Job DescriptionJob Description
This position is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Senior Technology Fellowship
Annual Salary: $165,000.00 + Full State Employee Benefits
Job-Related travel is Occasional - Must possess a valid driver's license and must maintain required car insurance.
Education and Experience (Minimum Qualifications)
Education and experience requirements consist of a bachelor's degree plus six (6) years of relevant professional experience, including three (3) years in a supervisory or administrative capacity, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
The strongest candidates will bring 8 or more years leading technical teams in complex environments, including private sector, civic tech, or large-scale service delivery, with the capacity to rapidly review, manage and improve quality across technology programs, and deliver concrete improvements within compressed timeframes. Public sector experience is welcome but not required. Experience with systems such as Medicaid, SNAP, or child welfare is a plus.
The Opportunity
Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) is offering a 18-month Senior Technology Fellowship for an experienced technologist ready to step into a senior technology leadership role at one of the state's largest and most consequential agencies. This is a defined-term engagement with a clear mandate: deliver real, measurable improvements to the technology systems and teams that support health and human services programs across Oklahoma.
If you have spent your career building and fixing complex technology systems and are ready to apply those skills toward public service, this fellowship offers a meaningful mission, and 18-month opportunity for real impact.
What You'll Be Stepping Into
Oklahoma Human Services operates technology systems that touch nearly every aspect of health and human services delivery in the state, including SNAP and child welfare. These are critical systems serving vulnerable Oklahomans, run by capable and committed teams. What we are seeking is senior technology leadership that can partner with government leaders, assess clearly, prioritize effectively, and deliver visibly.
You will own a real portfolio with real complexity: critical priorities, vendor relationships that need active management, and program-specific challenges including SNAP error rate reduction and child welfare information systems improvement. The technology organization spans applications, infrastructure, data platforms, devices, and core IT services and operates within state and federal compliance frameworks that add both constraint and accountability.
What Success Looks Like in 12 MonthsTechnology teams that are healthy, accountable, and clear on their priorities, with team leaders who understand their roles, opportunities, and gaps, and who can translate technical realities into decisionsA technology roadmap that is actively maintained, tied to agency strategy, and used to make prioritization decisions across the current project backlogMeasurable progress on agency-identified priority programs, including reduction of the SNAP error rate, as an early proof point of delivery disciplineA prioritization framework in place so that leadership can make defensible decisions about which of the competing projects advance and which waitImprove visibility into technology spending, vendor value, and investment tradeoffs so OKDHS leadership can make informed decisions about where to stabilize, defer or accelerate work
Key Responsibilities
Deliver Results for Frontline Staff and Agency ProgramsEnsure technology initiatives deliver measurable improvements for frontline staff, partners, and clients, reducing administrative burden and improving service access, with particular focus on priority programs including SNAP error rate reduction and child welfare information systems (CWIS) improvementOversee vendor performance with an emphasis on outcomes, usability, and delivery of working solutions; identify procurement or contractual wins and negotiate performance improvements where delivery has fallen shortEmbed product- and user-centered thinking into technology planning and delivery across OKDHS programs, setting delivery standards for internal and vendor teams including agile practices, release management, and quality assuranceBuild confidence in data quality and transparency, clearly communicating where data is reliable for operational and policy decisions and where it is notFocus implementation efforts on reducing frontline burden, improving service execution, and producing measurable gains in priority program outcomes Lead and Develop the Technology OrganizationServe as the senior-most technology executive for OKDHS, providing direction and oversight to technology directors and senior managers; collaborate with agency Chief Officers and senior executive leadership on short- and long-term goals that drive agency programs and servicesLead and develop OKDHS technology leadership and teams, fostering accountability, clarity of roles, and continuous improvement; focus on building leaders who understand their roles, prioritize effectively, and translate technical realities into decisionsDirect enterprise technology planning and prioritization processes to balance operational demands, risk, compliance obligations, and service outcomes across a large and competing project portfolioEstablish clear technology operating rhythms, decision forums, and escalation paths to improve prioritization, execution discipline and transparency across OKDHS technology portfolio Work across program, policy, operations, and external partners to align technology execution with mission needs; seek innovative solutions to achieve improvements in programs and serviceManage the Enterprise and Translate for LeadershipProvide executive oversight of OKDHS's technology landscape, including applications, infrastructure, data platforms, devices, and core IT services, ensuring continuity and resilience of mission-critical systems supporting health and human services programsEstablish and maintain cybersecurity governance aligned with state and federal requirements, including protection of PII, PHI, and other sensitive dataServe as executive steward of the OKDHS technology roadmap, ensuring it is actively maintained, periodically updated, and executed in alignment with agency strategy and approved fundingTranslate complex technical and operational issues into clear, actionable information for executive leadership and non-technical stakeholders; provide leadership with clear options, results, risks, and tradeoffs that distinguish near-term improvements from multi-year transformation effortsKnowledge, Skills, and AbilitiesUnderstand how technology decisions across the stack affect frontline workers and the people they serveRapidly assess and diagnose technical problems without getting lost in tradeoffsBuild trust with both non-technical executives and technical staff simultaneouslyUse agile and modern digital delivery practices, including low-code and no-code solutions and know when to apply them appropriatelyApply data governance, quality, and transparency principles in service of operational and policy decision-makingNegotiate with vendors, manage performance, and develop procurement strategy that delivers resultsPrioritize strategically across competing initiatives, applying data analysis and performance metrics to organizational problemsApply cybersecurity frameworks and secure system design across cloud and hybrid architecturesLead multi-disciplinary teams through advanced planning, change management, and continuous improvementPreferred: Navigate government budget, administrative, and legislative processes as they affect technology investment, program delivery, and compliance obligations
Examples of Past WorkAssessing a major system modernization project and identifying why timelines kept slipping, including experience replacing or stabilizing a legacy systemShifting a waterfall project to iterative delivery with visible user value at each stageConducting user research with caseworkers or frontline staff that directly changed a product roadmapRenegotiating vendor contracts to deliver relevant functionalityBuilding data quality visibility that helped leadership make evidence-based policy or operational decisionsWorking across departments and with technical leadership to align on user needsCompensation and TermsAnnual Salary: $165,000Term: Up to 18 monthsSpecial RequirementsBackground check and eligibility for access to sensitive data systemsPeriodic in-state travel may be requiredCompliance with all OKDHS and Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) information security, data governance, and procurement standards__________________
If you have questions, please contact DHS.Careers@okdhs.org
OKDHS is a Fair Chance Employer.
This is a position in Executive Management.
Announcement Number: 26-RB002
P107926/JR55482
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