The purpose of this class within the organization is to provide strategic vision, leadership, and operational direction for the Town’s information technology infrastructure, GIS services, and enterprise applications. The Director of IT holds ultimate accountability for safeguarding the Town’s digital infrastructure, sensitive citizen data, and public safety information systems. Additionally, the role directs and manages the IT Department's daily operations—overseeing the planning, lifecycle management, and maintenance of municipal hardware and networks while aligning all initiatives with the Town’s capital and operating budgets.
This class works under administrative supervision, developing and implementing programs within organizational policies and reports major activities to executive level administrators through conferences and reports.
The functions listed below are those that represent the majority of the time spent working in this class. Management may assign additional functions related to the type of work of the class as necessary.
Essential Functions:
Oversees the day-to-day operation of the Town’s networks, databases, applications, cloud services, hardware, and other technology services managed by the IT Department.
Maintains and operates a business continuity plan for the Town’s IT resources.
Manages the IT support operation with clearly defined goals and metrics for ensuring high levels of customer service.
Develops Town information systems plans in alignment with the Town Manager’s strategic plans, with special emphasis on the role of information in a municipal government.
Develop, implement, and enforce robust enterprise-wide cybersecurity policies. Ensure strict compliance with federal, state, and local mandates, including CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services), HIPAA, PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), ISO (International Organization for Standardization), CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency) and Virginia-specific data breach notification laws.
Owns, maintains, and regularly tests the Town’s Cyber Incident Response Plan and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity protocols in accordance with NIST SP 800-34 and NIST SP 800-61. Serves as the Technical Incident Commander for cybersecurity events, coordinating response efforts with legal counsel, Public Information Officers (PIOs), and state/federal agencies (e.g., VDEM, CISA, FBI). Adheres to COOP (Continuity of Operations Plan) standards consistent with VDEM guidance. Leads IT support operations for the Town’s Emergency Management Team (EMT), attending all EMT meetings, trainings, and exercises.
Oversee continuous vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and risk assessments. Deliver clear, executive-level risk profiles and security posture updates to the Town Manager and Town Council.
Establishes and maintains the Town’s enterprise-wide defense-in-depth security architecture. Standardizes advanced threat mitigation strategies including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and Zero-Trust network segmentation. Safeguards municipal data integrity by directing the design of resilient, recoverable backup systems aligned with NIST standards and cyber insurance requirements.
Mandate and oversee ongoing security awareness training and phishing simulations for all Town employees and elected officials.
Serves as the project leader for departmental staff members during the implementation of new or upgraded business software systems. Responsible for leading the decision making of any department’s interest to acquire new technology.
Serves as the primary point of contact with vendors for all major technology systems with the responsibility of monitoring the adherence to the terms of the contracts.
Facilitates decisions by departmental staff on the investment, implementation, and use of technology to support their business objectives.
Sets policy and procedures for exceptional communication between IT and the user base regarding system outages and service disruptions.
Assists Human Resources and the Town Manager to update and establish personnel policies regarding the use of technology.
Advises the Town Council and senior management on information technology, conducting research and presenting findings and recommendations, as necessary.
Prepares Town Council Meeting and Work Session IT agenda items. Presents IT agenda items at Town Council meetings.
Hires, trains, motivates, coaches and evaluates employees; instructs, assigns and reviews work of employees; recommends salary increases, promotions; implements discipline; recommends termination. Supports continuing professional education and career enhancement opportunities, as budgets allow, for staff.
Prepares and approves purchase requisitions; assists Town departments in procurement of information technology related products and services.
Directs the day-to-day operations of computer system projects, data processing operations and communications activities; creates or reviews all documentation generated by the Information Technology Department to include those that cover technical systems and town-wide business processes.
Analyzes town business processes and practices and develops business systems technical requirements; studies, evaluates, plans and implements new research programs and techniques; reads trade documents and has discussions with peers from other jurisdictions.
Ensures information technology training is provided for department staff and Town staff needing information technology to accomplish their duties.
Ensures data lifecycle management and records disposition in accordance with Library of Virginia retention schedules and the Virginia Public Records Act. Develops and maintains a system for sufficient backup of all data files and maintains documentation of operating procedures.
Maintains inventory of supplies and equipment. Manages the replacement plan for all Town of Vienna IT equipment.
Manages the administration and support of the enterprise document management system (currently Laserfiche).
Oversees the Town’s enterprise GIS database and mapping services, ensuring system reliability, data integrity, and strategic spatial analysis for all municipal departments.
Manages the technology, broadcast, and AV support infrastructure for all public Board and Commission meetings to guarantee uninterrupted, compliant, and accessible public proceedings.
Establish and maintain robust enterprise AI governance framework in accordance with NIST AI RMF 1.0. Define clear policies, standards, and ethical guardrails regulating how AI solutions and machine learning technologies are evaluated, approved, deployed, and monitored across the organization.
Formulate, justify, and manage the annual IT operating budget and the multi-year Capital Improvement Project (CIP) budget for technology and security infrastructure.
Additional Duties:
Works with the Public Information Department to maintain equipment related to the Town's cable TV channel.
Assists all departments with IT related projects and rollouts for software applications used by Town staff.
Plans for and assists in disaster recovery.
Performs related work as necessary.
Responsibilities, Requirements and Impacts
Data Responsibility:
Data Responsibility refers to information, knowledge, and conceptions obtained by observation, investigation, interpretation, visualization, and mental creation. Data are intangible and include numbers, words, symbols, ideas, concepts, and oral verbalizations.
Plans and directs others in the sequence of major activities; reports on operations and activities which are very broad in scope.
People Responsibility:
People include co-workers, workers in other areas or agencies and the general public.
Negotiates, exchanges ideas, information and opinions with others to formulate policy and programs or arrive jointly at decisions, conclusions or solutions.
Asset Responsibility:
Assets responsibility refers to the responsibility for achieving economies or preventing loss within the organization.
Requires responsibility for achieving major economies or preventing major losses through the management of a highly complex and/or technical department.
Mathematical Requirements:
Mathematics requires the use of symbols, numbers and formulas to solve mathematical problems.
Uses mathematics involving the practical application of fractions, percentages, ratios and proportions; or measurements, logarithmic, or geometric construction; may use algebraic solutions of equations and inequalities, descriptive statistics.
Communications Requirements:
Communications involves the ability to read, write, and speak.
Reads scientific and technical journals, abstracts, financial reports and legal documents; speaks before professional and civic groups; participates in panel discussions and speaks extemporaneously on a variety of subjects; writes complex articles, reports and develops presentations for sophisticated audiences.
Judgment Requirements:
Judgment requirements refer to the frequency and complexity of judgments and decisions given the stability of the work environments, the nature and type of guidance, and the breadth of impact of the judgments and decisions.
Decision-making is almost entire focus of the job, affecting most segments of the organization and the general public; works in a highly dynamic environment, and is responsible for establishing goals, objectives and policies.
Complexity of Work:
Complexity addresses the analysis, initiative, ingenuity, concentration and creativity, required by the job and the presence of any unusual pressures present in the job.
Performs work involving the application of principles of logical thinking, scientific practice to diagnose or define problems, collect data and solve abstract problems with widespread unit or organization impact; requires sustained, intense concentration for accurate results and continuous exposure to unusual pressures.
Impact of Errors:
Impact of errors refers to consequences such as damage to equipment and property, loss of data, exposure of the organization to legal liability, and injury or death for individuals.
The impact of errors is very serious - affects entire organization and the general public.
Physical Demands:
Physical demands refer to the requirements for physical exertion and coordination of limb and body movement.
Performs sedentary work that involves walking or standing some of the time and involves exerting up to 10 pounds of force on a regular and recurring basis or sustained keyboard operations. Requires standing, walking, moving, climbing, carrying, bending, kneeling, crawling, reaching, handling, pushing, and pulling. Ability to lift up to 50 lbs., and transport equipment.
Equipment Usage:
Equipment usage involves responsibility for materials, machines, tools, equipment, work aids, and products.
Establishes methods and procedures for acquiring and handling of machines, tools, equipment or work aids involving extensive latitude for judgment regarding attainment of a standard or in selecting appropriate items.
Keeps accurate inventory of all the Town of Vienna’s technology devices.
Unavoidable Hazards:
Unavoidable hazards refer to the job conditions that may lead to injury or health hazards even though precautions have been taken.
Involves routine and frequent exposure to bright/dim light; dusts and pollen.
Safety of Others:
Safety of others refers to the level of responsibility for the safety of others, either inherent in the job or to ensure the safety of the general public. (Does not include safety of subordinates).
Requires some responsibility for safety and health of others and/or for occasional enforcement of the standards of public safety or health.
