Director of IT Operations

KSM•Indianapolis, IN

About The Position

The Director of IT Operations is a business partner and thought leader responsible for ensuring KSM’s technology services are reliable, scalable, and consistent across a complex, multi-office, hybrid environment. The role sets the operational vision and standards for IT service delivery, builds trusted relationships with business leaders, and promotes transparency, clarity, and steady execution. The Director leads infrastructure, end-user services, service management, and vendor performance. The role works closely with Product, Security, and Innovation groups so operational practices support risk management, resilience, and responsible modernization. It also leads the IT Operations team and manages the function’s budget, infrastructure lifecycle, continuity planning, M&A integrations, projects, and office-move technology needs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
10+ years of experience as an IT infrastructure architect or engineer.
10+ years in an IT Operations leadership role, including leading managers and building high-performing teams.
Ability to build relationships with senior stakeholders, influence decisions, and translate technical complexity into business options and outcomes.
Experience establishing and running service management practices, including incident management, problem management, change management, service ownership, metrics, and continuous improvement.
Extensive experience leading IT due diligence and integration for M&A.
Track record in business continuity planning, disaster recovery, and incident response.
Experience managing multi-office IT infrastructure in a hybrid work environment.
Financial discipline, including budget ownership, forecasting, vendor management, and cost optimization.
Project management skills and experience managing large-scale IT initiatives and operational transitions.
Leadership, communication, and organizational skills, with a calm, steady approach to execution.

Nice To Haves

ITIL certification, Foundation at minimum; higher levels are a plus.
Experience with Jira and other project management tools.

Responsibilities

Serve as a trusted business partner to firm leadership, translating business priorities into operational roadmaps, service outcomes, and tradeoffs.
Define and evolve IT Operations service standards, operating principles, and governance to improve consistency and reduce friction.
Lead and manage the IT Operations team, coach leaders, develop talent, and build a one-team culture.
Establish and run service management practices, including service reviews, incident management, problem management, change management, performance reporting, and continual improvement.
Improve service reliability and user experience through clear ownership, root-cause discipline, and standardization across offices.
Oversee the IT operations budget with the CTO, including planning, forecasting, spend optimization, financial reporting, and vendor performance.
Manage infrastructure investments, endpoint inventory, and refresh cycles, ensuring lifecycle planning is standardized and predictable.
Ensure availability and scalability of IT cloud and infrastructure across multiple offices, while proactively managing risk and capacity.
Lead cross-functional operational initiatives by aligning stakeholders, clarifying ownership, removing blockers, and delivering predictably.
Lead IT due diligence and integration for M&A, including Day-0 readiness, stabilization, and operational handoff to steady-state support.
Develop and maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans; collaborate on incident response, plan and execute tabletop exercises, and drive follow-up improvements.
Oversee IT projects transitioning into operations, ensuring they are delivered on time and within budget and are supportable long term.
Plan and execute IT aspects of office moves to ensure seamless setup and operation.
Foster service excellence and strong communication by setting expectations early, avoiding surprises, and maintaining stakeholder trust.
Work with the Security group to ensure operational practices support security controls, monitoring, and compliance needs.
Work with the Innovation group to operationalize new capabilities responsibly, scaling effective solutions and retiring those that do not work.