Director, IT Operations and Support

Summary: 

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is seeking a Director, IT Infrastructure Operations, and support. Reporting directly to the CIO this position will oversee all aspects of the infrastructure technology portfolio, which includes data center (servers, storage, database administration), corporate network, Cloud (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS)), user support, workstation management, patching and related software, to ensure a reliable 24x7 operation. In addition to daily operations, the role will have oversight for infrastructure personnel, vendor management, project management, capital budget, and expense management. This position works through a combination of internal resources and external service providers and establishes/uses a best-practice service management process to ensure the secure and stable operation of SPLC’s information technology infrastructure including availability, reliability, quality, and adherence to architecture standards.

Partnering with the Enterprise Applications team and Cyber Security, this position will lead the Infrastructure and Operations teams with overall responsibility for technology infrastructure planning and deployment of technology services including corporate systems, customer relationship management, contact center and telecom systems. This hands-on position will be required to develop and lead the engineering and support teams, make technical decisions, and work closely with cross functional business areas and IT groups.

This role requires a technically proficient, hands-on self-starter with outstanding interpersonal skills, leadership, and organizational development skills. Reporting to the CIO, the Director of IT operations & support will work with IT leadership, department leaders and partners/vendors secure SPLC infrastructure, applications, and data. The operations & support director should display a passion for innovation, curiosity, and interest in leveraging technology to enable and support SPLC’s mission and impact areas.
Primary Job Functions:

• Develops an IT information operations and support services vision and strategy that is aligned to organizational priorities and enables and facilitates the organization's business objectives, and ensures senior stakeholder buy-in and mandate;
• Partners with Chief Information Officer (CIO), and other IT Directors to lead the vision and development of infrastructure, tools, systems, mechanisms, and operations capabilities that enable the SPLC to innovate at a fast pace without compromising on the availability and security of services we offer customers, following industry standards;
• In collaboration with IT leadership, develop & implement the IT Department strategic plan including drafting KPIs, monitoring and reporting on the plan's performance;
• Develop reliable metrics for Cloud, hardware, software and storage while ensuring strategic capacity planning;
• Recognize and identify potential areas where existing policies and procedures require change, or where new ones need to be developed, especially regarding future business needs;
• Manages the cost-efficient IT operations organization, consisting of direct reports and dotted line reports (such as individuals in business continuity and IT operations) to provide mentoring and coaching to support the work;
• Hire, train, establish, and monitor staff performance, assign duties, and conduct performance reviews;
• Understands and interacts with related disciplines, either directly or through committees, to ensure the consistent application of policies and standards across all technology projects, systems and services, including privacy, risk management, compliance and business continuity management;
• Hands-on technical depth enables direct oversight, problem-solving leadership and participation for sophisticated infrastructure implementation, system upgrades and operational troubleshooting;
• Assists with the identification of non-IT managed IT services in use ("citizen IT") and facilitates a corporate IT onboarding program to bring these services into the scope of the IT function, and apply standard controls and rigor to these services; where this is not possible, ensures that risk is reduced to the appropriate levels and ownership of this information security risk is clear;
• Works with the compliance staff to ensure that all information owned, collected, or controlled by or on behalf of the company is processed and stored in accordance with applicable laws and other global regulatory requirements, such as data privacy;
• Defines and facilitates the processes for IT operations including the reporting and oversight of treatment efforts to address negative findings;
• Oversees technology dependencies outside of direct organizational control. This includes reviewing contracts and the creation of alternatives for managing risk;
• Manages and contains information operations incidents and events to protect corporate IT assets, intellectual property, regulated data, and the company's reputation;
• Monitors the external threat environment for emerging threats, and advises relevant stakeholders on the appropriate courses of action;
• Implements and oversees effective disaster recovery policies and standards to align with the enterprise business continuity management (BCM) program goals, with the realization that components supporting primary business processes may be outside the corporate perimeter;
• Coordinates the development of implementation of incident response plans and procedures to ensure that business-critical services are recovered in the event of a security event; provides direction, support, and in-house consulting in these areas;
• Facilitates and supports the development of asset inventories, including information assets in cloud services and in other parties in the organization's ecosystem;
• Monitors the external threat environment for emerging threats, and advises relevant stakeholders on the appropriate courses of action; and
• Other duties assigned.

Qualifications –

Education and Related Work Experience:

• At least ten (10) years of demonstrated experience IT Operations, ITIL framework, ITSM, strategic planning and execution, and best practices implementation;
• At least five (5) years of demonstrated experience and success in senior leadership and management roles;
• Previous direct responsibility in establishing and operating cloud business operations and governance;
• Proven experience or demonstrated capability in leading IT transformational initiatives in complex, dynamic environments;
• Experience successfully executing programs that meet the objectives of excellence in a dynamic business environment;
• Experience with contract and vendor negotiations;
• Experience with ITIL based processes (incident, change, problem, root cause analysis);
• ITIL Foundation certification is required; and 
• High School Diploma or GED. 

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Ability to lead and motivate the information security team to achieve tactical and strategic goals, even when only "dotted line" reporting lines exist;
• Strong technical knowledge of cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS), telecommunications, and network infrastructure;
• Excellent written and communication skills, interpersonal and collaborative skills, and the ability to communicate information security and risk-related concepts to technical and nontechnical audiences at various hierarchical levels, ranging from board members to technical specialists;
• Poise and ability to act calmly and competently in high-pressure, high-stress situations;
• High degree of initiative, dependability and ability to work with little supervision while being resilient to change;
• High level of personal integrity, as well as the ability to professionally handle confidential matters and show an appropriate level of judgment and maturity;
• Has good judgment, a sense of urgency and has demonstrated commitment to high standards of ethics, regulatory compliance, customer service and business integrity;
• A critical thinker, with strong problem-solving skills;
• Strong problem-solving and trouble-shooting skills;
• Commitment to the ideals of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion; and
• Commitment to fostering anti-racist work culture and to anti-racist principles and learning.

This role has the following work designation options: 

• Telework:  Will work at an SPLC office at least three days per week and may work two days per week from an alternative work location

Other Special Considerations:

This job is performed under general office conditions and is not subject to any strenuous physical demands or dangerous conditions.

Disclaimer:

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the employee in this position.  These statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of a person in this position.

An Equal-Opportunity Employer with a Commitment to Diversity

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and as an organization committed to diversity and the perspective of all voices, we consider applicants equally of race, gender, gender identity, color, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, disability, political affiliation, national origin, or prior record of arrest or conviction.