Director of Information Technology & Informatics in Georgetown, Delaware at La Red Health Center Inc

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Primary Location: Georgetown – (incumbent may be transferred or asked to report to any of LRHC’s locations based on the needs of the organization)

Wage Classification: Exempt

Job Summary:

The IT/Informatics Director provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for all information technology, cybersecurity, and data informatics systems across clinical and administrative sites. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, this role serves as the designated Organizational Security Officer, ensuring strict HIPAA compliance, robust data protection, and proactive risk mitigation.

Essential Responsibilities:

The following duties are not intended to serve as a comprehensive list of all duties performed by all associates in this position. The duties listed are intended to provide a representative summary of the major duties and responsibilities. The incumbent may be required to perform additional, position-specific duties as assigned by their manager and/or LRHC Leadership.

IT Operations and Infrastructure

? Oversees day-to-day IT operations, helpdesk support, and technical services across all LRHC clinical and administrative locations.

• Ensures 99.9% reliability, uptime, and performance of local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), cloud environments, hardware devices, and telephony systems.
• Coordinates lifecycle management, routine updates, and infrastructure upgrades for servers, workstations, clinical medical devices, and peripherals.
• Establishes clear service level agreements (SLAs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) for internal infrastructure performance.
• Develops and tests comprehensive IT disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans to guarantee clinical operations continue during technical outages.

Cybersecurity and Risk Management

• Serves as the official Security Officer for LRHC, leading all cybersecurity strategies, vulnerability management, and threat mitigation efforts.

? Configures, monitors, and maintains essential security boundaries, including enterprise firewalls, endpoint detection and response (EDR) software, and access control systems.

• Enforces strict identity and access management (IAM) policies, managing role-based user permissions across all clinical platforms.
• Guarantees organizational audit readiness by maintaining continuous compliance with HIPAA, HITECH, and applicable state or federal data protection laws.
• Leads IT incident response planning, spearheads forensic investigations in the event of a breach, and conducts annual organization-wide IT risk assessments.

Vendor Oversight and IT Coordination

• Acts as the primary internal owner and evaluator of the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and all outsourced IT vendor contracts.
• Audits external vendor performance against established metrics to determine the viability of the outsourced model versus building an in-house IT team.
• Coordinates technical communication and project alignment between external IT firms, consultants, network engineers, and third-party clinical software vendors.
• Facilitates routine vendor performance evaluations to ensure strict accountability, fiscal responsibility, and operational responsiveness.

Implementation Support

• Directs the technical infrastructure preparation for the enterprise Epic EHR implementation, including network bandwidth scaling, backup power, and hardware validation.
• Ensures seamless system integration between Epic, legacy databases, laboratory systems, imaging networks, and telehealth platforms.
• Partners closely with internal Project Managers, clinical champions, and external Epic consultants to maintain cross-functional alignment across all rollout workstreams.
• Designs and maintains technical workflows that reduce clinician charting burdens and maximize system efficiency post-launch.

Strategic Planning and Financial Management

• Formulates and presents data-driven recommendations to the CEO regarding the long-term evolution of LRHC’s technology architecture and staffing model.
• Conducts total cost of ownership (TCO) and cost-benefit analyses comparing internalized IT departments against managed IT services.
• Formulates, manages, and forecasts the annual IT departmental operational and capital expenditure budgets.
• Assesses emerging healthcare technologies (e.g., AI-driven diagnostics, remote patient monitoring) to identify strategic adoption opportunities.

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or competency required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience:

• Required: Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Informatics, Computer Science, Information Technology, Management Information Systems (MIS), or a closely related field.
• Preferred: Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration (MHA), Health Informatics, or Business Administration (MBA) with a technology focus.
• Experience: Minimum of 7–10 years of progressive experience in IT systems management, with at least 3–5 years in a healthcare leadership or supervisory role (Federally Qualified Health Center [FQHC] experience is highly desirable).
• Technical Experience: Proven experience supporting or managing an Epic EHR environment or leading a large-scale enterprise electronic health record data migration.
• Certifications (Highly Preferred): Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS), or Project Management Professional (PMP).

Language Skills:

Bilingual (English/Spanish) preferred

Skills and Competencies:

• Deep operational knowledge of healthcare technology infrastructure, including HL7 messaging, DICOM, PACS, and interface engines.
• Thorough understanding of the HIPAA Security Rule, privacy laws, and federal compliance frameworks governing patient data safety.
• Strong capabilities in relational data models, data warehousing, business intelligence tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau), and SQL reporting.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, with a proven ability to translate complex technical jargon into actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders and clinicians.
• Refined negotiation skills for managing complex, multi-year vendor software and hardware agreements.

Equipment Operated:

• Wide range of office equipment.
• Enterprise server infrastructure, firewalls, network switches, and access control hardware.
• High proficiency and daily use of enterprise software suites (e.g., Microsoft 365, Active Directory, Epic EHR, and helpdesk ticketing workflows).

Mental/Physical Requirements:

Frequent sitting or standing for long periods while using a computer or conducting patient interviews. Regular walking within the clinic to coordinate with medical staff or escort patients. Must be able to lift or move up to 15–25 pounds and occasionally push.