He will be South Dakota’s second-ever CTO after Pat Snow, state CIO Jeff Clines, commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications (BIT), said Friday.
Gottumukkala has a range of private-sector and health-care IT experience, and has served as senior director of business solutions at Sanford Health since December 2019 according to his LinkedIn profile. He has also served as an advisory committee member at Dakota State University since April 2024.
The incoming CTO has a doctorate of philosophy in information systems from Dakota State University and an MBA in engineering and technology management from the University of Dallas.
In his new role with the state, Gottumukkala will work within BIT, leading a technology team to support state agencies and constitutional offices in their use of technology for business. He is also expected to leverage their expertise in IT investment.
Snow, who stepped down June 7, had been with the state nearly 28 years including nearly a decade as CTO. During that time, he also served concurrently as interim CIO from March 2018-October 2019 after CIO David Zolnowsky retired. Before becoming CTO, he held the roles of director of telecommunications and network technologies manager at the state.
Clines said no interim CTO was formally named upon Snow’s departure, but that he and Heather Perry, deputy commissioner at BIT, assumed the duties as needed.
The state’s IT leadership has been working in recent years to prioritize the citizen experience in several long-term projects, including implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning system and the launch of a new motor vehicle licensing system — both of which are underway, as Clines told Government Technology earlier this year. As the leader of a team responsible for state technology infrastructure, Gottumukkala will likely have a hand in these projects as well.
