Director of IT Infrastructure - York, NE

Central Valley Ag Cooperative•York, NE

10d

About The Position

The Director of IT Infrastructure leads the infrastructure platform supporting Central Valley Ag (CVA), including its multi-state network, servers, storage, cloud services, identity and endpoint management, telephony, and location-based support. The role is accountable for availability across CVA locations in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, with particular attention to seasonal planting and harvest periods when outages can disrupt operations. It is a business leadership role focused on direction, budgeting, forecasting, business partnership, and team development; hands-on engineering is performed by the team. The Director works extensively with regional and division leaders, finance, and vendors, using technical credibility to guide decisions and assess the team's work. The Director owns infrastructure strategy and a three-to-five-year roadmap, annual operating and capital budgets, capacity planning, vendor and carrier relationships, lifecycle planning, service levels, and infrastructure delivery for new, acquired, and remodeled locations. The role leads and develops a distributed infrastructure team and ensures that changes are planned, communicated, reversible, and timed to avoid seasonal peaks where possible. Responsibilities also include availability, endpoint and identity services, backup and disaster recovery, security partnership, documentation, and tested recovery capabilities. Central Valley Ag is a farmer-owned cooperative headquartered in York, Nebraska, with locations in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. It provides products and services in grain, agronomy, feed, and energy. Employment is contingent on agreement to CVA's confidentiality, intellectual property, and non-disclosure terms. The position includes a 24/7/365 on-call environment and occasional lifting and transport of computer and infrastructure equipment.

Requirements

Seven or more years of IT infrastructure experience, including hands-on network and systems experience.
Three or more years leading a technical team or demonstrated equivalent leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated ownership of an operating and capital budget, including building it, forecasting it, and explaining variances.
A track record of partnering with business leaders outside technology, such as in operations, finance, or a commercial function, where outcomes depended on understanding the business rather than technical execution.
Ability to understand how a business operation runs and translate its needs into infrastructure requirements before being asked; identified as the position's single most important requirement.
Demonstrated experience building and forecasting an annual operating and capital budget and explaining variances to a finance partner.
Ability to produce and defend a multi-year roadmap connected to business outcomes and to decline work that does not serve those outcomes.
Ability to present to senior leadership and translate technical risk into operational and financial consequences; comfort being the only technologist in the room.
Experience negotiating commercial terms with vendors and carriers, including contracts, renewals, and service levels.
Enterprise networking knowledge, including routing, switching, wireless, WAN and SD-WAN, and multi-site connectivity.
Knowledge of Windows Server, Active Directory, virtualization, and storage technologies.
Microsoft 365 and Azure administration experience, including hybrid identity.
Backup and disaster recovery design, execution, and testing experience.
Endpoint management and support operations experience across distributed sites.
Experience with budget ownership, vendor and carrier management, and lifecycle planning.
Ability to lead a distributed team, including staff based at locations rather than at headquarters.
Calm, structured incident management and discipline in communicating during outages.
Ability to perform the essential duties satisfactorily, with reasonable accommodations available for individuals with disabilities.
Agreement to CVA's confidentiality, intellectual property, and non-disclosure terms is a condition of employment.
Availability in a 24/7/365 on-call environment.
Ability to meet the described physical demands, with reasonable accommodations available.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in a technology-related field such as computer science, computer information systems, or management information systems.
Experience supporting distributed operational sites such as plants, terminals, or elevators, rather than only office environments.
Experience with operational technology alongside corporate IT.
Experience in agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, or another multi-site operating business.
Experience integrating infrastructure through acquisitions.
Relevant technical certifications in networking, Microsoft, or cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain relationships with region and division leaders across grain, agronomy, feed, and energy; understand operating calendars, growth plans, and pain points to anticipate infrastructure needs.
Build the annual operating and capital budget, forecast spending through the year, explain variances to finance, and manage to the budget.
Develop and defend a three-to-five-year infrastructure roadmap aligned with CVA's technology strategy; make build-versus-buy recommendations and sequence work around business needs and seasonal peaks.
Represent technology in business forums, influence senior leadership, and explain technical risks in operational and financial terms.
Negotiate commercial terms with vendors and carriers, including contracts, renewals, service levels, and total cost.
Plan infrastructure capacity for growth, acquisitions, location openings, closures, and remodels.
Lead, coach, and develop the IT Infrastructure team across network administration, systems administration, and location-based support, including developing successors.
Own availability of the network, servers, storage, virtualization, cloud platform services, and telephony.
Own endpoint management and the day-to-day support experience for employees at CVA locations.
Own identity and directory services in partnership with IT Security.
Own backup, recovery, and disaster recovery, including regular recovery testing.
Plan and execute infrastructure capacity, refreshes, upgrades, and end-of-life lifecycle work with a multi-year plan and supporting budget.
Deliver infrastructure for new, acquired, and remodeled locations on the business's timeline.
Own infrastructure change management, ensuring changes are planned, communicated, reversible, and kept clear of seasonal peaks wherever possible.
Partner with IT Security on controls, patching, and incident response; with Enterprise Architecture on standards; and with Applied Innovation on application hosting.
Manage vendors, carriers, contracts, licensing, and the infrastructure budget.
Establish and report service levels for uptime, response, and resolution.
Maintain infrastructure documentation and runbooks to avoid dependence on any one individual.
Supervise the IT Infrastructure team in accordance with CVA policies and applicable laws, including interviewing and hiring, assigning work, coaching, performance management, and addressing employee concerns.
Perform other duties as assigned.