California seeks chief data officer

[caption id=”attachment_20389” align=”alignnone” width=”1200”] California State Capitol Building (Photo: Jeff Turner)[/caption]

The state of California is looking for a chief data officer to “promote the availability and use of data in state government.”

The position resides within California Government Operations Agency and will report directly to GovOps Secretary Marybel Batjer.

From GovOps:

This is a Governor’s appointment and review and assessment of applicants will be handled by the Governor’s appointments office. All questions should be referred to the appointments office.

How to apply:

The actual process of applying involves going to the appointments page at gov.ca.gov, and at the bottom of the window, clicking on the “Begin Application” button. At Question #3, “Positions Sought,” scroll to the Gov Ops Agency section, where the position is listed at Gov Ops Agency, Chief Data Officer.

Position description:

Reporting to the Agency Secretary, the Chief Data Officer will have statewide responsibility for three key initiatives based on data collected in the normal course of state business to improve transparency, efficiency and accountability in state operations. These initiatives are:

• Developing the statewide open data portal and related governance and policy on standards, storage and privacy, as well as a statewide open data strategic plan and programs to promote civic engagement and innovation.
• Fostering and promoting a culture of data use by enabling and encouraging departments to share data to collaborate on common issues and related programs.
• Employing and analyzing operational data to improve program performance.

The Chief Data Officer is the primary steward of the data portal for the state’s public data, which enables public access to data in a variety of formats. The CDO also is responsible for working with state boards, departments and offices to ensure that state data is accessible through the portal. The CDO oversees development of the standards and structure to support these efforts, as well as incorporation of the state’s geo-portal, in consultation with the Department of Technology, into the statewide open data portal. The Chief Data Officer will maintain and expand the state’s data inventory and establish procedures for adding new data sets and regularly updating existing data sets. The Chief Data Officer will promote opportunities to demonstrate the value of data in decision making; support and encourage events to encourage public use of open data for innovation, and support and encourage activities to enhance collaboration among departments and agencies through shared data. Desired Skills and Experience:

• Well-versed in the principles of open data, open government and Government 2.0.
• Understanding of state government processes and practices (legislative process, budget process, etc.).
• Technically knowledgeable, with some familiarity with using and building software applications that employ open data.
• Strong communicator with internal and external stakeholders on deeper technical issues.
• Understanding of different of open data formats and the pros & cons of different data formats.
• Understanding of APIs, GIS systems and mapping concepts.
• Familiarity with different options for open data portals (both commercial & open source).
• Understanding of process reengineering.
• Understanding and experience in change management, organizational performance measurement and organizational performance management.
• Understanding of big data analysis techniques and their application in government setting.
• Experience in quantitative analysis.

Ideal qualities:

• Awareness of and experience with open data tools, such as those available through GitHub, and a variety of different data storage technologies.
• Understanding of specific areas of state activity that are data intensive – such as energy and water regulation, health, public safety, etc.
• Excellent writing and public speaking skills.