Director of IT Operations
Position Title: Director of IT Operations
Department: Information Technology
Reports To: Associate Vice President/IT Services
Job Type: Full-Time
Position Summary
The Director of IT Operations is responsible for the reliability, security, and operational maturity of enterprise technology services. This leader ensures IT operates as a disciplined, metrics-driven service organization that the business can trust. This role provides end-to-end leadership across Service Desk (Tier 1), Systems Administration (Tier 2), and Systems Engineering (Tier 3), ensuring alignment, clear escalation pathways, and disciplined execution across all technical tiers.
This is a highly visible leadership position responsible for operational execution, team development, vendor oversight, KPI monitoring, and workload coordination across multiple technical tiers. The Director serves as both operations' orchestrator and people leader — balancing daily service execution with infrastructure modernization, lifecycle planning, and long-term platform stability.
The ideal candidate is a disciplined, data-driven operations leader who thrives in structured environments, values accountability, and understands how to build high-performing technical teams.
Key Responsibilities:
Operational Leadership and Service Delivery
- Own end-to-end service performance across Service Desk, Systems Administration, and Engineering teams
- Ensure adherence to defined SLAs and ITIL-based service management practices
- Maintain high system uptime, predictable response times, and disciplined change control
- Oversee escalation management and major incident response
Performance Management and Continuous Improvement
- Define and monitor operational KPIs including SLA adherence, backlog trends, escalation aging, system stability, and compliance metrics
- Use data to identify bottlenecks, recurring incidents, and process gaps
- Lead structured continuous improvement initiatives across teams
- Provide regular performance reporting to executive leadership
Workload Coordination and Project Oversight
- Act as operational air traffic controller across Tier 1–3 teams
- Balance daily support demands with engineering and project workloads
- Prioritize work based on business impact and risk
- Remove operational roadblocks and escalate conflicts early
People Leadership
- Build and sustain high-performing technical teams through structured coaching, clear performance metrics, and consistent accountability.
- Establish clear expectations and measurable performance goals
- Conduct performance reviews and coaching conversations
- Establish a culture of ownership, professionalism, and measurable service excellence where expectations are clear and performance is inspected regularly
- Ensure operational standards, SOPS, policies, and runbooks are current, auditable and consistently followed.
- Ensures process documentation is current, accessible, and followed
Vendor and Partner Management
- Manage relationships with external engineering and support partners
- Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and contractual commitments
- Escalate performance issues when necessary
- Ensure vendors align with organizational operational standards
Risk and Operational Readiness
- Oversee patch compliance and backup integrity
- Identify operational risks and implement mitigation strategies
- Own operational readiness for disaster recovery and business continuity execution
- Ensure documented recovery plans are tested and validated
- Ensure restoration time objectives are understood and monitored
- Coordinate with security and compliance teams to maintain regulatory alignment and ensure operational controls are adhered to
Budget and Resource Planning
- Provide input into operational budgeting and staffing forecasts
- Align resource planning with growth, lifecycle needs, and strategic initiatives
- Ensures appropriate after-hours support structure exists
Qualifications:
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related area or commiserate experience
- 10+ years of progressive infrastructure and IT operations experience in enterprise environments
- 5+ years in a leadership role overseeing multi-tier technical teams
- Strong knowledge of IT service management (ITIL principles preferred)
- Experience managing KPIs and driving measurable performance improvements
- Demonstrated ability to lead through structure, process discipline, and accountability
- Excellent communication skills with experience presenting to executive leadership
Preferred
- ITIL certification
- Experience in Microsoft-centric environments (M365, Entra ID, Intune, endpoint management)
- Experience in hybrid cloud environments (Azure preferred)
- Experience leading IT operations in regulated environments (healthcare, finance, government)
- PMP or other operational/project management certification
What Success Looks Like
- Consistent SLA performance and reduced escalation noise
- Improved system stability and fewer recurring incidents
- Visible operational metrics and executive-ready reporting
- High-performing, accountable technical teams
- Clear workload prioritization and minimal project drift
- Strong vendor partnerships aligned to operational standards
Leadership Expectations
We are seeking a leader who:
- Uses data to drive decisions
- Sets clear expectations and inspects performance
- Establishes healthy boundaries across and within teams
- Develops people while holding them accountable
- Communicates clearly upward and downward
This role is critical to ensure that IT operates as a disciplined, reliable service organization that the business can trust.
WORKING CONDITIONS:
Work is usually performed in an office setting but may require the employee to drive to different sites throughout Wayne County and the State of Michigan.
This description is not intended to be a complete statement of job content, rather to act as the essential functions performed. Management retains the discretion to add or change the position at any time.
Please Note: DWIHN requires proof of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions that may be required by law, will be approved when properly supported. Further information will be provided during the recruitment process.
The Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer
