Gutsy CIO needed to tackle major NDIS ramp-up

The latest chief information officer gig up for grabs in the federal government could also be one of the trickiest.

The agency behind the implementation of the milestone national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) reforms is looking to hire a technology chief that can tackle the IT headache associated with a dramatic increase in scheme membership to 460,000 by mid-2019.

Auditors have already warned the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) that its current systems are not equipped for the national ramp up, which will see hundreds of thousands of Australians living with a disability onboarded to its claims and payments management portals.

PwC was called in late last year to review the origins of a migration glitch that saw payments disability service providers blocked for weeks.

It said the switch to a SAP-based payments engine was rushed, under-resourced, and under-tested, which is why the NDIA didn’t realise the controls in SAP were much stronger than the old Siebel system and wouldn’t accept some payee details.

The auditor reported that the NDIA was "not yet equipped to manage the transition to full scale ramp-up, as evidenced by the use of external support for the change effort, and the movement of employees out of their normal roles into temporary teams for issue resolution”.

“The impact of these factors will become more evident as the rollout progresses,” PwC warned.

As such, the agency wants an experienced CIO willing to steer the agency through the “quantum increase in contact” expected during the potentially rocky transition period.

The ramp up will demand “the effective management of channels, and responsive management of resources", the NDIA said in a job ad.

“The CIO must ensure the effective implementation of the agency’s tiered issues management model.”

The SES level two role will manage four direct reports within an agency that is expected to peak at 3000 employees.

It is appealing to IT executives with a social conscience to take on the challenge.

“The [NDIS] is heavily dependent on information technology,” the NDIA said.

“The roll out of the scheme is a unique opportunity to contribute to social reform in a complex and diverse operating environment.”

The agency has also hinted that it envisions the new CIO will tinker with cognitive computing, online virtual assistants, solution design hubs, and e-commerce as part of the digital service delivery side of the role.

It is taking applications until April 10.