IT Services & Operations Director

About the Role

We are seeking a visionary and results-driven IT Services & Operations Director to lead our technology infrastructure, ensuring operational excellence, robust data integrity, and strategic alignment with our organization’s growth and innovation objectives. In this pivotal leadership role, you will oversee the end-to-end management of IT services, operations, data centers, networks, and service delivery, fostering a culture of reliability, security, and continuous improvement. Your expertise will be instrumental in driving technological advancements, optimizing performance, and safeguarding our digital ecosystem against disruptions while maintaining compliance with industry standards and business requirements.

Key Responsibilities

IT Services & Operations Management

As the strategic leader of IT services and operations, you will:

• Evaluate and Enhance IT Capabilities: Conduct a thorough review of existing IT services and operations to assess current capabilities, identify gaps, and implement targeted improvement initiatives that align with organizational goals.
• Develop Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans: Design and deploy comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategies to ensure resilience against potential disruptions, safeguarding critical IT infrastructure and promoting rapid recovery in the event of unforeseen incidents.
• Oversee Core IT Infrastructure: Lead the strategic planning, implementation, and maintenance of servers, virtualization platforms, operating systems, database systems, storage solutions, backup, and archiving systems to ensure compliance with IT and digital business requirements.
• Deliver High-Level Technical Support: Manage third-level technical support services, including VPN configuration, laptop troubleshooting, and printing solutions, while evaluating and prioritizing IT service requests to enhance operational efficiency across the IT and Digital department.
• Implement IT-as-a-Service (IaaS) Solutions: Drive the adoption of IT services delivered as a service model, ensuring scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency in alignment with organizational needs.
• Ensure Robust Testing Environments: Design and maintain testing platforms that mirror live critical systems, enabling accurate validation of performance, stability, and functionality prior to deployment. Lead the evaluation and execution of testing tools and methodologies to minimize risks and uphold Technology & Digital standards.
• Optimize Database and System Performance: Conduct capacity management, database tuning, optimization, and periodic health checks to ensure high availability, efficiency, and adherence to technological standards.

IT Data Center Management

Your leadership will extend to the oversight of our data center infrastructure, where you will:

• Ensure High Availability and Performance: Monitor and manage data center operations to guarantee maximum uptime, reliability, and performance, minimizing downtime and maintaining optimal service levels.
• Enhance Security and Compliance: Implement and maintain stringent security protocols to protect against unauthorized access, cyber threats, and data breaches, ensuring compliance with regulatory and organizational standards.
• Optimize Energy and Cooling Systems: Develop and execute strategies to reduce energy consumption and cooling inefficiencies, lowering operational costs and environmental impact while preventing hardware failures due to overheating.
• Plan for Disaster Recovery: Create and execute comprehensive disaster recovery plans to ensure business continuity and data integrity, enabling swift restoration of services in the event of disruptions or disasters.
• Conduct Capacity Planning: Perform resource management and capacity planning to ensure scalability and flexibility, preventing overprovisioning or underutilization of assets while meeting evolving organizational demands.

IT Service Management

In this capacity, you will:

• Lead Departmental Operations: Oversee the day-to-day operations of the IT department while collaborating with executive leadership to provide technical and business guidance, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives.
• Monitor Project Deliverables: Review and assess the quality of project deliverables, oversee service tracking, and ensure adherence to established processes to institutionalize consistent, high-quality service delivery.
• Develop Performance Metrics: Establish and implement measurements and reporting mechanisms to track progress, identify service process corrections, and drive predictable, high-quality service delivery.
• Communicate Effectively: Ensure timely reporting of schedule changes, delays, and accelerations for initiatives and service delivery, maintaining transparency and accountability across all stakeholders.

IT Network Management

Your responsibilities will include:

• Oversee Network Operations: Lead the Network Management department to ensure network services across development, test, and production environments are monitored, maintained, and operational in accordance with organizational standards and policies.
• Drive Network Design and Security: Lead a team responsible for network design, connectivity, security analysis, implementation, and standards coordination to ensure timely and accurate execution of network initiatives.
• Minimize System Downtime: Verify the effective execution of infrastructure and platform changes within agreed timeframes to reduce system downtime and maintain service continuity.
• Develop Network Recovery Plans: Create and maintain comprehensive network recovery plans to ensure rapid restoration of services in the event of network disruptions or failures.