Information Systems Advisor II - Data & Operations Support

Office of the Illinois Secretary of State
Alexi Giannoulias
Job Title: Information Systems Advisor II - Data & Operations Support
Division: Business Services
Union: IFT
Location: 501 S 2 nd St, Springfield, IL - Sangamon County
Salary: Range $8,020 to $14,138 monthly- commensurate with experience
Benefits:

Attention: Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States; the Office of the Secretary of State will not complete certification and/or sponsorship requests.

Overview:

Acts independently in a senior technical role providing hands-on technical leadership, platform oversight, and supervisory guidance for the agency's enterprise data operations environment; ensures reliable execution of data pipelines, stable platform operations, and secure/NIST-aligned data handling practices across the organization; supervises data engineers, ETL specialists, support analysts, and operational staff who maintain data pipelines, ingestion processes, data quality checks, monitoring, and platform-level support functions;

responsible for ensuring data availability, performance, operational reliability, and compliance.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Technical Leadership & Operational Architecture
  - Provides technical direction for enterprise data operations, including ingestion pipelines, ETL/ELT workflows, scheduling, monitoring, and failure recovery practices;
  Designs secure and scalable data processing architectures aligned with enterprise standards;
  Leads root-cause analysis, optimization efforts, and modernization of operational data tools and workflows. For example, Azure Data Factory & Synapse pipelines using Pyspark for Medallion Architecture.
• Team Supervision & Staff Development-Supervises data operations engineers, ETL specialists, and support personnel;
  Assigns work, reviews technical deliverables, conducts performance evaluations, and provides coaching and mentorship;
  Ensures cross-training, skill development, and adequate staffing coverage for mission-critical operations.
• Security, Compliance, and NIST-Aligned Practices-Ensures all operational processes comply with NIST-aligned security controls and ILSOS/statewide cybersecurity policies;
  Implements secure data transport methods, access controls, encryption standards, and audit logging requirements;
  Coordinates with cybersecurity and governance teams on data classification, retention, and secure handling of sensitive data;
  Assists with audits, compliance reviews, and agency-wide modernization activities using tools such as Microsoft Purview.
• Cross-Functional Coordination & Incident Management-Collaborates with Data Governance & Compliance, Data Analytics & BI, Application Development, and Infrastructure teams to support integrated workflows;
  Serves as an escalation point for operational incidents affecting data availability, ingestion pipelines, or platform stability;
  Communicates operational impacts, timelines, and resolutions to stakeholders and leadership using services such as Azure monitoring and Log analytics.
• Quality Assurance & Continuous Improvement-Establishes operational KPIs and quality thresholds for pipeline success, uptime, latency, and data freshness;
  Leads automation initiatives, performance tuning, documentation improvements, and operational standardization;
  Evaluates new tools, technologies, and platforms to improve reliability and efficiency;
  Provides support for special projects, enterprise initiatives, and additional responsibilities assigned within the Enterprise Data Practice for example Dev Ops and pipeline observability frameworks
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience:

Requires knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to the completion of two years of college, with coursework in the computer science field AND 4.5 years of experience with technical systems and/or programming experience and/or IT project management, including at least 1-year supervisory experience or any equivalent combination of education and experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Requires extensive knowledge of systems design and implementation, including the way programs are written, compiled, and tested, the methods of operating computers, and the way data is transcribed into a suitable form and has an appreciation of the wider business context for those programs.
• Requires excellent oral and written communication skills for effective engagement with colleagues and internal users/customers.
• Requires extensive knowledge necessary to effectively perform the ability to exercise sound judgement in analyzing, evaluating, and solving problems of a procedural, organizational, administrative, and/or technical nature.
• Requires the use and understanding of appropriate methods, tools, applications, and processes to demonstrate a rational and organized approach to work.
• Requires awareness and adherence to organizational standards for security, privacy, and ethics.
  Requires extensive knowledge of the devices for capturing data for computers and the means…