Human Services seeks CIO

The Department of Human Services is seeking a Canberra-based chief information officer to replace deputy secretary of ICT infrastructure, John Wadeson.

Departing Human Services IT leader, John Wadeson.

In a job advertisement posted last Thursday, the department sought a senior executive to drive the “transformation and modernisation” of its agencies’ ICT systems.

The department was in the midst of a Service Delivery Reform program, which commenced in 2010, when it consolidated the IT operations of Medicare, Centrelink, the Child Support Agency, Australian Hearing and CRS Australia.

This year, Human Services won a total of $580 million to integrate disparate systems, move to a single website and phone number, and establish online, self-service systems for welfare and Medicare recipients.

Centrelink won $14.7 million for a virtualisation project and $8 million for a shared services project in the 2010/11 Federal Budget.

Wadeson told iTnews in January that Government CIOs were informally considering “the creation of a private Government cloud” that would allow departments and agencies to share resources from time to time.

The sixty-year-old flagged his retirement to the Australian Financial Review this February, after a year at the helm of the consolidated IT team and four years as Centrelink CIO.

A departmental spokesman told iTnews today that it sought managerial, rather than technical, experience from Wadeson’s replacement.

According to the job advertisement, the new CIO would be responsible for 55,000 desktops, 2,650 ICT staff, 8.5 billion annual transactions; and five million registered online and phone users.

The CIO would also: drive implementation of a new ICT strategy; focus ICT development around the customer; develop service-oriented infrastructure; and develop strong business partnerships.

“The portfolio is currently transforming service delivery to make it easier and quicker for customers to access government services,” wrote the department, which served about a million people a day.

“The CIO will be responsible for the integration of ICT infrastructure for all for all Human Services Agencies ... The successful applicant will have a strong customer service and business focus and will develop the infrastructure accordingly.”