County of Alameda

Under general direction, to direct the activities of staff in the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and enhancement of  new or revised information technology systems and programs; to supervise and coordinate the work of one or more teams responsible for the technical services provided to a group of customers assuring that those needs are appropriately defined and addressed.

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

Incumbents in the class of Technical Services Director delegate programming and systems analysis duties to staff and retain the responsibilities of supervision, planning, budgeting, review and evaluation of work and decision making.  Positions in the class of Technical Services Director differ from those in the next lower class of Application Systems Engineer III, in that the latter has the responsibility for only a unit or a project contained within a group, which is composed of these units of applications programmers and systems analyst, while the former has the responsibility for an entire group.  Technical Services Directors are further distinguished from the next higher classification of Assistant Chief Information Officer with the latter having direct supervisory responsibility over several Technical Services Directors including the responsibility for the overall planning, coordination, and direction of all groups.

NOTE:  The following are the duties performed by employees in this classification.  However, employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level.  Each individual in the classification does not necessarily perform all duties listed.

1.  Acts as liaison with top management and information technology coordinators of user departments, to assess and plan technical solutions for operational problems in existing systems or information processing needs for new or enhanced systems.

2.  Communicates with other department managers and executives to effectively utilize department resources.

3.  Estimates budgetary requirements for user department's service needs based on estimating production requirements and requests for new services.

4.  Acts as the liaison with vendors related to their area of responsibility.  Negotiates and maintains the vendor contracts; understands and follows County and department approval processes including purchasing regulations and Board letter protocols.

5.  Develops, defines, and documents the architecture roadmap for applications under their responsibility.

6.  Schedules, assigns, supervises, reviews, and evaluates the work of the leads working under them, and the lead's staff.

7.  Coordinates with Human Resources to address personnel management issues; interviews and makes recommendations on hiring of staff; provides for training and motivation of staff, prepares employee evaluations; handles staff performance and disciplinary actions.

8.  Evaluates progress of systems and programming activities; consults with and advises other systems and programs; compares with plans and objectives for delivering production services, development or enhancement projects, or for adhering to time and budget estimates; adjusts priorities or staff assignments where necessary.

9.  Evaluates and actively seeks new technologies and tools to effectively and efficiently provide technical services.

10.  Uses their positive influence to gain support and cooperation from stakeholders, colleagues, subordinates and other parties to achieve a desired course of action consistent with the organization's strategic goals and objectives.

Either I

The equivalent of two years of full-time experience in the class of Application Systems Engineer III, Web Designer III, County Webmaster, or Senior Technology Project Manager in the Alameda County classified service.

Or II

The equivalent of six years of full-time increasingly responsible experience in systems analysis and programming, including three years of the direct supervision and workload management of other systems analysts and programmers.

NOTE:  The Civil Service Commission may modify the above Minimum Qualifications in the announcement of an examination.

NOTE:  The level and scope of the following knowledge and abilities are related to duties listed under the Example of Duties section of this specification.  

Knowledge of:

• Project management tools, best practices and procedures.
• Software engineering practices, frameworks, techniques and industry trends.
• Principles and techniques of supervision, personnel management, administration and project management.
• Budgeting methods for estimating revenue and expenditures, and planning.
• Relationship of budgeting to policy-making. Relationship of policies and procedures to staff productivity and morale.
• Principles and techniques of planning, scheduling and control as applied to systems development and maintenance in a large information technology installation.
• Methods for review of systems analysis and programming work.
• Principles of systems analysis and programming techniques.
• Data organizations and access methods in computerized systems.
• Estimating methods for equipment costs, production costs, programming costs, and system benefits.

Ability to:

• Learn, follow, and enforce the Information Technology Department Project Lifecycle (PCL).
• Analyze major information processing problems.
• Direct the development of advanced computer-based systems, and the evaluation and modification of complex existing systems for optimum use.
• Formulate systems and programming section strategy to meet departmental goals, developing schedules, work plans and cost controls.
• Direct, assign, coordinate, and evaluate the work of programming and systems analysis staff for maximum productivity.
• Communicate technical concepts in a timely and understandable fashion to non-technical policy makers in the County.
• Understand and consider the impact of organizational, management, administrative and personnel aspects of information systems design.
• Resolve problems and make appropriate recommendations.
• Gather and analyze data, draw sound conclusions and prepare clear, concise reports.
• Work effectively with subordinate staff, other managers and user department representatives.
• Build consensus; influence and execute plans.

JE:lh  08/02/78

BA:ijm  01/30/79 Revised/Retitled

WW:lfm  Revised 09/81

DF:bl  01/11/00

jobspecs/1835

CSC Date:  01/19/00

EL:jf  01/24/17

NLB:kl  Revised/Retitle 05/07/19

CSC Date: 07/17/19