Director of IT, DC Operations, PI IT

This role is responsible for leading a group within the IT function which delivers and support infrastructure and platform services, ensuring quality, availability and performance standards are met supporting agreed business and client SLA’s

This will include the technical performance management of managed service providers (MSP) against contract SLA’s through a service integrator and management (SIAM) process model supporting the IT service management team in MSP management.

Tasks and responsibilities

Service level management: Ensures that a catalogue of available services is created and maintained and that service level agreements are complete and cost effective and that service delivery is monitored effectively and that identified actions to maintain or improve levels of service are implemented. Ensures that operational methods, procedures, facilities and tools are established, reviewed and maintained. Reviews service delivery to ensure that agreed targets are met and prepares proposals to meet forecast changes in the level or type of service. Systems Development Management: Defines systems development projects which support the organisations' objectives and plans. Selects, adopts and adapts appropriate systems development methods, tools and techniques selecting appropriately from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches. Ensures that senior management is both aware of and able to provide the required resources. Facilitates availability and optimum utilisation of resources. Develops road maps to communicate future development activities. Service acceptance: Engages with technical design and project managers or Project Management Office, to ensure correct products are produced, in a timely fashion. Evaluates the quality of project outputs against agreed service acceptance criteria. Performance Management: Manages individuals and groups. Allocates responsibilities and/or packages of work, including supervisory responsibilities. Delegates responsibilities as appropriate. Sets performance targets, and monitors progress against agreed quality and performance criteria. Provides effective feedback, throughout the performance management cycle, to ensure optimum performance. Resource Planning: Develops plans to ensure that the organisation has appropriately skilled resources to meet organisational objectives and commitments. Manages the effective implementation of resource planning, recruitment, selection, assessment, on-boarding and transitioning of resources. Advises on standards, methods and tools for resource management. Ensures compliance with relevant statutory or external regulations and codes of good practice. Contributes to the development of resource management policies, standards and guidelines and to audits and assessment of resource management processes. Relationship Management: Leads the development of comprehensive stakeholder management strategies and plans. Builds long-term, strategic relationships with senior stakeholders (internal and external). Facilitates the engagement of stakeholders and delivery of services and change projects, acting as a single point of contact for senior stakeholders, facilitating relationships between them. Supplier Management: Manages suppliers to meet key performance indicators and agreed targets. Manages implementation of supplier service improvement actions. Use suppliers' expertise to support and inform development roadmaps. Manages operational relationships between suppliers. Ensures potential disputes or conflicts are raised at an early stage, with clear escalation paths for resolving them. Performs bench-marking and makes use of supplier performance data to ensure that supplier performance is properly monitored and regularly reviewed. Identifies constraints and opportunities when negotiating or renegotiating contracts. QualificationsSkills:Strong people managers skills within a IT function/ technical area. Ability to work with peers and directors to develop and establish strategic plans and objectives Confident in making administrative or operational final decisions within direct area of responsibility or delegated area of responsibility. Ability to provide operational effectiveness in IT function/technical area derived from objectives. Ability to build a team where they set the tasks, but the team members can make decisions whilst performing the tasks. Can interact with senior management and/or clients and can negotiate and influence senior levels of leadership in matters of significance to the organization. Excellent financial and budget skills to ensure schedules meets the IT functions/technical area needs and corporate requirements. Strong verbal & written communication and interpersonal skills. Possess familiarity with system analysis and project management methodology and/or possession of a strong background in IT Technologies such as Server Hardware, Storage, Networking. Strong team player that is dedicated to making culturally diverse geographically distributed teams successful. Ability to summarize complex situations into key points. Good presentation skills. Strong team leadership skills in a matrix project resource environment.

Knowledge and Experience :

Advanced experience with IT leadership and management in an international setting and familiarity with, IT operational service delivery and support, system analysis and project management methodology and/or possession of a strong background IT technical functions and delivery across different technology stacks in traditional data centre hosting or cloud hosting. Significant experience working in a large, diverse, international organization. Intermediate experience project managing IT solutions and cross-functional implementations. Experience in management of direct reports, including motivating, developing, coordinating team members. Professional IT Certifications are desirableExcellent knowledge of ITIL V3 or V4, Foundation certification is desirableFluent in English both written and oral.

Education:

Degree in Software Engineering or Computer Science field, or equivalent or has performed as a Systems Engineer or Cloud Engineer for a minimum of 5 years