Deputy Chief Information Officer

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Posting Information:
This posting is for an existing vacancy.

The internal posting deadline for this position isFriday April 10th 2026 at 11:59PM.

Job Description:

Primary Purpose

The Deputy Chief Information Officer (Deputy CIO) is accountable to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for providing senior executive leadership and operational stewardship across the University of Waterloos enterprise IT environment ensuring the execution integration and reliability of institutional IT services in support of the Universitys academic and research mission and efficient administrative operations.

The Deputy CIO serves as the CIOs designated executive deputy and principal operational leader within the University of Waterloo Information Systems & Technology Senior Leadership team including representing the Chief Information Officer on institutional committees as directed. The Deputy CIO works collaboratively with colleagues across campus both IT and non-IT including Vice-President (VP-)level offices Faculties and Academic Support Units and represents the University externally in an operational and peer leadership capacity as delegated by the CIO within the broader higher education IT community peer institutions and sector doing so the role advances a positive IT culture and consistent reliable user experiences for the campus community.

Key Accountabilities

Cross-Portfolio Operational Leadership

• Serve as the senior operational leader for IST with direct people leadership accountability for IT Directors and their portfolios including workforce planning performance management organizational health and leadership sustainability and the consistent application of institutional HR practices across assigned portfolios.
• Provide operational oversight and stewardship of IT operating budgets across reporting portfolios including planning monitoring forecasting and operational trade-off analysis for submission to the CIO and/or institutional governance bodies for approval as appropriate.
• Provide cross-portfolio operational leadership for institutional IT services across IST on behalf of the CIO by setting expectations supporting Directors in resolving cross-portfolio trade-offs and integrating outcomes across their respective portfolios.
• Ensure that institutional operational models service standards and performance expectations established under CIO leadership and IT governance are consistently applied and executed across IT portfolios.
• Ensure visibility into service performance across portfolios including availability service levels customer satisfaction and operational risk and hold Directors accountable for performance within their areas.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for significant cross-portfolio operational issues service disruptions and resource constraints.

Operational Alignment and Readiness

• Ensure operational readiness and adaptability for CIO-led institutional initiatives policy changes and transformation priorities playing a critical role in translating institutional strategy into excellent operational IT outcomes for the campus community while providing senior leadership insight to support effective implementation and sustainability of IT platforms and systems.
• Partner with the Chief Data Officer to support the operationalization of institutional data governance analytics platforms and AI-enabled services ensuring service reliability lifecycle accountability and alignment between operational execution and data policy.
• Partner with the Chief Information Security Officer to ensure security practices are embedded into day-to-day IT operations incident response and service continuity.

Risk Resilience & Compliance

• Maintain institutional oversight of IT operational risk including continuity resilience and disaster recovery.
• Work in close partnership with the Chief Information Security Officer to embed security practices into operational workflows.
• Ensure operational compliance with FIPPA/PHIPA institutional policies and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Represent operational risk service resilience and readiness to senior leadership and governance bodies in support of CIO-level institutional risk accountability as required.

Operational Performance and Accountability

• Establish operational review cadences and performance oversight mechanisms and work with Directors to be accountable for portfolio-level KPIs aligned with the CIOs overall institutional accountability.
• Drive continuous improvement and operational efficiency through shared tooling automation standard operating practices within and across portfolios.
• Promote operational excellence efficiency and sustainability across a complex IT environment.

Required Qualifications

Education

• University degree (or equivalent experience) in Information Technology Business Administration or a related field.
• Graduate degree strongly preferred.
• Executive leadership education or training in governance enterprise risk management or operational leadership considered an asset.

Experience

• 15 years of progressive IT leadership experience including senior executive responsibility for enterprise-scale IT operations.
• Experience providing operational leadership across multiple diverse IT portfolios including setting expectations resolving cross-portfolio issues and holding senior leaders accountable for execution.
• Experience leading enterprise IT operations in complex decentralized organizations preferably within a large public-sector or higher education environment.
• Experience overseeing large multi-portfolio IT operating budgets including planning forecasting and trade-off decision-making in resource-constrained environments.
• Experience presenting operational performance risk and service outcomes to executive leadership and institutional governance bodies.
• Experience engaging and influencing senior non-IT executives translating operational realities into clear decision-ready insight.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Broad knowledge of enterprise IT operations including applications infrastructure and service delivery sufficient to provide effective executive oversight across diverse portfolios.
• Strong understanding of IT service management principles operational governance and performance accountability in complex institutional environments.
• Strong systems thinking and analytical judgment with the ability to assess operational interdependencies risks and trade-offs across portfolios.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills with the ability to work effectively with senior academic and administrative leaders.
• Sound financial and resource management judgment including stewardship of large operating budgets and competing institutional priorities.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to present operational performance risk and trade-offs clearly to executive leadership and governance bodies.
• Ability to lead effectively in environments characterized by complexity ambiguity and constraint maintaining operational stability while enabling institutional priorities.
• Executive judgment to balance academic administrative financial risk and compliance considerations in support of sustainable IT operations.

Equity Statement

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research learning teaching and community building and is coordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

The University values the diverse and intersectional identities of its students faculty and staff. The University regards equity and diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for all employees. The University of Waterloo seeks applicants who embrace our values of equity anti-racism and inclusion. As such we encourage applications from candidates who have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized including applicants who identify as First Nations Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit) Black racialized a person with a disability women and/or 2SLGBTQ.

Positions are open to qualified candidates who are legally entitled to work in Canada.

The University of Waterloo is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. If you have any application interview or workplace accommodation requests please contact Human Resources or ext. 45935.