Head of Infrastructure and Network (Executive Director)

Ankura is a team of excellence founded on innovation and growth.

Role Overview:

Ankura is seeking a Head of Infrastructure and Network (Executive Director) based in our Orlando, FL office. This role is responsible for defining IT infrastructure strategy, direction, architecture, standards and management to include disaster recovery, security, systems, servers, monitoring, performance, networks and storage. This role must ensure reliable 24x7 operations and be a champion for our journey to Cloud (specifically Azure), datacenter and network. This position will act as a liaison between IT Operations and other functions within IT (Application Development, Data Engineering) and outside IT (InfoSec, other business units as needed). This is a visible, strategic role tasked with building and maintaining a best-in-class IT Operations function that operates with a Cloud-first and DevOps mindset.

Responsibilities

• Assess the IT infrastructure and operations organization (people, process, and technology) to determine best course of journey towards Cloud, specifically, Azure
• Lead the IT infrastructure and operations organization towards a hybrid cloud - on prem data center and Cloud/Azure based operations
• Implement and manage processes and controls that assure maximum uptime and quick service to the user community for both on-prem and Cloud workloads
• Management and continual improvement of Network Operations, Cloud Operations, and On-prem IT infrastructure/operations.
• Partner with InfoSec to deliver on key information security and IT risk related initiatives. Furthermore, ensure compliance to patching and vulnerability policies established within the organization.
• Manage third party vendor relationships and hold them accountable for delivery of outsourced functions, specifically, Service Desk and Network Operations
• Develop and implement a robust Disaster Recovery strategy for critical systems and infrastructure.
• Assess single points of failure in infrastructure and recommend actions as appropriate.
• Oversee the monitoring, maintenance, upgrade and administration of all IT systems, to include applications, servers, storage and databases.
• Establish service level agreements (SLAs) and operating level agreements in alignment with company objectives and customer needs.
• Design, implement, deploy, and manage systems/applications monitoring processes and tools to proactively identify and resolve problems within the company computing environment.
• Negotiate and manage contracts with key service providers to ensure service levels are met. Furthermore, negotiate and manage enterprise contracts.
• Establish standardized processes and key operational metrics based upon ITIL to effectively manage the performance of the Operations organization. This includes availability and performance of applications and servers, service desk ticket management, hardware, lifecycle management, license etc.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience transforming IT infrastructure and moving an organization toward a mature cloud-based (AWS) service delivery model.
• Proven experience in IT infrastructure management in a complex, customer-facing eCommerce environment with significant reliability and uptime requirements.
• Experience with managing on-prem workloads as well as migrating workloads to Cloud, specifically Azure while optimizing the cost of Cloud based workloads.
• Ability to continue to optimize the cost of Cloud based workloads once they are moved to Azure as part of overall infrastructure cost optimization
• Possess some experience and background in infrastructure architecture, systems administration, network administration and storage administration.
• Extensive experience with instrumentation, enterprise monitoring and reporting tools.
• Demonstrates the business and financial acumen necessary to develop and present data-based ideas and solutions in a clear, concise, organized manner.
• Experience managing IP based networks, WAN technologies, virtual server technologies, cloud, DHCP/DNS, MS Office 365, SAN/NAS storage.
• Knowledgeable across a broad set of infrastructure platforms (commodity hardware, windows OS, Linux OS, etc.)
• Experience leading, directing, and mentoring IT professionals.

• Solid leadership skills in leading an IT infrastructure and operations organizations towards Cloud-first operations
• Good organization change management skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities concurrently.
• Strong analytical capability and excellent verbal and written communication skills.

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Ankura is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against based on disability. Equal Employment Opportunity Posters, if you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening, submit an online application, or participate in an interview/assessment, please email [email protected] or call toll-free +1.312-583-2122. This email and phone number are created exclusively to assist disabled job seekers whose disability prevents them from being able to apply online. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned. Messages left for other purposes, such as following up on an application or technical issues unrelated to a disability, will not receive a response.