The Digital Transformation Agency is on the hunt for a chief information officer as it prepares for an “exciting period of development and change”.
The role will not be a whole-of-government CIO, but the successful applicant will instead be responsible for the DTA’s own ICT capabilities and various platforms.
The chief information officer will be replacing the existing director of business services, and will report to chief operating officer George-Philip de Wet, rather than chief digital officer Peter Alexander or CEO Randall Brugeaud.
The position is also listed as an executive level 2, meaning it will not be included in the DTA’s leadership team.
The job advertisement posted by the DTA said the CIO will be primarily responsible for developing and delivering ICT management, governance and delivery, protective and ICT security and facilities management.
The CIO will “manage the provision of secure, reliable and stable ICT and business services”, deliver IT solutions for internal and external stakeholders, ensure all applicable governance, compliance and assurance requirements are met and work with stakeholders across the public sector.
The successful applicant will lead a small team within the DTA, and will receive a salary up to $146,104 annually.
The 2019-20 federal budget saw the DTA’s staffing marginally increase to 205 full-time equivalents.
The job ad also signalled an “exciting period of development and change”. A major aspect of this change may well be a new, more hostile federal government if Labor wins the upcoming 18 May election.
It’s unclear what Labor may do with the DTA if it takes government in the coming weeks, but the Opposition has been highly critical of the agency’s performance and effectiveness in recent years.
A Labor-led Senate committee report last year said the DTA had been “sidelined” and “less empowered to take action”, and called for a reworking of its role within government.
“The Committee considers that the government has not demonstrated that it has the political will to drive digital transformation. This much is evidenced by the role it has given the DTA. Its contribution is muted because its role is confined to the level of assistance with discrete projects at the operational level,” the report said.
“Cumulatively, the evidence heard by this committee revealed an organisation that was not at the centre of government thinking about digital transformation, or responsible for the creation and enactment of a broader vision of what that transformation would look like.”
The Labor senators also called out “structural issues” at the DTA leading to its failure to intervene in troubled government IT projects at senate estimates hearings.
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