DETAILS: DIRECTOR OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS

Title: Compensation: 200k+ Base salary + Strong Bonus 20-30% + Excellent benefits

Location: Hybrid Role- 4 days in office / Smyrna, TN (Suburb of Nashville)

OVERVIEW: DIRECTOR OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS

We are looking for someone experienced in leading comprehensive IT infrastructure. This person will oversee all infrastructure functions, engineering to operations, ensuring stability, scalability, and security of the enterprise technology environment. Will manage diverse technical teams encompassing open systems (Linux and Windows), networking, CloudOps, storage, database, and IBM systems.

RESPONSIBILITIES: DIRECTOR OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS

Manage the group of managers and their teams responsible for designing and executing infrastructure and operations strategies supporting enterprise business objectives, ensuring scalability, security, and high availability across hybrid (on-prem and cloud) environments.
Provide leadership and direction for all infrastructure domains including open systems (Windows/Linux), networking, CloudOps, storage, database, and IBM systems.
Oversee daily operational activities including system monitoring, patching, maintenance, backup, and recovery, ensuring stability and adherence to SLAs.
Champion automation, orchestration, and containerization (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes) to improve deployment speed, reduce manual effort, and enhance system reliability.
Partner with Data Science and Application teams to design and maintain infrastructure capable of supporting AI/ML workloads, including GPU clusters, data pipelines, and model deployment environments.
Direct the design and implementation of enterprise monitoring and observability frameworks to proactively identify and resolve performance or availability issues.
Drive adherence to ITIL-aligned service delivery, including Incident, Problem, and Change Management, while maintaining clear business-impact communication during critical events.
Lead disaster recovery and business continuity planning, testing, and documentation for all critical systems and applications.
Partner with Information Security, and Application Development teams to maintain system integrity, enforce security controls, and support innovation initiatives.
Manage vendor relationships, contracts, and negotiations related to infrastructure hardware, software, cloud, and managed services.
Develop and manage annual operating and capital budgets, ensuring cost efficiency and alignment with strategic priorities.
Establish and monitor operational KPIs and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) to measure performance, drive accountability, and identify opportunities for improvement.
Oversee capacity planning and performance tuning to ensure optimal utilization of compute, storage, and network resources.
Direct evaluation and selection of network, server, storage, and co-location technologies to meet enterprise needs and future scalability.
Ensure ongoing compliance with corporate, regulatory, and security requirements.
Promote a culture of collaboration, respect, innovation, and continuous learning across the Infrastructure & Operations organization.
Serve as the escalation point for critical incidents, coordinating response and communication across technical teams and business stakeholders.
Stay informed of emerging technologies and industry trends to guide modernization and long-term infrastructure strategy.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: DIRECTOR OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field
8+ years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure operations
5+ years in a leadership or management capacity overseeing multi-disciplinary technical teams responsible for system administration, patch management, monitoring, backup/recovery, and performance optimization.
5+ years’ experience managing enterprise-level infrastructure environments including Windows, Linux, IBM Systems, cloud platforms, storage, and networking.
5+ years’ experience developing and managing operational budgets, vendor contracts, and service-level agreements (SLAs).
Ability to successfully drive automation, process improvement, and operational excellence initiatives
Knowledge of both on-premise and cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Strong understanding of ITIL or similar service management frameworks and their application in large-scale operations.
Project management skills

Thorndale Partners

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