Director, Application Development
About The Position
The Director, Application Development & Support, leads the global strategy, delivery, and operational excellence of critical enterprise applications across the Signature Aviation network. This role is accountable for the full application lifecycle, development, deployment, production support, vendor oversight, financial management, and continuous improvement, ensuring stability, scalability, and alignment to business strategy. The Director oversees global Level 1 and Level 2 production support teams, third-party managed service partners (onshore/offshore), and collaborates closely with business and technology leaders to drive service reliability, modernization initiatives, and value delivery. This role operates at both strategic and operational levels, ensuring application performance, risk management, governance compliance, and financial discipline.
Requirements
- Minimum Education and/or Experience: Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related field; Master’s or MBA preferred
- 10–15+ years progressive IT experience, including 5+ years in leadership roles overseeing application development and production support
- Experience leading global teams and managing service providers
- Strong financial acumen, managing operating plans and vendor contracts
- Deep understanding of development methodologies, ITIL processes, and enterprise application architectures
- Proven ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels
Nice To Haves
- Enterprise application portfolio leadership
- Global operations management
- Vendor and financial governance
- Service management (Incident, Problem, Change, Risk)
- Continuous improvement and operational maturity
- Executive communication and stakeholder influence
- Strategic planning and roadmap alignment
Responsibilities
- Application Strategy & Lifecycle Leadership: Own the strategy and roadmap for assigned application portfolios, aligning with enterprise IT and business objectives
- Oversee full lifecycle management: development handoff, deployment, production stability, enhancements, and retirement
- Partner with Application Development leaders to ensure seamless transition from project delivery to steady-state operations
- Drive modernization, automation, and continuous improvement initiatives
- Production Support & Operational Excellence: Lead global 24x7 L1/L2 support operations, ensuring SLA adherence and business continuity
- Accountable for incident, problem, change, and risk management governance
- Lead major incident response and post-incident reviews; eliminate root causes and reduce recurrence
- Implement measurable service performance metrics and publish service health dashboards
- Ensure Business Continuity and disaster recovery objectives are met
- Financial & Vendor Management: Own operating plan targets, forecasts, invoice approvals, and annual budget development
- Manage managed service providers and external vendors to ensure service quality, performance, and cost efficiency
- Optimize resource allocation across internal teams and partners
- Organizational Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a global team of application support professionals
- Establish performance objectives, succession planning, and workforce strategy
- Ensure standardized tools, methodologies, and process frameworks are consistently applied
- Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, and service excellence
- Business & Executive Partnership: Build trusted relationships with business leaders and senior IT stakeholders
- Participate in IT strategic planning and portfolio governance
- Translate business priorities into scalable application capabilities
- Partner with Finance, Audit, and Risk teams to ensure compliance and control integrity
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
