Rice University
Associate Vice President for Academic and Enterprise IT Solutions (Finance)
Rice University has engaged Opus Partners to assist with this search. Craig Smith , Senior Partner, and Thomas Lapierre , Senior Associate, are leading the search. For additional information or to nominate qualified candidates , please email Thomas at thomas.lapierre@opuspartners.net . To be considered for the position, candidates must formally apply via Opus Partners and must provide a resume and a cover letter that addresses the responsibilities and qualifications of the AVP role.
About Rice
Boasting a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has a 6-to-1 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio and a residential college system, which supports students intellectually, emotionally, and culturally through social events, intramural sports, student plays, lecture series, courses, and student government. Developing close-knit, diverse college communities is a strong campus tradition, which is why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life and best value among private universities.
Rice is also a wonderful place to work. Rice faculty, staff, and students share values that are essential to our success as a healthy community. Those values guide our decisions and behaviors and shape Rice's culture. They come through in how we treat each other and the welcome we extend to our visitors. These values can be recalled simply by our name - RICE - Responsibility, Integrity, Community, and Excellence.
The Rice Experience is their excellence and their culture of care - the close interactions between faculty and students, the interdisciplinary connectedness of their fields of study, the commitment and ownership to Rice and their community. Learn more about Rice University's newly launched tenyear strategic plan Momentous .
Information Technology at Rice
The Office of Information Technology is the University's central technology provider, supporting research, academic and administrative systems, and other core applications as well as voice, network, and computing infrastructure for the Rice community. OIT is an integral part of Rice and is committed to supporting the University's mission through innovative uses of technology and service excellence. The University's Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer leads OIT, reporting to the Executive Vice President for Operations, Finance, & Support.
In the 2023-2024 academic and fiscal year, building on extensive work to stabilize its implementation of the Oracle cloud ERP platform, Rice completed a technology maturity assessment and developed a plan to reconceive its enterprise IT portfolio to align services and solutions by customer rather than by platform. The VP-CIO shared the vision for this new paradigm, dubbed the Service-Oriented Operating Model, in March 2024 and set in motion a wave of organizational changes called for in the implementation plan, along with a re-conception of IT governance that will create institutional scaffolding to sustain this new paradigm.
The elements of this new vision for OIT come together in its IT Excellence p ortfolio, which establishes OIT as a strategic partner across the University by enhancing IT services, technology infrastructure, and operational processes, fostering data-informed decision-making, and driving innovation to elevate customer experience and support the success of divisions, departments, and units. A central premise of the IT Excellence portfolio is collaboration - among teams across OIT and with clients and partners across campus. The program is one component of the strategic plan of the Division of Operations, Finance & Support .
As it moves through its reorganization and its appointment of new leaders and a replenished layer of senior management, OIT is organized in five areas, each headed by a direct report to the VP-CIO:
While OIT is the largest IT organization on campus, it operates as only one part of a broader network of IT organizations and practitioners known as IT @ Rice . IT @ Rice is a collaborative and diverse community of technology providers organized to advance the University's mission. The term IT @ Rice includes the University's entire ecosystem of information technology people and systems. This community includes people in IT roles in schools, administrative units, and central IT organization. A group of campus IT leaders meets monthly as the Information Technology Leaders to coordinate services and projects across Rice. The faculty advises on IT prioritization through the IT Council. IT projects and investments are prioritized and approved by the University Committee on Information Technology . The IT Committee of the Board of Trustees provides governance over Information Technology.
The recruitment of the AVP for Academic and Enterprise IT Solutions is a key step in creating the new organizational vision for OIT and of the new value it provides to Rice.
Position Summary
Reporting to the University's Vice President for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer, the Associate Vice President for Academic and Enterprise IT Solutions (AVP) is responsible for Academic & Student Lifecycle Technology Services and Core Operations Technology Services. Like every other OIT leadership position, in the context of the IT Excellence initiative the AVP leads their part of OIT in an important paradigm shift whereby they are responsible for enabling the success of all Rice customers - faculty, staff, and students advancing the University's mission in education and research - through the development, delivery, and ongoing optimization of enterprise applications. The strategic focus is now on the customer and the ease, efficiency, and security with which they do the University's work.
The AVP and the Academic and Enterprise IT Solutions team enable excellence in academic and business operations by supporting and continuing to enhance the core management applications of the University. Enterprise business functions supported by the Academic and Enterprise IT Solutions unit include central administrative systems, the University's ERP platform, and student lifecycle technology services.
The AVP's area currently comprises two teams:
Within OIT, the AVP works closely with colleagues who lead Research Computing; Security, Strategy & Innovation; and Infrastructure. Beyond OIT, the AVP will collaborate actively with partners in other areas of Operations, Finance & Support who are building capacity in data analytics, strategic planning, and change management to co-create and implement this exciting vision of a transformed and transformative enterprise IT organization.
Minimum Requirements
The qualities, competencies, and experiences candidates should bring will ideally include a combination of the following key characteristics:
Trust Building and Stakeholder Engagement
Rice Mission and Values: Mission and Values | Rice University
Rice University is committed to ensuring Equal Employment Opportunity and welcoming the fullness of diversity into our candidate pools. Rice considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. Rice also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified persons with disabilities. If an applicant requires a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please contact Rice University's Disability Resource Center at 713-348-5841 or adarice@rice.edu for support.
If you have any additional questions, please email us at jobs@rice.edu . Thank you for your interest in employment with Rice University.