Director of Infrastructure Services

Nevada System of Higher Education

20h • Onsite

About The Position

The Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) invites applications and nominations for the position of Director of Infrastructure Services. This is a renewable, full-time, non-tenured, administrative position and reports to the Chief Information Officer. The NSHE is comprised of eight institutions: three universities, four community colleges and a research institute, serving over 105,000 students and 15,000 employees. The Director of Infrastructure Services is responsible for providing strategic direction, administrative oversight, and operational management of enterprise technical infrastructure services for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). The position ensures the design, implementation, and maintenance of reliable, scalable, and high-performance network and data center environments that support the instructional, research, and administrative missions of NSHE, the NSHE institutions, and System Computing Services (SCS). This position functions at a senior management level and exercises a high degree of independence, discretion, and judgment in decision-making. The incumbent is responsible for supervising professional, technical, and support staff; establishing operational priorities; and ensuring alignment with NSHE strategic goals and technology standards. The incumbent also serves with other SCS Directors as a member of the SCS leadership team and represents NSHE at meetings, conferences, and other proceedings on the subjects of reliable and high-performance technology infrastructure, broadband connectivity, research technology, and inter-organizational technology collaboration. The Director leads enterprise technology initiatives, including fiber optic infrastructure, optical transport systems, routing and switching, firewalls, load balancing technologies, highly available server and service hosting, cloud and “as-a-service” infrastructure, enterprise data storage, backup and recovery services, inter-organizational identity and access management, research collaborations and partnerships, data center operations, and facilities management. The position is responsible for managing complex vendor relationships; negotiating and administering contracts; and ensuring compliance with service-level agreements (SLAs), technical interoperability requirements, and memoranda of understanding (MOUs). The incumbent develops, implements, and enforces policies, procedures, and standards in accordance with NSHE regulations, state and federal requirements, and industry best practices. The Director collaborates with institutional leadership, IT professionals across NSHE, and external partners to ensure cohesive and effective infrastructure services across a multi-institutional environment.

Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, or a related field
• Ten years of progressively responsible senior-level experience in IT infrastructure, data center facility management, multi-location wide area and local networking, or related areas
• At least three (3) years of supervisory or management experience
• Alternatively, an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of the above requirements
• Travel both inside and outside the State of Nevada will occasionally be required to attend or represent NSHE at trainings, conferences, administrative meetings, or site visits to NSHE institutions and collaborating organizations
• Valid driver’s license
• Enterprise IT infrastructure, including data center networking, cloud computing, virtualization, containerization, data storage/backup and recovery, and high availability service delivery
• Wide area and data center network concepts (e.g., DWDM, routing, load balancing)
• Resilient data center design, operations, and physical access controls
• Emerging technologies in IT infrastructure
• Strategic plan development and cost-benefit analysis
• Team leadership and effective delegation
• Vendor management, SLAs, and MOUs
• Budget development and financial management
• Higher education IT environments and governance structures
• Security principles related to infrastructure hardening and protection
• Strong leadership and supervisory skills
• Strategic planning and infrastructure architecture design
• Effective communication and stakeholder engagement
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving
• Conflict resolution and decision-making
• Vendor relationship management
• Multi-departmental or inter-organizational project management
• Effective collaboration and relationship building with external peers
• Exercise independent judgement and make high-level decisions
• Lead and manage complex infrastructure environments
• Develop and implement long-term strategic initiatives
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships across NSHE institutions
• Manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment
• Balance long-term strategy with immediate operational needs
• Adapt to evolving technologies and institutional priorities
• Effectively manage staff located in geographically distant locations

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree in a related field
• One or more relevant active industry-related certifications
• Experience within the Nevada System of Higher Education
• Experience in budgeting, project management, and vendor relationships

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement long-range plans for enterprise infrastructure, including networking, service hosting, interoperable/federated identity services, and data center technologies.
• Align infrastructure strategy with NSHE system-wide initiatives while expanding, reducing, and streamlining services as necessary to adapt to evolving technologies and system-wide, institutional, and customer/client needs.
• Oversee the development and enforcement of policies and standards related to technical infrastructure architecture, interoperability, emerging methodologies, and operations.
• Evaluate and direct the implementation of emerging technologies and methodologies to enhance infrastructure reliability, performance, scalability, and efficiency.
• Develop and effectively manage Network Services, Systems Engineering, Research Engineering, and Data Center and Facilities Planning allocated resources, including biennial operating and capital improvement budgets and equipment lifecycles.
• Oversee the design, implementation, maintenance, and appropriate operational support for shared infrastructure systems and services provided, hosted, or managed by SCS, including the NevadaNet wide area network, data centers, local area networks, on-premises and cloud service hosting, data storage/backup and recovery, federated identity services, research/science collaboration, and collocation services.
• Oversee data center operations, including facilities planning, power and cooling systems, hardware lifecycle management, and adherence to best practices.
• Actively and constructively participate as a member of the SCS leadership team to develop and set strategic and operational direction and policy for Infrastructure Services and SCS as a whole.
• Effectively and professionally represent SCS in seeking collaboration/partnership and infrastructure development opportunities that will result in valuable, effective, and timely solutions in support of NSHE strategic goals and objectives.
• Serve as the NSHE / NevadaNet representative at national, state, and local gatherings, conferences, and committees related to Research and Education Network development and collaborative infrastructure services.
• Regularly engage with peers at NSHE institutions and external organizations to ensure that SCS is a “responsive, reliable resource” to its many customers/clients and collaborators.
• Establish expectations among subordinate staff related to supervision, evaluation, professional development, intentional collaboration, customer service, and external engagement.
• Effectively communicate strategic direction and policy to staff and guide them to develop and enact plans to achieve the desired results consistent with strategic objectives.
• Encourage, facilitate, and nurture an environment of collaboration, mutual respect, and teamwork among the various teams within SCS as well as with customers/clients.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Health Insurance: includes health, dental, vision, and life insurance
• Employer paid long term disability plan
• Outstanding Retirement Plan: professional employees are required to participate in the 401(a) Retirement Plan Alternative (RPA). Employee contributions of 19.25% are matched 100% by the employer and employees experience an immediate vesting in the plan.
• Employees who currently or previously participated in Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) of Nevada may be eligible to continue in the PERS plan.
• Paid Leave: generous annual leave (accrual of 2 days per month), sick leave (granted 30 days at time of hire), 12 paid holidays, and paid family leave.
• Education Benefit: employees and their qualified dependents may take up to six credits per semester at a reduced rate and their dependents may access an unlimited number of credits, if they meet specific criteria.
• Employee assistance programs
• Professional development opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees