Senior Director

Description:

The Senior Director provides strategic leadership for the universitys enterprise IT environment, with primary responsibility for Microsoft-based systems supporting academic, administrative, and research functions. This role requires a deeply technical professional with experience managing large-scale Windows enterprise environments in a complex setting. This role will lead the direction, operations, and coordination of the Windows Enterprise Group and Support Services Group to best serve the university community. This role works closely with the Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer to develop university-wide strategic technology plans, fostering a culture of team collaboration, working with academic, research and administrative units. The Senior Director leads the organizational transformation of Windows and Support Service IT systems from traditional functional management to modern delivery methods. As a primary liaison between Central IT and university business units, this position ensures that technology efforts are executed efficiently and collaboratively communicated across the division.

Provides leadership in the direction and operations of the Windows Enterprise Group & Support Center.
Develops and executes a multi-year roadmap for the modernization of the Universitys Windows environment, moving from legacy on-premises infrastructure toward hybrid and cloud-native solutions (Azure/Entra ID).
Manages software licensing (Microsoft EA), hardware lifecycles, and support staff. Defines necessary projects required for the support center and windows environment.
Leads the transformation of operations to include DevOps and agile delivery, researching and recommending automated approaches for system administration.
Develops strategic relationships with constituencies across the University, the higher education community, and the overall community.
Works closely with VP and CIO in the development of university wide strategic technology plans. Develops presentations and delivers information to the University community.
Partners with the Chief Information Security Officer to implement Zero Trust principles, manage patch compliance, endpoint management, and GPO baselines to secure institutional data (FERPA, HIPAA, research data).
Partners with the Chief Information Security Officer to direct Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) strategy using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (MECM) and Intune/Autopilot for over 40,000+ endpoints.
Designs, implements, and supports core applications including Windows, Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Exchange, and Power Platform- while leading an IT team ensuring 99.99% uptime for authentication services.
Collaborates with the VP and CIO and the leadership team to set priorities related to IT projects. Negotiates the resources involved, time-frames required, and possible impact to other initiatives or projects. Secures appropriate resources as required and approved.
Oversees Central IT Support Services, ensuring high-quality support via phone, chat, ticketing, and enhances Artificial Intelligence capabilities to improve the user experience.
Builds strong partnerships with peers in the Division of ITs leadership team to help foster a team culture.
Promotes innovative, efficient, effective, and shared uses of information technology across the University.
Develops a core set of well-defined enterprise platform products to be incorporated into front-facing services for the FIU community.
Defines and enforces Service Level Agreements (SLAs), utilizing data analytics to drive continuous service improvement.
Supports the development and execution of disaster recovery and business continuity plans for the Windows Enterprise Team and Central IT Support Services.
Interprets and applies pertinent rules, regulations, policies, and procedures set forth by the university and governing agencies.
Remains current with technological developments such as Artificial Intelligence and evaluates the feasibility of incorporating these solutions within the Windows and Support Center ecosystems.
Performs essential duties in any emergencies such as hurricanes, public health emergencies, and/or any other university emergency closing. The employee is expected to be available to report to work as needed during university emergency closing with appropriate notification of a department administrator.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in an appropriate specialization and eight (8) years of experience or a Master's degree in an appropriate specialization and six (6) years of experience.

Desired Qualifications

Preferably 10 years of progressive experience in IT.
Experience in a senior leadership role (Director level or above) overseeing large teams.
Proven experience managing large windows enterprise environments with at least 10,000+ users/endpoints.
Deep understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem (Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, Windows 11, Active Directory, Azure/Entra, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager /Intune).
Experience with Private, Public, & Hybrid Cloud Environments.
Experience with Identity Management utilizing tools such as CAS and Entra ID including hybrid identity.
Understanding of Microsoft Power Platform, particularly PowerApps.
Experience managing projects.