Manager, IT Architecture & Operations

Churchill Downs Incorporated•Austin, TX

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

At Exacta Systems, we’re not just shaping the future of gaming—we’re redefining it. As a leader in historical horse racing (HHR) technology, we create cutting-edge gaming solutions that power thrilling player experiences nationwide. Now part of the Churchill Downs family, we’re backed by a storied legacy of excellence in racing and gaming. This new chapter brings exciting opportunities for growth, stability, innovation, and impact. If you're looking for a career where technology meets tradition and where your ideas drive the future, let’s explore the possibilities together! JOB SUMMARY The Manager, IT Architecture & Operations is a hands-on technical leader with a dual mandate spanning enterprise architecture and IT service operations. The role leads architecture and engineering design for Exacta's platforms and infrastructure while supporting incident management, monitoring, and service delivery for internal and customer-facing systems as business needs require. The incumbent is expected to provide credible technical leadership in design review, major-incident response, and customer escalation while developing toward broader IT leadership responsibility.

Requirements

Strong architecture and engineering judgment with the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.
Working knowledge of ITIL-aligned incident, problem, and change management practices.
Hands-on experience with ITSM and monitoring platforms such as Freshdesk and LogicMonitor or comparable tools.
Strong vendor management, cost optimization, documentation, and project leadership capabilities.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation of technical recommendations to executive and non-technical audiences.
Ability to lead calmly and decisively during major incidents and shifting priorities.
Availability to participate in an on-call rotation and lead major-incident response outside normal business hours.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, systems, or solution architecture, including 3+ years leading engineers, architects, or IT support/service teams.
Demonstrated ownership of architecture for distributed platforms spanning on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments.
Hands-on depth in AWS or Azure, networking, identity management, monitoring/observability, systems administration, and backup/disaster recovery.
Experience integrating third-party systems and vendors; gaming-industry exposure strongly preferred.
Experience in regulated environments and audit processes preferred.
Demonstrated experience leading customer-impacting incidents through root-cause analysis and closure.

Responsibilities

Maintain Exacta's enterprise architecture strategy and standards across internal systems, customer-facing platforms, and integrations.
Lead architecture and design for Exacta Connect and NXT, including integrations with game manufacturers, casino management, and player tracking systems.
Maintain architecture patterns and reference designs for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
Prepare build/buy/partner recommendations aligned with product roadmaps and Churchill Downs standards.
Serve as a technical escalation point for complex customer system, network, and infrastructure issues.
Partner with Sales, Product, Development, and Operations on deployments and operator-site expansions.
Lead technical onboarding of new venues, including infrastructure, connectivity, and compliance readiness.
Work with operators to improve system performance, uptime, and reporting.
Execute cloud/hybrid infrastructure roadmaps and recommend improvements using operational data.
Deliver reliability, scalability, backup, and disaster recovery plans, including testing and documentation.
Establish infrastructure standards for deployments, networking, hosting, and remote monitoring.
Manage infrastructure spend and cost optimization.
Oversee configuration, patching, security hardening, access controls, and infrastructure lifecycle maintenance.
Ensure systems meet applicable gaming regulatory requirements and security-by-design principles.
Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Churchill Downs security teams on audit readiness, data integrity, and responsible gaming safeguards.
Support regulatory audits, security assessments, and incident reviews and drive follow-up actions to closure.
Monitor, triage, and resolve infrastructure/network alerts and ensure timely critical-incident response.
Perform root-cause analysis on recurring incidents and implement corrective actions.
Lead major-incident response as needed, coordinating Engineering, Field Operations, vendors, and customer communications.
Manage monitoring dashboards, alerts, and thresholds; analyze availability and performance trends.
Provide incident summaries, service-level reporting, and technical updates to leadership and stakeholders.
Flex between architecture and service operations based on business needs.
Partner across Product, Engineering, Field Operations, and Operations to align technical decisions with business outcomes.
Maintain runbooks, network diagrams, configurations, and architecture documentation as reliable sources of truth.
Manage vendor and third-party service relationships for infrastructure delivery and issue resolution.
Own at least one enterprise-level initiative annually, including budget input, executive reporting, and cross-functional coordination.
Deputize for IT leadership within defined architecture and service-operations escalation authority.
Coach and develop technical team members while modeling accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.