Vincent Scipione will be the city’s first chief information officer, a post responsible for advising and advocating on the city’s technology needs and policy.
Scipione has been the city’s director of digital services since 2024. He started in City Hallin 2023 as the Smart City manager and helped launch Syracuse’s municipally owned low-cost broadband service, Surge Link.
Scipione will directly oversee the Office of Digital Services and the Bureau of Information Technology. He’ll report to Deputy Mayor Corey Driscoll Dunham.
The promotion raises his salary from $87,125 to $118,000 per year.
In a press release, Owens cited Scipione’s ability to “work with diverse sets of stakeholders” as a key qualification for the position.
Establishing a high-level management position to oversee technology was among the recommendations in an IT audit done last year by a division of The Bonadio Group. The Syracuse Common Council ordered the audit in response to the delays and cost overruns on a payroll modernization project that’s still being implemented.
Bonadio found Syracuse’s systems for purchasing software have been too decentralized, with each department operating on its own.
Scipione will likely work closely with the Common Council Technology and Operational Efficiency Committee, newly formed this year to help lawmakers better oversee IT spending and policy.
Scipione earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a certificate of advance study in IT-related fields from Syracuse University. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at SU. He’s graduated from FOCUS Greater Syracuse’s Citizens Academy and is on the Syracuse University Generation Orange Leadership Council.
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