Director of Information Technology Operations

East West Bank•El Monte, CA

About The Position

The Director of IT Operations is responsible for ensuring the stability, resilience, and operational excellence of the bank’s technology environment. This leader owns day-to-day production operations, incident and problem management, service availability, disaster recovery readiness, and operational risk management across infrastructure and applications. The role balances run-the-bank excellence with modernization, driving improved observability, automation, vendor performance, and global operating models (including captive/offshore teams). The Director partners closely with Cybersecurity, Application Development, Digital, and Business leaders to ensure technology services meet regulatory, customer, and business expectations.

Requirements

12+ years of IT experience with significant leadership in IT Operations
Experience in financial services or highly regulated environments
Strong background in: Production operations Incident and problem management Disaster recovery and business continuity
Experience managing large, hybrid environments (on-prem + cloud)
Proven ability to manage vendors and offshore/captive teams
Strong executive communication skills
Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the United States.
We do not offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting banks approaching or exceeding $50–$100B in assets
Familiarity with regulatory expectations (e.g., FFIEC, FRB, OCC)
Experience modernizing IT operations (automation, SRE, observability)
ITIL or similar service management framework experience

Responsibilities

Own 24x7 production operations across infrastructure, platforms, and applications.
Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of critical banking systems.
Lead incident, problem, and change management, including executive communications for major incidents.
Establish clear service ownership and operational accountability for all systems.
Own operational resilience, including: Disaster Recovery (DR) testing and readiness Business Continuity (BCP) coordination Reduction of single points of failure Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Restore (MTTR)
Partner with Risk, Compliance, and Audit on: Regulatory exams and audits Issue remediation and control design Evidence and reporting
Establish and mature ITSM practices (Incident, Problem, Change, Request).
Manage IT services centered around operational KPIs and performance objectives: Availability and uptime Incident trends and root causes Change success rate Ticket volumes and aging Drive a data-driven operations culture focused on continuous improvement.
Oversee application support functions, including: L2/L3 support Release support and production readiness DR testing and failover support
Oversee infrastructure operations, including: Compute, storage, network, and end-user platforms Data center and cloud operations Capacity and performance management
Manage strategic vendors and service providers, ensuring SLAs, cost discipline, and accountability.
Build and scale global delivery models, including: Clear role definitions and RACI Knowledge transfer and runbooks Performance management and quality controls Reduce dependency on vendors through internal capability building where appropriate
Drive increased automation across operations (monitoring, ticket triage, remediation).
Improve observability and tooling to proactively detect and prevent issues.
Partner with Engineering and Architecture to: Improve production readiness Shift left on operational concerns Reduce operational toil and technical debt
Lead, develop, and retain high-performing operations leaders and teams.
Serve as a trusted partner to: CIO and executive leadership Business and product owners Cybersecurity and Risk Communicate clearly during incidents, audits, and executive reviews.
May perform other duties as assigned