Job details

Chief Information Officer

Job Description

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (“Broad” or “the Institute”) is a research organization that convenes a community of researchers from across many disciplines and partner institutions—MIT, Harvard, and five of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Broad Institute was founded in 2004 to fulfill the promise of genomic medicine—three years after completion of the Human Genome Project, which Broad scientists helped create and lead. Broad’s origins are rooted in genomics, and as biomedical research and knowledge have expanded since 2004, so have we. The Institute’s researchers are deeply collaborative, nimbly launching innovative, high-risk projects at every scale, gaining insight into the biological mechanisms of disease, inventing new technologies, building and implementing computational tools, developing new therapeutics to advance into the clinic, mentoring and training the next generation of scientists, and sharing data and tools openly to enable breakthroughs anywhere.

Accelerating biomedical research and improving human health require diversity of all kinds in Broad’s community—in education, training, background, perspectives, interests, and identity—because it expands creativity in how we approach problems and find solutions. Broad aims to ensure that the benefits of genomic medicine are shared by all.

Broad science is uniquely organized to encourage cross-disciplinary and collaborative research that cannot be done in a traditional single-laboratory setting. The Institute’s Programs and Platforms work alongside faculty labs and enable creative, groundbreaking discoveries at scale. Programs are communities of academic and professional scientists who are developing transformative approaches to biomedical research, advancing biological knowledge, and gaining insight into the underpinnings of disease. Platforms are teams of professional scientists who are developing new technologies, conducting their own research, and collaborating closely with others to apply these technologies to a wide range of challenging projects.

The Broad community tackles challenges in human health by:

Illuminating human disease: Broad uses systematic, unbiased approaches to identify the root biological causes of disease and find new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
Reading and editing genomes: Broad generates a whole human genome’s worth of genetic data every few minutes, read gene expression patterns in tissues and in millions of single cells, and uses gene editing to create disease models and dissect cell circuitry.
Sharing data and tools: Broad makes discoveries, data, tools, technologies, and knowledge freely available. Broad works with industry partners to ensure these innovations benefit patients.
Building communities: Broad creates, stewards, and partners in international collaborations with scientists around the world. Broad works with researchers and patients to tackle important challenges in biomedicine and find innovative, high-impact solutions.
Developing diagnostics and treatments: Broadies are revealing deep biological insights into the causes of disease, which are leading to new ways to monitor, diagnose, and treat patients with greater precision.
Collaborating, innovating, and empowering: Broad strives to build an inclusive community that empowers and taps into the full potential of every Broadie.
Fostering inclusive communities: Broad believes that progress in biomedical research requires a fully inclusive community across sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability, and gender identity.

For further information, please consult:

https://www.broadinstitute.org/

Technology at the Broad

Broad’s researchers use their expertise in creating, adapting, and applying a variety of technologies to enable science at the Institute and beyond. Biomedical research requires access to an array of technologies — and to people with the knowledge of how to use them in creative ways — in order to tackle complex problems. Broad’s scientists and engineers bring their command of different technology areas to challenging projects that no single research laboratory can complete on their own.

Technology plays a vital role in the scientific and administrative work accomplished by every Broadie. The Institute is a complex digital environment with over 70 petabytes of storage across on prem and cloud and utilizing over 160 million hours of compute. Broad Information Technology Services (BITS) staff includes 60 employees. As the Institute’s leadership sets the Institute’s strategic roadmap, they aspire to be the premier digitally-enabled research institution of its kind in the world and seek to deploy emerging technologies to enable ground-breaking science.

The Role

Broad seeks its next Chief Information Officer (“CIO”), an innovative digital leader with a demonstrated track record of success in technology leadership roles of scale. The CIO will serve as the senior leader driving strategic planning for technology capabilities across the Institute. They will have the extraordinary opportunity to chart a bold path by developing and implementing a strategy to support the cutting-edge science conducted by the Institute’s research community. The CIO will visualize and communicate the transformational potential of digital technologies and data strategies in order to galvanize the Institute to achieve their benefits and further Broad’s global impact on advances in biomedical research.

Reporting directly to the Chief Scientific Officer, this individual will serve as a core member of Broad’s leadership team. Broad seeks a collaborative and customer service focused CIO who can effectively build consensus across and within a diverse, multi-stakeholder IT environment. The CIO will lead the development of a Governing Council comprised of technologists and scientific leaders from across the Broad to guide the Institute’s technology strategy. They will also serve as an external representative for the Broad interfacing with key research partners and other stakeholders such as vendors.

In addition to leading Broad’s technology strategy, the CIO will oversee the delivery of all technology services supporting administrative and research functions at the Institute. They will be responsible for the full spectrum of Broad’s technology, including IT staff, budgeting, and critical technology initiatives, and they will provide direct oversight of the Institute’s technology infrastructure, networking and data management/ governance, administrative systems, information security, and services.

Candidate Profile

The CIO will be highly mission-oriented and will have a strong orientation to service. They will be both technologically savvy and politically astute. They will possess considerable management experience and a progressive track record of successful leadership within a complex, decentralized organization. Candidates will demonstrate a proven ability to translate a research institution’s technology needs into realistic solutions.

The CIO will have demonstrated strong relationship-building skills to foster a productive and positive culture. Previous experience as a technology leader in a complex biomedical research environment is preferred, but Broad is open to considering candidates with comparable experience in adjacent sectors.

The successful candidate will meet the following specific education and experience qualifications:

A bachelor’s degree is required and an advanced degree is strongly preferred. Although a technical degree is not required, the Institute seeks a technology leader of the highest caliber, which should be reflected in the appropriate combination of education and experience.
A minimum of ten (10) years of broad-based, progressively responsible IT leadership experience, including research IT, governance, operations, program management, and strategy development.
Experience in an academic research setting, healthcare, and/or pharmaceutical R&D is preferred.

In terms of the performance and personal competencies required for the position, we would highlight the following:

Strategic technology leadership

Develop strategic plans that support an integrated, progressive technology environment for the Institute to best meet current and future needs.
Work closely with academic research leaders across the Institute on decisions and plans to support the Broad’s world-class research environment.
Implement best practices for technology services development with a strong customer-service orientation, including program management, proven infrastructure methodologies, systems integration, quality assurance, and operational support.

Leading Teams

Lead a diverse, skilled team of BITS employees, who bring deep commitment to the Institute’s mission and immense institutional knowledge. Attract and recruit top talent, motivate the team.
Committed to diversity, inclusion and belonging; serve as a champion of BITS core values of being mission driven, seeking continuous improvement, teamwork, trust and fun.
Persevere in the face of challenges and ambiguity. Low ego, self-reflective, and aware of their own limitations.

Functional expertise

Experience leading a technology organization of scale in support of computationally-driven scientific research with direct responsibility for the delivery of reliable and high-performing network, systems, and data center infrastructure.
Develop a clear and comprehensive portfolio of services and targeted service levels. Lead the evaluation, implementation, and support of alternative sourcing options (i.e., outsourced/ offshored application management, external hosting and cloud services).
Track record of sound personnel and financial management with the ability to develop budgets and proposals.

Executing for Results

The ability to set clear and challenging goals while committing the Institute to improved performance.
A smart risk-taker who seeks data and input from others to foresee possible threats or unintended circumstances.
A high degree of integrity and forethought in their approach to making decisions; the ability to act in a transparent and consistent manner while always taking into account what is best for the Institute as a whole.

Relationships and Influence

Connect and build strong relationships with others, demonstrating strong EQ. Foster good working relationships with diverse stakeholder groups including research faculty and staff, administrators, and other IT leaders.
An ability to inspire trust and followership in others through compelling influence, passion in their beliefs, and active drive.
Strong interpersonal communication, helping institutional constituents, including research and IT staff, adapt to the increasing pace of change.

#LI-DNP

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

EEO is The Law - click here for more information

Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Protected Veterans/Disabled

Check out this video for a look into our community!