Chief Information Officer, St. Louis, MO

Role Overview

Excelon Associates has been retained by a public, multi-campus community college serving the St. Louis metropolitan region to recruit its next Chief Information Officer. The CIO is the College's senior technology executive and a member of the executive leadership team, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, with responsibility for information technology, enterprise data, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation. The position is full time and on site in St. Louis, Missouri, with local travel between campuses, and compensation is discussed with qualified candidates.

This is a confidential search. The institution's identity is shared with candidates who advance in the process. The client is looking for a technology executive with a Master's degree, at least ten years of progressively responsible leadership experience in information technology including significant executive-level responsibility, and a record of managing large technology budgets, capital investments, and complex vendor portfolios, implementing enterprise systems, and leading organizational change. Experience with artificial intelligence, enterprise data governance, cybersecurity, cloud technologies, and higher education technology environments is strongly preferred.

What Does a Community College Chief Information Officer Do?

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a community college is the executive who owns the institution's technology strategy and the organization that delivers it: enterprise infrastructure, cloud services, enterprise applications such as the student information system and ERP, networking and telecommunications, technology support, instructional technology, and information security. The CIO sits on the executive leadership team, advises the president's cabinet on technology and cybersecurity investments and enterprise risk, and is accountable for the technology operating and capital budgets, vendor contracts, and technology governance. In this search the CIO also leads the College's artificial intelligence strategy and its enterprise data governance program.

At this College the CIO reports to the Chief Operating Officer and leads a technology organization whose senior staff include an Executive Director of Enterprise Services and Operations, an Executive Director of Infrastructure, a Director of Technology Support Services, and a Director of Information Security. The mandate is a comprehensive technology strategy that advances student success, operational excellence, academic innovation, institutional effectiveness, and community engagement, delivered through technology services that are secure, reliable, and cost effective at every campus and education center.

Community college CIOs operate inside a compliance and governance framework that is broader than most corporate IT roles. Student records fall under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), institutions that administer federal financial aid must meet the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Safeguards Rule for student financial data, and accreditors such as the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits Missouri's public community colleges, expect systems that support assessment, data integrity, and continuity of operations. Most higher education security programs are built on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and EDUCAUSE is the professional association where college CIOs benchmark their strategy, AI policy work, and security posture against peer institutions.

Primary Responsibilities

Executive Leadership and Strategy

• Develop and execute a multi-year technology strategy aligned with the College's mission, strategic plan, and institutional priorities.
• Serve as the executive advisor to the Cabinet on technology, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, enterprise systems, and digital innovation.
• Lead enterprise digital transformation initiatives that improve organizational effectiveness, streamline business processes, and enhance services for students, faculty, and staff.
• Build a culture of innovation, accountability, transparency, continuous improvement, and service excellence, with measurable performance goals and key performance indicators for IT operations.

Fiscal Stewardship and Resource Management

• Develop, administer, and oversee the College's technology operating and capital budgets.
• Drive disciplined financial management through forecasting, lifecycle planning, procurement oversight, cost optimization, and transparent budget reporting.
• Oversee technology investments to maximize institutional value and return on investment, and maintain appropriate financial controls over technology expenditures.
• Lead strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, vendor management, and performance evaluation for technology products and services.

Artificial Intelligence and Innovation

• Develop and implement the College's institutional strategy, policies, and ethical standards for artificial intelligence in collaboration with its cross-functional AI working group.
• Identify opportunities to apply AI and automation to administrative efficiency, student services, teaching, learning, and institutional effectiveness.
• Promote AI literacy and organizational readiness through professional development and cross-functional collaboration.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend investments that support the College's strategic objectives.

Technology Operations

• Provide executive oversight of enterprise infrastructure, cloud services, enterprise applications, networking, telecommunications, technology support, instructional technology, and information security.
• Ensure reliable, secure, resilient, and customer-focused technology services across all campuses.
• Oversee major technology initiatives and enterprise system implementations.
• Establish technology architecture, standards, and governance that support scalability and sustainability.

Cybersecurity and Enterprise Risk

• Oversee the College's cybersecurity strategy and enterprise information security program in coordination with the CISO.
• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards for privacy, security, and technology governance.
• Oversee business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident response planning.
• Assess enterprise technology risk on a regular basis and communicate risk posture and mitigation strategies to executive leadership.

Data, Analytics, and Governance

• Lead enterprise data governance initiatives that improve data quality, accessibility, security, and accountability.
• Promote data-informed decision-making through business intelligence, reporting, and analytics.
• Establish governance structures for technology investments, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and institutional data.

Collaboration and Organizational Leadership

• Partner with academic and administrative leaders to align technology initiatives with institutional priorities.
• Build relationships across the College that improve organizational effectiveness and user experience.
• Lead, develop, and mentor a high-performing technology organization.
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative, and accountable workplace culture focused on innovation and continuous learning.

Qualifications and Requirements

Required

• Master's degree.
• At least ten years of progressively responsible leadership experience in information technology, including significant executive-level responsibility.
• Demonstrated success managing large technology budgets, capital investments, and complex vendor portfolios.
• Demonstrated experience implementing enterprise systems and leading organizational change.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience with artificial intelligence, enterprise data governance, cybersecurity, cloud technologies, and higher education technology environments.

What the Successful Candidate Brings

• Current knowledge of higher education technology trends, digital transformation, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and data governance.
• Financial acumen, including experience managing complex operating and capital budgets.
• Strong executive leadership, strategic planning, and organizational development skills.
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building ability with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and decision-making skills.
• A record of leading organizational change and large-scale technology initiatives.
• The ability to establish governance, measure organizational performance, and drive continuous improvement.

Compensation and Work Setting

The client has not published a salary range for this position. Compensation is competitive for a community college chief information officer in the St. Louis market and is discussed with qualified candidates during the recruiting process, along with the College's full-time benefits package.

Working Conditions

• Office and campus environment with occasional evening or weekend work as needed.
• Local travel between campuses, with occasional regional or national travel.
• Availability outside normal business hours to respond to critical technology or cybersecurity incidents.

College and university CIOs are benchmarked against the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics category for computer and information systems managers (SOC 11-3021), and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) tracks chief information officer pay in its annual survey of higher education administrators. Within that group, pay for a public community college CIO varies with enrollment, the number of campuses, the size of the technology budget, and whether the role carries cybersecurity, data, and AI responsibility, as this one does.

Who Thrives in This Role?

This role rewards a technology executive who has already run a multi-campus or multi-site IT organization and been judged on outcomes the rest of the leadership team can see: systems that stay up during registration and financial aid peaks, a security program that holds up under audit and under attack, and budgets that are forecast, defended, and kept. The strongest candidates have led at least one enterprise system implementation or migration from start to finish, have negotiated the vendor contracts that come with it, and can explain the result to a board or cabinet in plain terms.

It is also a role where the AI mandate is real rather than aspirational. The College already has a cross-functional AI working group, and it wants a CIO who can turn that group's work into institutional policy, ethical standards, and practical use cases in student services, administration, and the classroom, while raising AI literacy across the organization. Candidates who have done that work elsewhere, or who have led comparable data governance programs, will have a clear advantage.

Finally, this is a relationship seat. Four senior directors report to the CIO, every campus depends on the services they run, and academic and administrative leaders expect a partner rather than a gatekeeper. The best fit is comfortable in the data center and the faculty senate alike, builds a team that people want to join, and answers the phone when a critical incident lands at an inconvenient hour.

About Excelon Associates and the Client

Excelon Associates is a retained and contingency executive search firm founded in 2007, headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida, and a dedicated higher education executive search practice that recruits presidents, provosts, deans, chief information officers, and other senior administrators for colleges and universities. This search is being conducted on a retained and confidential basis, and the firm publishes its search fees and engagement terms so clients and candidates know how it works.

The client is a public, multi-campus community college serving the St. Louis metropolitan region, with degree, certificate, and workforce programs delivered across several campuses and education centers. Missouri's public community colleges are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and coordinated at the state level by the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. The institution's identity is shared with candidates who advance in the process. Employers scoping a comparable technology leadership role can start from Excelon's sample job descriptions for a Director of Digital Transformation and a Director of IT Services, or browse current open roles and recent campaigns.

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The client is an equal opportunity employer and values all applications. Excelon does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, marital or veteran status, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.