Associate Director, Service Platforms & Enterprise Capabilities

Requisition ID: 43019

Organization

Located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Peoples, Vancouver has a commitment to becoming a City of Reconciliation. Vancouver consistently ranks as one of the world's most liveable and environmentally sustainable cities. Named among Canada's Top 100 Employers, BC's Top Employers, and Canada's Greenest Employers, the City of Vancouver seeks colleagues who can help shape and embody our core commitments to sustainability, reconciliation, equity and outstanding quality of life for all residents.

Consider joining our committed team of staff and being part of an innovative, inclusive and rewarding workplace.

The Digital Service Delivery team enables great service experiences for City of Vancouver's customers and staff, helping them achieve their desired outcomes effectively and efficiently. We leverage human-centred, data-driven, service-oriented tools, methods & mindsets to make sure we solve the right problem and solve it the right way.

Main Purpose and Function
The Associate Director, Service Platforms & Enterprise Capabilities is responsible for planning, directing and co-ordinating the operations and strategic development of service delivery applications and platform team to optimize performance across technology platforms including: Verint CM Pro, ServiceNow, business intelligence, mobile apps, custom utilities and dependent platforms, and related integrations amongst others. This role also oversees the team that develops, manages, and scales critical business and technical capabilities to be leveraged by products and services across the organization. The Associate Director collaborates with other business and technology leaders to design, implement, deliver, and operate enterprise services and solutions that generate business value. A core enterprise capability this role also manages is our technology learning team, which enables business units across the city to leverage technology solutions to increase operational efficiency.

The Associate Director provides senior level technical and strategic leadership and guidance in the planning and development of 311 call center, service desk, PMO and related departments' technology and solutions. They are responsible for managing technical projects of significant size from planning, design, execution, implementation, and evolution, including managing project budgets, managing stakeholder and departmental interactions, liaising with vendors, and managing project timelines across multiple years.

The role contributes to departmental planning activities, making recommendations for changes in methods, technologies, processes and procedures that may impact financial and operational areas as well as staffing workloads, working conditions, changes in positions or staffing levels.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Provides leadership and guidance to staff, contractors, and vendors to ensure successful delivery of the Annual Technology Plan as well as operational targets. Guides people and product managers and team supervisors in the analysis and resolution of complex problems including analyzing the risk and impact of technology solutions and changes on individual business units and customers/users.
• Finds opportunities to enable business units around the organization to improve their outcomes and customer/employee experience by leveraging and extending enterprise technology and platforms.
• Identifies and measures key customer service KPIs and metrics to develop strategic objectives to improve service delivery and create effectiveness and efficiency.
• Provides guidance, structure, and strategic thought leadership to support successful implementation of strategic and operational initiatives and actively partners with City Departments and other internal stakeholder groups to understand their vision, business direction and assess opportunities and risks.
• Leads platform and capability delivery, defining platform and product roadmaps, risks, resources, roles and responsibilities, work breakdown structure, milestones, and deliverables, working collaboratively with Technology Program Managers as required.
• Establishes and fosters positive departmental relationships between partner departments and Technology Services and supports the management of Service Level Agreements and Operating Agreements with departmental contacts.
• Represents Technology Services Dept. at senior management levels across organization to ensure cohesion as the Technology Services team evolves its processes and procedures.
• Actively collaborates with business leaders to better understand business drivers, user needs, challenges and strategy and how to positively influence these to improve outcomes for end users through the execution of business and user requirement reviews, process reengineering, solutions implementation, validation, and change management activities.
• Provides leadership to staff including hiring, assigning responsibilities, evaluating performance, coaching, career development, succession planning, mentoring, training and development, providing feedback and discipline up to and including termination.
• Responsible for digital and technology platforms and/or products that support critical business service delivery (e.g. 311 call centre and Service Desk operations and process enhancements, enabling digital service delivery for business units across the organization). Ensures secure and effective design implementation and maintenance of platforms / products to support business continuity.
• Oversees software support contractual relationships with vendors, and manages related procurement processes such as licence management, annual maintenance, renewal, demise, and expansions.
• Accesses highly sensitive, strategic, and business information (e.g., business strategy, vendor pricing, etc.) and uses this to inform strategic decision making that materially impacts service delivery to both staff and members of the public.
• Keeps current on related technologies and platforms.
• Assists the Director, Digital Services and Customer Experience to develop capital and operational budgets.
• Other duties/responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications
Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or business administration and a minimum of ten (10) years of experience in application/product design, development and support, including five (5) years of supervisory experience, or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
• Experience in business process management, implementing technological change, and leading diverse teams within the public sector or large multi stakeholder organization, or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
• Experience in process documentation, business process reviews, and reengineering techniques.
• Experience in decision making with new business processes and operational improvements.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Extensive knowledge of leadership/management practices and procedures
• Extensive knowledge of the following technologies: ServiceNow, Contact Centre platforms such as Verint CM Pro, Cloud based services (e.g. Azure), Windows based client/server solutions, SSRS, Power BI or other similar reporting technologies, Business Intelligence platforms, SQL and Oracle database operations, web-based applications, integrations (e.g. Azure logic apps, Biztalk), Common development languages such as .Net or Javascript, and proprietary solution platforms.
• Extensive knowledge of application, product & platform lifecycle management, including agile and hybrid delivery models.
• Excellent communication and customer service skills and expertise in relating to vendors, c-suite stakeholders, and business colleagues.
• Strong knowledge of service design, customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) practices for internal and public facing products, platforms, and services.
• Experience leading organizational learning functions is an asset.
• Strong problem-solving approach and ability to understand new business models and domains.
• Demonstrated operational and project management skills: outcome focused and team oriented.
• Demonstrated problem solving and negotiation skills in a complex business environment.
• Ability to effectively and positively lead & influence others in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Ability to foster and support professional development of team members and guide career planning conversations to set them up for success.
• Ability to communicate effectively; foster high standards; coach; inspire and manage multi-disciplinary teams in a fast-paced, performance-focused environment using excellent interpersonal, visual design, presentation, and written skills.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of internal and external contacts and team members to provide advice, information and assistance.
• Ability to handle business critical, confidential and sensitive information.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage multiple priorities and respond to requests in a timely manner.

Where operationally appropriate and subject to change, the City of Vancouver has a Flexible Work Program. This program allows staff to work remotely 1 - 4 days a week from locations that are a daily commutable distance from their work at a City worksite. At this time this position is eligible to be part of the Flexible Work Program.

Business Unit/Department: IT, Digital Strategy & 311 (1070)

Affiliation: Senior Exempt

Employment Type: Regular Full Time

Position Start Date: February 2025

Salary Information: Pay Grade 121: $136,537 to $179,642 per year

Application Close: February 7, 2025

At the City of Vancouver, we are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that represents the community we so proudly serve. Indigenous peoples, people of colour, 2SLGBTQ+ persons including all genders and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Accommodations will be provided upon request during the selection process. Learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

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