Summary

Within the context of a resident, patient, client and family centred model of care and, in accordance with the Mission, Vision and Values, and strategic directions of Providence Health Care, the position promotes a safe, respectful, and civil working environment for patients, residents, families, visitors and staff.

Reporting to the Executive Director, Health Informatics, the Technology Director shapes the technological capabilities of Providence Health Care (Ventures)  through the development of its technology and data platform, infrastructure, engineering, and acquisition strategies. PHC Ventures is a team of health care entrepreneurs, driven to improve patient-centred outcomes by pushing the frontiers of innovation. 

This role is responsible for developing, in close collaboration with partners, the roadmap for advancing Ventures strategic technology products. Assumes overall responsibility and management for the product lifecycle. The assessment of technology held by external companies that Ventures is evaluating for equity investments is also part of the role.

The Technology Director is responsible for interacting with customers and health care partners to understand business strategy, scenarios, gaps, issues and needs in order to create relevant strategies and architectures that lead to final product offerings and continuous technology improvements of those products. The Director provides direction and supervision of work to contractors, consultants and external vendors to support consumer architecture requirements.

Qualifications / Skills and Education

Education, Training and Experience
• A PhD or Master’s Degree in a quantitative field such as Operations Research, Data Science, Computer Science, Quantitative Healthcare Research, Math, or Physics plus seven (7) to ten (10) years of recent, related experience; or
• The equivalent combination of education, training and experience in software development in health care delivery and/or medical research.

Skills and Abilities
• Demonstrated strong technical abilities with a variety of technologies, cloud, analytical and statistical methods.
• Ability to understand the context and rationale for customer support requests and integrating them into support and roadmap efforts.
• Expertise in DevOps with proven results enabling continuous deployment and continuous integration (CI/CD).
• Advanced skills in analysis, complex problem solving towards effective solutions, planning, project management, change management and group process.
• Strong leadership skills in leading an IT infrastructure and operations organization towards Cloud-first operations and DevOps mindset.
• Demonstrated business acumen and ability to identify and link business issues, and strategy to the overall goals and objectives of products, programs and initiatives, and to identify collaborative opportunities that promote sustained income.
• Demonstrated expertise working with customers and clients, sharing knowledge and building strong professional relationships that inspire trust and confidence.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment, critical thinking and effective decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with all levels of the organization, including advanced report presentation and writing skills.
• General knowledge of current health care issues and trends including knowledge of appropriate legislation, relevant laws and by-laws, and provincial/national standards applicable to Health Care.
• Demonstrated relationship, leadership, and team collaboration skills and applying innovative and effective people skills to maximize team performance.
• Demonstrated ability to work efficiently and maintain effective working relationships with a customer-oriented attitude displaying courtesy, tact and diplomacy under stressful situations.
• Displays strong mediation and effective facilitation skills to motivate and influence others to embrace change and take action.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively, both independently and as part of a team with diverse groups of people in a dynamic environment, inspiring continuous improvement.
• Strong organizational and planning skills including the ability to effectively manage time, responsibilities, and multiple priorities and schedules.
• Physical ability to perform the duties of the position.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Leads the strategic direction in the design, development, quality assurance, deployment, and on-going support of Ventures developed solutions, in multiple areas including automation, artificial intelligence, process optimization, and data science. Includes the use of these solutions used by commercial customers and industry/research partners.
2. Identifies when additional staff, contractors and other external expertise is required based on customer volume/demand and resources available. Directly supervises their activities and provides feedback.
3. Coordinates with PHC counterparts to deliver a compatible architecture for the Datalab platform (www.phcventures.ca/ihid) and cognitive components supporting Ventures projects. These technologies may include unstructured data technologies, annotation and related data and analytics (e.g. Big Data, Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Enterprise Information Management, Master Data Management and/or Data Consolidation).
4. Directs and leads tactical planning in ongoing sustainment activities to ensure applications are used to its full potential to support go to market products and ongoing customer service.
5. Oversees the allocation of the technology related budget including contractors, consultants, external vendors and outsourced service providers (i.e. Microsoft and AWS).
6. Ensures Ventures technology gains accelerated efficiency through the infrastructure provisioning, application deployment, and sustainment of product lifecycle.
7. Works with the Ventures business development team to develop proposals to advance a range of technology and innovation activities, evaluate alternative business and program strategies, and assess investment opportunities and partnerships.
8. Manages contractual relationships with external vendors and consultants.
9. Stays informed of health systems and care delivery changes to identify opportunities for innovation, improvement, and value-added activities and initiatives.
10. Supports assessment of technology held by external companies that Ventures is evaluating for equity investments.
11. Provides written and oral reports to the Board, the Senior Leadership Team, and other health authorities, as required.
12. Performs other related duties as required.

Vaccination Flag

As per the current Public Health Orders (Long Term Care/Seniors Assisted Living Provincial Health Order and the Health Sector Order), as of October 26, 2021, all employees working for Providence Health Care must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Proof of vaccination status will be required.