Chief Administrative Officer

The inaugural Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for SMPH Information Technology serves as the senior administrative and financial leader for a large, complex, and rapidly evolving enterprise IT organization supporting all missions across the School of Medicine and Public Health's departments, institutes, and centers. The CAO directs business operations, finance, and administrative functions that currently absorb significant technicalleadership capacity, enabling IT leaders to focus more fully on strategic and technical priorities.

In this role, the CAO delivers critical financial and operational leadership, including the development and oversight of budgeting practices, chargeback modeling, and the implementation of a major annual chargeback center. The position partners closely with SMPH administration and departmental leaders to strengthen administrative infrastructure, streamline workflows, enhance fiscal reporting, and ensure IT services remain aligned with the needs of academic and research units.

This position is essential to advancing strong financial stewardship and supporting major organizational transitions-such as the recent migration to Workday and ongoing application conversions-while modernizing service agreements and promoting operational excellence across SMPH IT.

The CAO will directly supervise several positions supporting the administration of IT.

This position requires most work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

• Assesses processes, staffing, and systems to identify opportunities for improvement and streamlining on a regular basis

• Serves as the primary business advisor, liaison, and partner to divisional leadership and key stakeholder groups

• Serves as a major point of contact and catalyst for problem resolution. Provides insightful and diplomatic communications

• Oversees the implementation of all operational and administrative activities

• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees

• Leads communication efforts for IT, through partnership with and utilizing the communication tools administered by the Dean's communications department. Ensure faculty and staff are aware of IT initiatives, policies and procedures and performance measures and plans to improve and innovate

• Serves as the subject matter expert and oversees "chargeback" operations where IT services and informatics are billed to SMPH departments or extramural funds.

• Develops the division's financial strategy including planning, forecasts, budgets, and cash management that focus on attaining and sustaining long-term financial equilibrium in collaboration with university leadership

• Works with senior administrative and academic leadership to design, establish, and maintain an administrative organizational structure to effectively and efficiently accomplish goals and objectives while appropriately defining duties and mitigating risk

School of Medicine and Public Health, Information Technology.

The starting salary for this position is $125,000 annually, but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information, refer to the campus benefits webpage.

SMPH Faculty /Academic Staff Benefits Flyer 2026

• 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in administrative leadership, including oversight of business operations, finance, HR, or organizational process improvement.
• Experience developing and managing financial strategy, budgets, forecasts, and cash management for a complex organization.
• Experience supervising staff, including hiring, performance management, and workload planning.
• Demonstrated experience improving, assessing, or streamlining administrative or operational processes.
• Excellent communication skills, with demonstrated ability to facilitate problem resolution and communicate diplomatically.

• Prior experience in higher education, academic medicine, research administration, or large, matrixed organizations.
• Experience managing or implementing chargeback models, cost centers, or servicebased billing, especially at multimilliondollar scale.
• Experience supporting IT organizations, research computing, or technical service units with complex financial and operational structures.
• Experience developing or modernizing service agreements, MOUs, or departmental contracts.

Bachelor's degree preferred; focus in business administration, public administration, finance, accounting, or a related field is preferred

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To apply for this position, select either "I am a current employee" or "I am not a current employee" under Apply Now. You will then be prompted to upload your application materials.

Important: The application has only one attachment field. Upload the following documents in that field, either as a single combined file or as multiple files in the same upload area.

* Cover letter (required)
* Resume

Your cover letter should address how your training and experience aligns with the required and preferred qualifications listed above. Application reviewers will rely on these written materials to determine which applicants move forward in the process. References will be requested from final candidates. All applicants will be notified once the search concludes and a candidate is selected.

University sponsorship is not available for this position, including transfers of sponsorship and TN visas.The selected applicant will be responsible for ensuring their continuous eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.This position is an ongoing position that will require continuous work eligibility. If you are selected for this position you must provide proof of work authorization and eligibility to work.

Cody Roekle, croekle@wisc.edu, 608-263-7676

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

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