Responsibilities
• The Director, IT Operations will be accountable for the effective and efficient management of IT infrastructure (systems/network), IT Service management (support services), and Information Security for the entirety of the NCSA region
• The ideal candidate will have regional responsibility for all aspects of IT Operations, overseeing implementation, operations & maintenance of systems and required processes to ensure the stability and availability of dependent information systems
• While working in collaboration with HB headquarters in Germany, you will also be responsible for the development of technical architecture strategy, new technologies and capacity planning; operational and service management processes to ensure delivery of IT services in the NCSA region, 24/7, 365 days a year
• Support and manage 3 distinct domains – Infrastructure, Service Management, and Information Security
• Ensure the availability, support, and maintenance of the NCSA infrastructure (comprising of corporate offices, retail locations, and distribution centers)
• Work with service leads and central IT Management in Germany to prepare both service specific and wider infrastructure roadmaps
• Provide strong leadership and technical direction for both strategic and tactical activities
• Ensure the effective running of key service management processes for the NCSA region (Incident, Problem, Change, Capacity, Demand, etc.)
• Ensure infrastructure and support services are operated at appropriate maturity levels (runbooks maintained, key processes and procedures documented and followed, routine reports generated and evidenced)
• Maintain adequate levels of information security, including SecOps tasks (infrastructure is secured, patched, and maintained by appropriate teams
• Develop and maintain relationships with senior business stakeholders
• Communicate with senior business stakeholders during planed changes and unplanned disruptive incidents
• Work with central IT team(s) in Germany to anticipate system demands and recommend upgrades, expansions and reconfigurations
• Participate in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning as required, focusing on technical improvements that could be added to technical roadmaps
• Review RCAs, ensure their quality and accuracy and that improvements are driven to avoid reoccurrence
• Provide strategic direction and oversight for the design, development, operation and support of IT systems & service management that fulfill the needs of the business, including the full life cycle of technical architecture, infrastructure engineering, operations and IT service desk
• Forecasts future skill needs to acquire and develop an IT workforce with the appropriate mix of business knowledge, technical skills and competencies that balance between growing the agility required to achieve business objectives and ensuring the core IT functions are reliable, stable and efficient
• Provides leadership, coaching and direction to the IT Ops team
Qualifications
• The ideal candidate should have deep and wide technical experience to ensure the necessary service interdependencies are met
• You will also have expert knowledge of IT service management concepts and processes needed to run a mature enterprise IT function
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or related field
• 10 -12+ years managing IT Operations across a global organization
• Experience managing service desk (scheduling, ticketing, maintaining service levels, reporting, etc.)
• Proficient understanding of Applications Development, data base architecture and system integration
• Demonstrable experience of strategic and tactical decision making to ensure the ongoing availability and resilience of infrastructure services
• Excellent technical knowledge of infrastructure disciplines spanning Hosting, Public Cloud, Wintel, Network, End User Compute, Security and Support Services
• Excellent leadership skills to lead teams through difficult operational situations
• Strong planning and organizing skills including the ability to manage several work streams simultaneously
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to interact professionally with the full spectrum of stakeholders
• Self-motivated, determined and focused to get the job done properly, using his/ her own initiative when a situation demands it
• Ability to learn quickly with a “can-do” attitude to turn challenges into opportunities
• Excellent communication skills with a capacity to present, discuss, and explain complex issues coherently and logically both in writing and verbally
• Ability to work non-standard hours to support on call escalation issues when the situation demands
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically on an occasional basis
Pattie Tsivouras