Director of IT

Geneva Trading•Chicago, IL

10h•$200,000 - $250,000

About The Position

Geneva Trading is searching for a talented and experienced Director of IT to oversee our department, ensuring operational resilience, exceptional performance, and the highest achievable uptime for our sophisticated systems. In this critical role, you will be the global lead of Geneva’s Support/Help Desk, Trading Application Support, Systems Engineering, Datacenter, and Networking operations. The ideal candidate is a proven leader in managing IT infrastructure and application services, with a keen eye for cybersecurity. In our fast-paced environment, you will excel by leveraging your strategic leadership and decision-making skills, driven by data and business intelligence. The Director of IT is a critical part of our management team.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in an Information Technology-related field.
Proven experience in a senior IT leadership role, preferably in a high-performance trading or financial services environment, with a track record of defining and implementing department-level and process-level KPIs.
Strong background in managing IT infrastructure, including data center operations, systems engineering, network architecture, and cybersecurity initiatives.
Demonstrated ability to develop and implement IT strategies, policies, and procedures that align with business objectives, incorporating data-driven insights and business intelligence.
An understanding of how AI-assisted tools can be used responsibly to improve IT support, engineering productivity, documentation, and operational workflows.
Strong personal discipline aligned with GTD principles, with an emphasis on setting clear priorities, managing time effectively, and achieving consistent high performance across multiple concurrent efforts.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear and actionable insights for various stakeholders.
Strong negotiation and vendor management skills, with experience in strategic sourcing and procurement in technology, achieving cost-saving and vendor-performance objectives.
Expertise in Linux, cloud architecture, and other relevant technologies.
Collaborative and results-driven management style, transparent decision-making, and conflict-resolution skills.

Responsibilities

Lead, manage, and mentor the IT department teams, including Support/Help Desk, Trading Application Support, Systems Engineering, Datacenter, and Networking teams, ensuring the achievement of team and department objectives.
Develop and implement IT strategies, policies, and procedures to support business objectives, utilizing data-driven insights and business intelligence to drive effective team communication and collaboration.
Define the direction for AI-assisted workflows across IT support and engineering, including incident triage, knowledge retrieval, troubleshooting, documentation, operational automation, and engineering productivity.
Identify areas where AI-driven tools and agents can reduce repetitive work, improve response times, strengthen consistency, and allow technical teams to focus on higher-value engineering and operational priorities.
Partner with Security and other technology leaders to establish appropriate governance for AI-enabled tools, including access controls, data handling, human oversight, testing, auditability, vendor risk, and clear boundaries for production use.
Contribute to product development efforts by contributing to documentation and translating complex infrastructure concepts into clear and actionable insights for traders, systems engineering leaders, and other business stakeholders.
Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of IT infrastructure, including data center operations, network architecture, systems engineering, and cybersecurity initiatives.
Manage budgets, establish and maintain strategic vendor relationships, negotiate contracts and agreements with vendors and partners, and achieve cost-efficiency objectives.
Drive continuous improvement in IT service delivery by implementing effective incident management, capacity planning, and performance monitoring processes, leveraging data analytics and business intelligence to optimize operations and focusing on achieving service-level objectives.
Ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards, including the development and enforcement of comprehensive written information security policies.
Provide regular updates to executive leadership on the status of IT projects, budget, and overall performance of the IT department, utilizing data-driven reporting and analytics to demonstrate achievement and alignment with organizational goals.