Associate Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations

Montclair State University • Montclair, NJ

3d

About The Position

Reporting to the CIO and has line management responsibilities for Network (NCI), System (SIO), Voice Operations (VOX), Audio Visual Engineering, Computing Labs Engineering, Endpoint Engineering and IT Support Services, the Associate Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the I&O function and ensuring the delivery of secure, reliable, and cost-effective technology services that support enterprise objectives. This role drives innovation, enhances operational resilience, strengthens governance, and builds strong partnerships across IT and the business. It also oversees talent development, service maturity, and continuous improvement to ensure I&O capabilities align with current and future organizational needs. The AVP of I&O brings experience, knowledge, and future vision for transforming the I&O function, including its strategy, operating model, product and service offerings, and workforce. The role holder is a senior stakeholder in all relationships with externally sourced infrastructure and operations capabilities. As a key member of the senior IT leadership team, this role contributes to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring I&O strategy is fully aligned, positioning I&O to deliver compelling business value.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in computer science, information systems, business administration, or a related field,
• Minimum of ten years of significant professional experience in information technology roles, including strategic and operational planning experience.
• Minimum of three years of leadership responsibilities, including strategy, budgeting, and staffing.
• Exceptional leadership skills, with the ability to develop and communicate an I&O vision that inspires and motivates staff and aligns with the IT and business strategy.
• Experience implementing transformational initiatives where the target state included agile, DevOps, and cloud adoption at scale.
• Ability to consolidate and optimize operations in large enterprises while maintaining agility.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree from an accredited academic institution.
• Demonstrated ability to apply I&O capabilities to achieve regulatory or statutory compliance requirements.
• Ability to develop self-service mechanisms to streamline infrastructure provisioning and ongoing management, and develop governance practices to track and measure the quality of services, and maintain service improvement plans.
• Experience supporting the shift from Capex to Opex with processes - e.g., those to comprehensively manage and optimize cloud costs collaboratively.
• Experience leading cloud adoption (at scale), including establishing governance mechanisms, delivering migration projects, and modifying I&O’s target operating model.
• Budget planning and financial management experience, preferably with showback and/or chargeback models.
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills in complex environments where resources required for success may not be in direct control of this role.
• Excellent analytical, strategic, and conceptual thinking, strategic planning, and execution skills.
• Ability to build consensus, make decisions based on many variables, and gain support for major initiatives.
• Self-starter who self-assesses and solicits feedback from others to improve their performance.
• Experience developing strategies to leverage fusion teams that embrace business technologists.
• Strong business acumen, including Higher Ed domain-specific knowledge of the enterprise and its business units.
• Ability to deliver hybrid working excellence to improve customer and user experiences
• Experience building cloud management solutions, including software development, integration, and ongoing engineering aspects.
• Deep understanding of current and emerging I&O technologies and practices, and how other enterprises are employing them.
• Experience establishing and improving DevOps, as well as other working practices (e.g., ITIL).
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute a strategic staffing plan.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership and Alignment: Sets the mission, vision, and strategy of the I&O organization to maximize the success of business and IT enterprise initiatives. Creates and aligns an I&O value map by linking targeted business outcomes with the future-state business capabilities required to achieve them. Drives alignment of I&O strategies to the organization’s environmental, social and governance goals. Provides strategic direction and oversight for the full life cycle of IT systems, working in close partnership with peers, and identifies where common approaches, solutions, and shared platforms provided by I&O could drive efficiency. Supports the CIO by implementing infrastructure solutions that align to the enterprise architecture framework and roadmap.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Governance: Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritize resources, including budget. Works with key stakeholders to measure and prioritize technical debt remediation. Builds successful stakeholder relationships with IT and business key stakeholders by understanding business needs and ensuring cost-effective delivery of IT services to meet those needs. Collaborates with peer IT Leaders to ensure knowledge and insight can be freely shared. Serves on IT planning and policymaking committees; drives the development and adoption of enterprise technology standards, governance processes, and performance metrics.
• Financial Management: Develops and controls the annual I&O budget to ensure that it's consistent with the overall strategic objectives of IT and the enterprise and is within plan. Creates a culture of continuous cost optimization. Directs the development of an I&O sourcing strategy and provides executive oversight for strategic vendor and partner relationship management. Works with HR and the IT leadership team to develop and execute workforce plans that ensure I&O can supply skilled resources to meet demand.
• Leadership: Works collaboratively with direct reports to support their career progression, nurture their development, and help them realize their potential. Collaborates with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to ensure I&O contributes to, embraces, and applies security strategy. Designs and develops a strong and diverse I&O leadership team, together with a reporting structure for the function. Defines, develops, and manages a comprehensive and integrated IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape, based on best-practice processes, disciplines, and related toolsets. This includes delivery of a comprehensive IT asset management program. Develops and executes a strategy to improve awareness of the business value that the Infrastructure and Operations function provides, and continuously seeks to ensure alignment with customer needs. Operates a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by I&O teams. Supports periodic reviews by audit teams, compliance teams, and other risk-related functions as required. Introduces innovative, differentiating infrastructure and operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance employee productivity Improves IT resilience by executing strategies that improve reliability, tolerability, and disaster recovery readiness. Keeps track of trends and provides direction on what emerging technologies should be incorporated into I&O products and services to successfully deliver the overall IT strategy. Champions I&O involvement in the organization's innovation efforts and encourages experimentation with new solutions to avail business opportunities. Drives the adoption of (and commitment towards) service improvements through a programmatic approach to continuous improvement, which also measures impact and shares results. Develops the maturity of I&O to improve efficiency, deliver innovations, and increase collaboration with other IT and business areas (e.g., through Agile, DevOps, platform, and product approaches). Continuously evaluates the business value of I&O, including the use of metrics such as Key Performance Indicators, Outcome Driven Metrics, and Objectives and Key Results. Performs other duties as assigned. Management retains the right to add or change job duties at any time.

Benefits

• The position may also be eligible for comprehensive benefits, including health insurance, retirement plans, and tuition assistance.
• For further details, please visit: https://www.montclair.edu/human-resources/benefits/

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive