DAFF recruiting new CIO to address 'compounding' IT debt

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has begun searching for a new CIO following the departure of Mark Sawade to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The agriculture agency is seeking a permanent leader for its Digital Services Division, which is responsible for its departmental IT functions and activities.

Stuart Girvan has been acting in the CIO capacity [pdf] following Sawade’s departure earlier this month.

In a statement to iTnews, a DAFF spokesperson said the new CIO will focus on implementing the department’s 10-year “digital sustainment investment roadmap”.

"[The CIO] role provides strategic leadership in driving the department’s ICT transformation agenda, ensuring the effective operation and performance of all departmental ICT services,” the spokesperson added.

According to DAFF’s most recent corporate plan, the 10-year sustainment investment roadmap aims to address “compounding ICT technical debt” [pdf] and establish “an ongoing, robust and secure ICT landscape”.

The plan also outlines DAFF’s intentions to create a “fit-for-purpose digital architecture and systems which meet the digital capability needs of the department and industry”.

As such, DAFF said it is looking for a CIO to “support [its] ambitious and forward-looking reform agenda by leading the ICT transformation”.

The ideal candidate will “lead a complex work program and contribute to the leadership of the department”, DAFF said in a job advertisement.

In recent years, under Sawade’s leadership, DAFF’s technology function has undergone a number of shifts both through its pivot away from providing shared services and an internal review of how the department sources and provides IT services generally.

This led to the formation of the Digital Services Division (DSD), which was granted “custodianship of the digital and technology environment”.