Director of Infrastructure & Operations (I&O)

Softworld, a Kelly Company • Contract • Fort Myers, FL, US • $65 - $80 / hour • 3w ago

The Director of Infrastructure & Operations provides strategic leadership for the IT infrastructure and operational services supporting academic, research, and business needs. This role oversees networks, systems, cloud services, and data centers while driving modernization, resilience, and operational excellence.

As a senior IT leader, the Director leads high-performing teams, manages budgets and vendors, strengthens security and disaster recovery, and partners with stakeholders to deliver reliable, scalable, and cost-effective IT services aligned with the company’s mission.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

Lead the strategy, design, and operation of IT infrastructure, including networks, cloud services, servers, storage, and data centers
Ensure reliable, secure, and scalable IT services through effective monitoring, incident management, and continuous improvement
Develop and maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans
Support sponsored research by enabling high-performance computing, large-scale storage, and specialized research networks
Collaborate with IT and campus leadership on governance, prioritization, budgeting, and technical debt remediation
Build and lead a high-performing Infrastructure & Operations team; mentor leaders and support staff development
Oversee vendor partnerships, contracts, and service level agreements
Manage the I&O budget and measure value through KPIs and service performance metrics
Partner with Information Security to implement security strategy and ensure regulatory compliance.

Key Requirements

8+ years of progressive IT infrastructure experience, including 5+ years in a leadership or management role
Proven experience leading enterprise IT infrastructure (networks, servers, storage, data centers, and cloud platforms such as Azure)
Senior IT leadership experience in Infrastructure & Operations, including networks, servers, storage, data centers, and cloud platforms (Azure preferred).
Strong expertise in IT operations, service delivery, and IT Service Management (ITSM / ITIL).
Experience leading enterprise-scale infrastructure modernization, reliability, and resilience initiatives.
Proven background in disaster recovery, business continuity, and high-availability environments.
Hands-on experience with vendor management, contract negotiation, and SLA oversight
Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical and management teams
Experience managing IT budgets, KPIs, and performance metrics.
Working knowledge of cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management in partnership with InfoSec.
Experience in higher education, research computing, or complex regulated environments strongly preferred.

Must-Have Requirements

Demonstrated Linux expertise, including administration and support of enterprise or research computing environments.
Hands-on experience with High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments.
Proven experience supporting HPC clusters, research storage platforms, and academic/research compute workloads.
Strong DevOps and automation experience, including Ansible (or similar infrastructure-as-code/automation tools).