A total of twenty-six candidates took part in the competition for the position of the director of the State Information System. On the basis of the vision for the State Information System submitted with the application documents, six candidates were shortlisted for interview.
According to Joonas Heiter, Director General of RIA, 2023 has become a year of setting long-term goals and with the renewed structure, several projects have been launched to improve the quality and user experience of the digital state. “In his vision, Taavi Ploompuu highlighted the bottlenecks that still need improvement and his ideas aligned well with the long-term strategy and management vision of RIA. In an already volatile environment, our priority is to ensure as much stability as possible, a quality which the internal candidate of RIA is well-equipped to provide. Taavi’s strengths include diverse leadership experience, a supportive educational background, and the ability to manage expectations at all levels. As the former director of the State Information System Branch, I am pleased to pass on a highly capable team to Taavi,” said Heiter.
Since October 2023, Taavi Ploompuu has been the Head of the Personal Services Department at RIA and previously, he was the product manager in the State Data Exchange Department. Prior to joining RIA in 2022, he worked for the Defence Resources Agency as a head of department. He has graduated from the Tallinn University of Technology with a master’s degree in human resource management and from Tallinn University in political science.
“I applied for the position of the director of State Information System of the Information System Authority because the direction we are taking together is the right one. RIA is becoming the most important central IT institution in the country and our influence in society is increasing. RIA has good and competent employees, with whom we can adapt to this ever-changing environment and at the same time, create added value for our customers. In addition, the kind of high-impact and complex projects that we manage at RIA are not very common elsewhere. All this gave me the impetus to apply and take up the position of director,” said Taavi Ploompuu, the new Director of State Information System at RIA.
The director of State Information System of the Information System Authority manages the State Information System Branch, which includes data exchange (including X-tee and RIHA), electronic identity, personal services (the state portal, the state mobile app, proactive government services, and machine learning and language technologies), the state network, technology, and the development of election information systems.
