Director of IT Operations

Detroit Wayne Mental Health Authority•Detroit, MI

10h

About The Position

The Director of IT Operations is responsible for the reliability, security, and operational maturity of enterprise technology services. This leader ensures IT operates as a disciplined, metrics-driven service organization that the business can trust. This role provides end-to-end leadership across Service Desk (Tier 1), Systems Administration (Tier 2), and Systems Engineering (Tier 3), ensuring alignment, clear escalation pathways, and disciplined execution across all technical tiers. This is a highly visible leadership position responsible for operational execution, team development, vendor oversight, KPI monitoring, and workload coordination across multiple technical tiers. The Director serves as both operations' orchestrator and people leader — balancing daily service execution with infrastructure modernization, lifecycle planning, and long-term platform stability. The ideal candidate is a disciplined, data-driven operations leader who thrives in structured environments, values accountability, and understands how to build high-performing technical teams.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related area or commiserate experience
10+ years of progressive infrastructure and IT operations experience in enterprise environments
5+ years in a leadership role overseeing multi-tier technical teams
Strong knowledge of IT service management (ITIL principles preferred)
Experience managing KPIs and driving measurable performance improvements
Demonstrated ability to lead through structure, process discipline, and accountability
Excellent communication skills with experience presenting to executive leadership

Nice To Haves

ITIL certification
Experience in Microsoft-centric environments (M365, Entra ID, Intune, endpoint management)
Experience in hybrid cloud environments (Azure preferred)
Experience leading IT operations in regulated environments (healthcare, finance, government)
PMP or other operational/project management certification

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end service performance across Service Desk, Systems Administration, and Engineering teams
Ensure adherence to defined SLAs and ITIL-based service management practices
Maintain high system uptime, predictable response times, and disciplined change control
Oversee escalation management and major incident response
Define and monitor operational KPIs including SLA adherence, backlog trends, escalation aging, system stability, and compliance metrics
Use data to identify bottlenecks, recurring incidents, and process gaps
Lead structured continuous improvement initiatives across teams
Provide regular performance reporting to executive leadership
Act as operational air traffic controller across Tier 1–3 teams
Balance daily support demands with engineering and project workloads
Prioritize work based on business impact and risk
Remove operational roadblocks and escalate conflicts early
Build and sustain high-performing technical teams through structured coaching, clear performance metrics, and consistent accountability.
Establish clear expectations and measurable performance goals
Conduct performance reviews and coaching conversations
Establish a culture of ownership, professionalism, and measurable service excellence where expectations are clear and performance is inspected regularly
Ensure operational standards, SOPS, policies, and runbooks are current, auditable and consistently followed.
Ensures process documentation is current, accessible, and followed
Manage relationships with external engineering and support partners
Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and contractual commitments
Escalate performance issues when necessary
Ensure vendors align with organizational operational standards
Oversee patch compliance and backup integrity
Identify operational risks and implement mitigation strategies
Own operational readiness for disaster recovery and business continuity execution
Ensure documented recovery plans are tested and validated
Ensure restoration time objectives are understood and monitored
Coordinate with security and compliance teams to maintain regulatory alignment and ensure operational controls are adhered to
Provide input into operational budgeting and staffing forecasts
Align resource planning with growth, lifecycle needs, and strategic initiatives
Ensures appropriate after-hours support structure exists