The San Francisco Digital Services team works across City departments to build user-centered digital services. Its mission is to make it easy for all residents to access the City’s 967 services online, from any device.

Over the past five years, the team has grown and now supports a range of digital services, including sf.gov, the City’s new website. This site has been at the forefront of the City’s Covid-19 response and will replace more than 100 separate websites. Built with Accessibility and Equity as core design principles, it provides a consistent user-centered experience for all San Franciscans.

In addition to sf.gov, Digital Services has a full-time product team dedicated to the development of DAHLIA, the City’s online affordable housing application service. Digital Services is also actively engaged in making permitting digital, working with the City’s Permit Center team and all permitting departments.

DataSF, the City’s strategic data team, has recently moved into Digital Services, and this gives an opportunity to bring the City’s data practices closer to its digital services. The vision is to create a seamless data lifecycle between transactions, data aggregation, reporting, and decision-making.

Digital Services is at an exciting moment of change. Having established credibility and a track record of delivery, the team must now turn its attention to scaling. The team must scale its impact by empowering other departments to build services themselves, using platforms provided by Digital Services.  Digital Services should become the source of standards, platforms, and microservices that allow the City to make services for residents accessible online. This will be achieved through training, support, standardization, shared platforms, and Citywide policies. Digital Services will make its platforms the easiest, fastest, most accessible, and most cost-effective way to build services. It will work with departments to ensure that platforms meet not only the needs of San Franciscans but make staff’s lives easier as well.

Appointment Type: Permanent Exempt (PEX), this position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

As Chief Digital Services Officer you will lead the team through this shift in focus and take a solid foundation to a scaled and mature digital services operation within the City.

Major functions of this position include:

• Provide strong, visionary leadership which helps transform City service delivery in line with the goals set out in the City’s Digital Services Strategy.
• Lead a team of 50 highly skilled professionals dedicated to digital transformation. The team includes designers, engineers, and product managers, as well as project and implementation teams. Oversee team structure, hiring, training, performance management and culture.
• Manage a budget of around $14m (personnel and non-personnel) ensuring that City dollars are spent responsibly and maximizing value for money on behalf of all San Franciscans.
• Oversee a portfolio of digital products that includes sf.gov, the City’s flagship website; a forms tool; the City’s affordable housing service (DAHLIA); and several other microservices, tools, and internal apps used for a range of services including online permitting, Covid-19 response, and grant-making.
• Ensure that digital services are built with equity, inclusion and accessibility as core design and technical principles. Lead efforts to enhance equity across the City, using your position as a technology leader.
• Be accountable for security and data privacy across all products and services built by Digital Services and work closely with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to ensure that the team follows security best practices.
• Build partnerships and work with other leaders across the City including department Directors, the City CIO, CISO, Mayor’s Director of Innovation, the Chief Data Officer, and 311 to establish service standards, exchange best practices, develop cross-government strategic direction, and deploy shared services.
• Build an agile development culture throughout City government that prioritizes continuous improvement, ensuring that City services are regularly analyzed, maintained, and improved.
• Drive innovative approaches to procurement, contracts, and product management with vendors.
• Provide reports to the Mayor, City Administrator, COIT and other stakeholders which measure the team’s success at implementing and further refining the goals and objectives set forth in the Digital Services Strategy, including recommendations for future resource allocation needs.

1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university; AND

2. Five (5) years of managerial experience leading technology-enabled change in a large complex organization all of which must include experience supervising professionals.

Substitution: Applicants may substitute up to two (2) years of the required education with additional qualifying experience. One year (2,000 hours) of additional qualifying experience will be considered equivalent to 30 semester units/45 quarter units.

Desirable Qualifications

• Proven ability to develop excellent relationships, to manage a wide range of senior stakeholders and technical experts, and to coordinate the delivery of complex programs and policy approaches
• Experience of making change happen in a large and complex organization, and an understanding of different theories of change
• Proven ability to lead and develop a highly skilled specialist team of designers, engineers and product managers working in an Agile way.
• Multiple years of experience building a portfolio of user-centered digital products, including processes to maintain, review, and improve services in the long term
• Demonstrated track record of applying modern product approaches including agile development, user-centered design, open-source development, automated testing and deployment, and working with cloud platforms.
• Experience developing and implementing technology strategies and approaches, particularly within legacy IT environments
• Demonstrable modern web development experience

Important: Your application MUST include a resume.  To upload these item(s), please attach using the "additional attachments" function.

Final candidate(s) will be invited to take the Management Test Battery (MTB). The exam results will be for departmental informational purposes only.

Verification: Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point in the application and/or departmental selection process. Written verification (proof) of qualifying experience must verify that the applicant meets the minimum qualifications stated on the announcement. Written verification must be submitted on employer’s official letterhead, specifying name of employee, dates of employment, types of employment (part-time/full-time), job title(s), description of duties performed, and the verification must be signed by the employer. City employees will receive credit for the duties of the class to which they are appointed. Credit for experience obtained outside of the employee’s class will be allowed only if recorded in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Service Commission Rules. Experience claimed in self-employment must be supported by documents verifying income, earnings, business license and experience comparable to the minimum qualifications of the position. Copies of income tax papers or other documents listing occupations and total earnings must be submitted. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at http://sfdhr.org/index.aspx?page=456.

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco. 

• Information About The Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview  
• Equal Employment Opportunity 
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

Compensation:  $167,102 - $213,278 annually

Applicants are encouraged to apply immediately as this recruitment may close at any time.

Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered. Mailed, hand delivered or faxed documents/applications will not be accepted.

In line with the Official Public Health Order to slow the spread of COVID-19, “shelter-in-place” has been issued for all San Francisco residents that is expected to be in effect until further notice. As a result, Department of Human Resources (DHR)’s office (located at 1 South Van Ness Avenue, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103) is currently closed to the general public. If you have any questions, please feel free to email the Human Resources Analyst listed on this announcement.

Applications will be screened for relevant qualifying experience. Additional screening mechanisms may be implemented in order to determine candidates’ qualifications. Only those applicants who most closely meet the needs of the Agency will be invited to participate in the selection process. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview. Qualified applicants with disabilities requiring reasonable accommodation in the selection process must contact the Agency by phone at (415) 554-6000 or, if hearing impaired at (415) 554-6015 (TTY).

CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT:  All City and County of San Francisco employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.  For details on how it is applicable to your employment, please click here.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.