans, and actively pursue external grants or strategic partnerships.
• Procurement & Vendors: Establish procurement standards, negotiate contracts, and evaluate vendor performance to optimize costs.
• Disaster Recovery (DR): Develop, test, and maintain robust business continuity, backup, and DR plans aligned with overall campus emergency management.

PHYSICAL AND WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Work Environment & Interaction
• Campus Setting: Primary work is performed in standard office and campus environments.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Requires frequent, active interaction across the College community—including faculty, staff, students, administrators, vendors, and external community partners.
• Schedule & Availability
• Core Hours & Exceptions: Standard executive business hours, with required flexibility for occasional evening, weekend, or off-hours work.
• Emergency Response: Must be available off-hours to respond to critical events such as major technology implementations, system outages, cybersecurity incidents, or campus emergencies.
• Travel Requirements
• Institutional Representation: Occasional local, regional, or national travel required for professional development, higher education conferences, vendor/partner meetings, tribal consortium activities, and other official SKC business.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree: Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Executive Leadership: Significant and progressively responsible experience in IT leadership.
• Strategic Alignment: Proven track record of developing and executing IT strategies that directly align with broader organizational goals.
• Personnel Management: Demonstrated success leading, supervising, developing, and evaluating technical staff.
• Enterprise Operations: Extensive experience managing enterprise-wide IT operations, network infrastructure, enterprise applications, and cloud computing.
• Cybersecurity & Identity: In-depth knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks, information security, and identity and access management (IAM).
• Governance & Continuity: Deep understanding of IT governance, risk management, business continuity, and disaster recovery (BC/DR).
• Financial & Vendor Management: Hands-on experience directing IT budgets, evaluating vendors, negotiating contracts, and leading large-scale projects.
• Executive Communication: Exceptional written, verbal, interpersonal, and leadership communication skills for working with stakeholders across all institutional levels.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s Degree: Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• Executive Track Record: Prior experience serving as a CIO, CTO, IT Director, or equivalent senior technology executive.
• Higher Education Expertise: Previous technology leadership within higher education, with a strong preference for experience at a Tribal College or University (TCU).
• Cultural & Governance Awareness: Direct experience working alongside Tribal governments, Tribal organizations, or Native-serving institutions.
• Accreditation & Compliance: Familiarity with higher education accreditation standards, institutional reporting requirements, and federal/state compliance.
• Advanced Security & IAM: Practical experience implementing enterprise Identity and Access Management (IAM), RBAC, Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and recognized cybersecurity frameworks.
• Educational Systems & Transformation: Hands-on experience leading major digital transformation initiatives, enterprise system migrations, and higher education application platforms (including Student Information Systems and Learning Management Systems).
• External Funding: Demonstrated success in securing grant funding or managing complex, federally funded technology initiatives and budgets.

To apply you must submit an SKC application, cover letter, resume, identification, and applicable transcripts to Human Resources, P.O. Box 70, Pablo, MT 59855 or email HR@SKC.edu.

Your application must include evidence that you have the skills, experiences and abilities indicated in this announcement. Applicants are asked to provide copies of academic transcripts and any other educational, training, or applicable credential or license, which may support your application for this position.

The information you provide will be used as deciding factors in our employment selection process.

www.skc.edu – check us out – it’s a great place to work!