Associate Director, IT Infrastructure & Technical Support Services

Associate Director, IT Infrastructure & Technical Support Services

Organization:                  Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal

City:                                 Toronto, ON                                        

Job Term:                        1 Permanent

Compensation Group:     Management Compensation Group

Job Code:                        M11

Salary Range:                  $105,307.00 - $148,429.00 per annum

Hours of work:                 Minimum of 36 ¼ hours / week

Language of Position(s): English

Posting Status:                Open

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) is a highly specialized adjudicative tribunal that hears appeals of final decisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. The WSIAT is currently seeking an experience professional to provide leadership, direction and hands-on expertise in the delivery of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal’s (the Tribunal’s) information technology infrastructure which includes the Tribunal’s data networks, data centre facilities, servers, storage solutions, switches, routers and firewalls appliances, end user computing, I&IT helpdesk operations, cybersecurity program, teleconferencing solutions, and vendor provisioned (cloud or other) infrastructure services.

What can I expect to do in this role?

Infrastructure Management

• Provides overall strategic and operational leadership for the Tribunal’s information technology infrastructure, IT service desk, I&IT vendor management, and cyber security practice: In collaboration with the Tribunal’s IT Engagement and Innovation lead, oversees, manages, and optimizes our hybrid cloud environment leveraging both on-prem and cloud-based resources.
• Implements industry, Tribunal, and broader OPS best practices in the key disciplines of IT infrastructure architecture planning, ITSM disciplines, public sector procurement and vendor management.

• Ensures that the Tribunal’s I&IT infrastructure is a secure and stable environment enabling consistent and seamless delivery of I&IT services.
• Leads the team to define, implement and test a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy, and Disaster Recovery plan.
• Ensures that the Tribunal’s data centre facilities are supported by adequate environmental controls and uninterruptable power supplies.
• Establishes infrastructure monitoring that consists of polling CPUs, memory, network utilization, temperature, Windows Services, disk space, power supply units, fans, event logs, etc., using tools based upon the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
• Eliminates as many single points of failure in the infrastructure as possible to ensure that when a critical component fails, the Tribunal’s business will continue to operate and not impact its staff and external stakeholders.
• Establishes a high degree of infrastructure security through the deployment of hardened firewall devices, a DMZ network zone that isolates the Tribunal’s public facing servers and protects access from the outside world to internal networks, servers and data.

Procurement and Vendor Management

• Participates in IT procurement initiatives to research, evaluate, recommend and purchase new or replacement technology that adheres to Tribunal and OPS procurement policies.

• Oversees complex IT vendor relationships to provide the Tribunal with effective governance of its chosen Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.
• Ensures that suppliers meet the Tribunal’s standards for policies and procedures and provides the same or greater level of operational security and effectiveness at a similar or lower total cost of ownership.
• Ensures vendors comply with relevant legislation (e.g. FIPPA, HIPPA, PIPEDA, PCI), and ensures vendors understand the full scope of their compliance responsibilities.
• Develops familiarity with and leverages OPS Vendors of Record agreements that will simplify and shorten the acquisition times for products and services acquired through mandatory competitive processes.
• Ensures that cloud providers share their underlying virtualization architecture to be transparent about how controls are in place to ensure that the Tribunal’s data is segmented from other customers

Cyber Security

• Manages the establishment and implementation of the Tribunal’s I&IT architecture review and gating processes for the design and implementation of all new and major enhancements to the Tribunal’s I&IT infrastructure and security solutions.
• Leads a cyber-security practice that ensures compliance with applicable OPS policies and directives and current privacy legislation.

• Consults and advises the Tribunal’s senior leadership on matters related to I&IT security.
• Manages performance architecture reviews of the design and implementation of all new and major enhancements to the Tribunal’s I&IT solutions.
• Directs and oversees I&IT cyber security projects that deliver solutions that enhance the protection of the Tribunals IT networks, IT applications, IT infrastructure, and databases.
• Oversees the monitoring of the Tribunal’s IT networks for security breaches; directing the responses to threats and attacks with appropriate counter-measures.
• Oversees and approves the cyber security safeguards that protect the Tribunal’s electronic files against unauthorized modification, destruction or disclosure, including computer anti-virus and malware protection systems and encryption solutions protecting data transmissions and to conceal confidential information during transmission.
• Reviews and approves authentication regimens and public key infrastructure systems.
• Manages the provision of educational programs and support services to educate users about computer security by promoting security awareness and security protocols

Service Management

• Manages and oversees incident management processes and acts as the “major” incident lead for the Tribunal’s catalogue of I&IT systems and services, including business applications, IT infrastructure, telephony and teleconferencing services, and end-user computing services.
• Manages the maintenance and reporting on service incidents, informing senior I&IT leads and service owners of all major incidents and their resolutions, systems performance metrics, and systems availability metrics for the period.
• Manages the development and implementation of plans and strategies for the modernization of ITSM tools that enable and support a fully integrated ITSM operation, ensuring the Tribunal is equipped with the necessary ITSM frameworks, policies, processes, procedures and tools.
• To direct and oversee the Tribunal’s VTR (hearings) services and VTR support staff.
• Provides technical support, guidance to I&IT colleagues, and collaboration with I&IT leaders with respect to the current (legacy) suite of internal business applications and infrastructure.

Administrative

• Manages the section’s budget and assists the Director of ITS with cyber-security security budget planning and forecasting, through the determination of technology equipment and supplier costs.
• Leads, coordinates and contributes to the overall I&IT technology roadmap and associated risk management plans.
• Shares knowledge, mentors and develops staff capacities to strengthen understanding of current and best practices in modern I&IT infrastructure management, cyber security and I&IT vendor management.
• Contributes towards building organizational technology talent within the Tribunal by fostering and supporting learning environments that ensure all employees have the training and skills needed to utilize available technology to meet their business needs.
• Ensures that there are skills and competencies in the IT team to drive the strategic IT initiatives that enable the Tribunal to modernize and to ensure the technology is aligned with long-term Tribunal goals.

How do I qualify for this role?

Knowledge and Experience:

• Understanding of project management theory, practices and techniques as well as leadership skills, to collaborate effectively with the Tribunal’s Digital Modernization lead in the leadership and direction of the Tribunal’s infrastructure, service management and cyber security modernization projects.
• Knowledge and experience in the areas of hybrid cloud infrastructures, the selection of cloud providers, application migration to the cloud, cloud-first strategies, estimating costs for transition/migration to the cloud, transitioning IT budgets from CAPX to OPEX and managing total cost of ownership cost models for cloud services.
• Knowledge of I&IT service management best practices, processes and procedures to effectively manage I&IT service management functions.
• Detailed knowledge of cyber security and cyber threat intelligence and risk analysis techniques and tools to direct the implementation of complex and customized security solutions and products.
• Knowledge and experience of business methodologies, tools, techniques, security design and architecture, threat and risk assessment, risk management concepts and practices, vulnerability assessment tools and methodologies etc. to provide informed leadership in business impact assessment, threat/risk assessments and emerging technologies.
• Knowledge of IT security and contingency principles, methodologies, mechanisms and techniques to provide leadership expertise in the development of IT disaster recovery, security and contingency strategies, government l&IT standards, OPS policies and directives; and privacy legislation.
• Detailed knowledge of vendor management and procurement principles, practices and methods, OPS contractual agreement negotiation, utilizing Vendor of Record agreements, and management decision making processes.
• Knowledge of the underlying software tools, development languages and platforms, and database technologies that underpin modern I&IT infrastructure and security solutions and services.
• Knowledge and expertise with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem; including administration, security, best practice and user adoption/transformation strategies.
• A degree in an information technology related field of study, or equivalent education and experience.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in a related position with relevant responsibilities and oversight.
• Relevant certifications will be an asset.

Communication and Interpersonal Skills:

• Interpersonal and communication skills to build and maintain effective and lasting relationships with Tribunal clients, project teams, and external consultants/partners in order to gather input, build consensus and deliver on priorities.
• Effective communications skills to provide specialized technical advice and direction to IT staff to identify solutions to I&IT infrastructure and cyber security problems needs; to explain technical solutions to both technical and non-technical personnel.
• Written communication skills to prepare reports, briefing notes and papers on the Tribunal’s I&IT systems and services and to prepare solution recommendations and business cases.
• Strong presentation skills with the ability to prepare briefings, and present technical information, to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong consulting and negotiating skills to work effectively in partnership with internal/external users.
• Exercising tact, discretion and an inclusive mindset during interactions with I&IT colleagues and Tribunal staff.

Critical and Analytical Thinking: 

• Proven strategic collaborator who can build linkages and partnerships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to promote excellence in I&IT service delivery for the Tribunal.
• Analytical and critical thinking skills to develop metrics to monitor progress for projects and operations; monitor and report on exposure levels and mitigation strategies and directs corrective actions.
• Possess a high degree of political acuity to anticipate and respond to politically sensitive situations.
• Problem solving skills to solve complex issues with the integration of existing on-premise legacy infrastructure with modern cloud based and vendor supplied infrastructure and to develop viable roadmaps to transition I&IT services onto cloud-based infrastructures.
• Critical thinking and decision-making skills for identifying gaps in the Tribunal’s ITSM, I&IT infrastructure and cyber security services and developing solution proposals to bridge the gaps.
• Highly developed interpretive reasoning to address the tools and technology requirements for an effective suite of I&IT infrastructure and security solutions and services.

Additional Information:

Address:                505 University Avenue, Toronto

Posted on:             October 25, 2024

For EXTERNAL candidates, please follow these directions:

1. Please submit your resume and cover letter through our online WSIAT Career Centre
2. Customize your cover letter and resume to the qualifications listed on the job ad.  Using concrete examples, please show how you demonstrated the requirements for this job.
3. If you require accommodation for a disability during any stage of the recruitment process, please notify us, confidentially, at Recruitment@wsiat.ca. Recruitment staff will contact you within 48 hours.
4. Background Check:  As a precondition of employment, the WSIAT requires that the final external candidate for this position, prior to commencing employment, is required to undergo both a criminal record and social media search.  Other types of background checks may also be requested such as education verification and professional credential validation.

Remember:  The deadline to apply is November 8, 2024, 11:59 pm EDT.  Late applications will not be accepted.  We thank you for your interest.  Only those selected for further screening or an interview will be contacted.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal is an inclusive employer.

Accommodation is available under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

All Ontario Public Service external job advertisements are posted in English and French. To confirm the language requirements of a job, check the "language of position" information at the top of each job ad. For all positions, candidates will be assessed in English, the business language of the Ontario Public Service. For English/French designated bilingual positions, candidates will also be assessed through French-language proficiency testing.

Toutes les offres d'emploi externes de la fonction publique de l'Ontario sont affichées en anglais et en français. Pour connaître les exigences linguistiques, vérifiez les renseignements sur la « langue du poste » figurant dans le haut de chaque offre d'emploi. Pour tous les postes, l'évaluation des candidates et candidats se fera en anglais, la langue usuelle de la fonction publique de l'Ontario. En ce qui concerne les postes désignés bilingues, la maîtrise du français des candidates et candidats sera également évaluée.