Director of IT Operations
Location: Fairfield County, Connecticut (5 days onsite)
Employment Type: Full‑time, Direct Hire
Work Authorization: W2 only — no C2C, CTH, or third‑party vendors
About the Role
We’re seeking an experienced Director of IT Operations to lead the stability, performance, and evolution of our global technology environment. This leader will oversee daily operations across network, data center, infrastructure, and end‑user platforms while driving operational excellence, service reliability, and continuous improvement. The ideal candidate is both strategic and hands‑on, capable of guiding a distributed team and stepping in during high‑impact incidents.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor, and develop a globally distributed IT operations team.
- Ensure availability, security, and scalability of infrastructure services across all locations.
- Build and mature ITSM processes aligned with ITIL (incident, problem, change, request, knowledge).
- Oversee major incident response, escalation paths, and 24/7 on‑call operations.
- Own Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity programs, including documentation and testing.
- Provide operational leadership for Azure, Microsoft 365, and Intune.
- Manage core infrastructure operations: networking, firewalls, data centers/colo, compute/virtualization, storage, backup, and telecom/voice.
- Improve monitoring and observability practices to enhance alert quality and reduce noise.
- Partner with Security on patching, vulnerability remediation, configuration standards, and hardening.
- Maintain accurate configuration and asset data, including dependencies for DR and incident response.
- Manage vendor and carrier relationships, including SLAs, contracts, cost optimization, and escalations.
- Track operational KPIs and service health metrics; drive improvements based on trends.
- Standardize and automate operational processes to increase efficiency and reduce risk.
- Communicate operational performance, risks, and priorities to executive leadership.
Required:
- 8–12+ years of IT operations experience in mid‑size or enterprise environments.
- Proven leadership of global or multi‑region operations teams.
- Strong technical background across networking, data center operations, telecom/voice, compute, virtualization, storage, and backup.
- Deep experience with Azure, Microsoft 365, and Intune/Endpoint Management.
- Hands‑on ownership of DR/BCP programs, including RTO/RPO planning and testing.
- Experience implementing or maturing ITSM/ITIL processes and major incident management.
- Familiarity with monitoring/observability tools and operational analytics.
- Understanding of identity and access management within Microsoft ecosystems.
- Strong documentation, process‑mapping, and continuous‑improvement mindset.
- Experience managing vendors and working within budget constraints.
Preferred:
- ITIL certification.
- Experience supporting mission‑critical or always‑on environments.
- Exposure to security operations or identity management.
- Relevant technical certifications (Azure, CCNA/CCNP, telecom/voice, etc.).
