Procedure for Candidacy
Virginia Tech has retained Next Generation Leadership Partners to support this search.
Candidates may submit, in confidence, resumes and cover letters via this site. For full consideration, applicants should submit their materials to Next Generation by August 10, 2026.
Inquiries and nominations should be directed to Phil Goldstein at [email protected].
Position Overview
The Associate Vice President (AVP) for Enterprise Solutions & Enabling Technologies (ESET) leads a recently formed team within Virginia Tech's Division of Information Technology. This team is responsible for the university's enterprise applications, data systems, and reporting platforms—supporting academic, administrative, and AI-enabled services.
Virginia Tech is currently undertaking a major IT transformation, modernizing its core student information, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and data systems, while building the infrastructure needed to support AI adoption across operations and student services. This work also includes strengthening partnerships between the central Division of Information Technology and decentralized IT groups across the university.
Reporting to the Vice President for IT & Chief Information Officer and member of the VPIT’s leadership team, the AVP for ESET leads the development, delivery, and support of all enterprise applications, administrative AI and data platforms in service of Virginia Tech's multi-faceted mission.
Leadership Agenda
The Associate Vice President facilitates the technology roadmap for administrative AI, ERP, student information systems, the learning management ecosystem, and service management tools. They provide software development, integration services to connect disparate systems, database administration, data warehousing, business intelligence (reporting and analytics), and other enterprise-wide applications (both on-premise and cloud based). The AVP identifies the interconnections between data quality and AI adoption and implements strategies to improve readiness to harness AI capabilities in administrative operations. The AVP contributes to the university IT Strategic Plan and manages the ESET team and resources to achieve its goals, objectives and key results. Key priorities for the AVP include:
- Lead the ESET organization, sustain its positive culture and support the development of its staff.
- Build strong and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders across the university.
- Expand platform capabilities to support AI adoption in university operations and business processes.
- Create data strategies and contribute to on-going efforts to mature data governance to meet current needs and enable effective, secure use of AI .
- Upgrade the University’s data and reporting technologies to improve integrations and data access.
- Create financial models to sustain enterprise services with the agility to adapt to evolving AI and cloud cost models.
- Maintain an enterprise applications roadmap that leverages modern design principles that meets current and future university needs.
- Support the on-going modernization of Virginia Tech’s student information, finance, human resources and other major enterprise platform technologies.
Position Responsibilities
The AVP for ESET will work with university partners and key stakeholders to understand their needs and deliver an enterprise solutions and data ecosystem that is user-centered, seamless, and connected; develop a deep technical understanding of the entire enterprise systems and solutions environment; and ensure cohesiveness, resiliency, redundancy, and reliability. They will lead a department that:
- Fosters high-performing and agile teams dedicated to technical excellence and exceptional customer service, and fluid customer experiences
- Adopts modern and forward-looking technology, data and service strategies structured around common technology layers and consistent service delivery through standard processes, and
- Thoughtfully and collaboratively explores opportunities to improve efficiencies (technological, financial, and human) by leveraging scale and other strategies as appropriate.
As a member of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) senior leadership team, the AVP partners with fellow leaders to plan, execute, and manage IT projects, programs, and services in support of Virginia Tech's strategic priorities and its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). The AVP represents DoIT on university committees and working groups, and partners with the VPIT & CIO and institutional leaders to inspire cultural and technological transformation—fostering a collaborative, human-centered, innovative, accountable, transparent, and inclusive IT organization.
Qualifications and Leadership Experience
Required Qualifications
- Master’s degree or bachelor's degree with relevant certifications in AI, enterprise or data architecture combined with multiple years of leadership experience of a similar enterprise solutions portfolio may substitute for a master's degree.
- Significant experience in data governance, data strategy, enterprise application management, enterprise architecture, data warehousing, and/or AI adoption.
- Demonstrated success, as senior manager, managing budgets and leading large, high performing IT development and operations teams.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to apply technology to solve business problems, evaluate emerging tools and standards, and develop user- and business-driven technology plans—with a working understanding of software development lifecycles, business process analysis, and process re-engineering.
- Experience leading organizational and technology change initiatives, with a strong emphasis on relationship-building, collaboration, and shared stewardship.
- Commitment to continuous improvement, including establishing and reporting on key performance metrics.
- Exceptional communication skills—written, verbal, and presentational—with the ability to engage technical and non-technical audiences alike.
- Demonstrated ability to build effective, collegial relationships across all levels of a diverse and distributed organization, with a commitment to fostering an inclusive campus community.
- Demonstrated ability to resolve conflict, build consensus, and influence without direct authority.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience with budgeting, financial planning, and business operations.
- Broad technical familiarity across the enterprise application and data portfolios, including database administration, application development, and integration services.
- Experience in a large, complex IT environment, preferably in higher education, including familiarity with shared governance models.
- Familiarity with agentic AI, machine learning, and/or robotic process automation (RPA) as applied to enterprise systems.
- A visionary perspective on technology—able to identify possibilities and opportunities that others may overlook.
Overtime Status
