Job Description

Description of University
Appalachian State University, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The transformational Appalachian experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and embrace diversity and difference. As one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina system, Appalachian enrolls more than 20,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
Position Summary Information
Minimum Qualifications
6+ years experience in a senior level or leadership role in administering and supporting IT Systems or Infrastructure.
3+ years experience in leading enterprise level IT projects
Strong knowledge and/or experience with one or more of the following:
Business Continuity Planning for Information Technology
Leading IT Change Management Process
Turning compliance requirements into operational plans and procedures
Experience with planning for an IT Audit
License/Certification Required
Typical physical demands of a professional position within the university office area. All duties are to be performed with or without reasonable accommodation.
Preferred Qualifications
Thorough understanding of risk management
Excellent strategic, problem solving and analytical skills
Ability to think through hypothetical situations and work to identify operational risks and weaknesses in various business processes
Excellent communication skills
Ability to collaborate with others to develop emergency plans
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
This position will be an ESA (Enterprise Solutions Architect) with an emphasis on Business Continuity & Operational Compliance. The role of an Enterprise Solution Architect is to lead the architecting of IT solutions and methodologies to meet the strategic needs of the University and ITS.

This position will be expected to lead efforts in developing Business Continuity plans and procedures for IT systems and services that work to minimize the likelihood of service disruptions or data loss. This will include overseeing ITS’s change management process.

It is expected that this position will lead the development of playbooks for responding to service disruptions with the goal being to quickly restore services in a safe and efficient manner. This will entail providing guidance and assistance to other areas in ITS as they develop their playbooks.

Additionally, this position will be expected to work closely with the Office of Information Security in turning compliance requirements and policies into operational procedures that will ensure ITS service compliance.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities of the IT Business Continuity & Operational Compliance Architect include:
Develop and maintain new and existing IT business continuity policies and procedures
Collaborates with other IT staff to develop, implement, and revise requirements and procedures for the protection and restoration of data and systems.
Develop operational procedures that meet compliance requirements
Play a key role in ensuring audit requirements and best practices are implemented
Conducts business continuity risk assessments for various departments (both internally within ITS and externally with our campus partners.) Analyzes the potential business impact of unpredictable business interruptions such as natural disasters, system failures, or security breaches. Help these units develop plans for how to continue operations in the event of an extended system/service failure.
Creates and facilitates practice drills for plan execution.
Develops and provides staff training on risk management and disaster recovery.
Works with various constituents across campus to align the emergency management plan with established best practices/ IT standard operating procedures.
Partners with University and State Auditors to ensure ITS is following University and State audit requirements and best practices.
Type of Position