Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations

Otter Products is currently looking for a Director, Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) to join our Information Technology team in Fort Collins, CO. Employees based in the Greater Fort Collins/Northern CO area will work onsite at our HQ Campus. Those living in the surrounding area can work a hybrid schedule, working at the HQ Campus three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday).

As the Director, Infrastructure and Operations, you will be responsible for the effective and efficient delivery of all third-party and internally managed IT infrastructure services used to support all business processes across the enterprise. In this position you'll have the opportunity to continue our cloud journey by supporting and modernizing our AWS and Azure environments. Additionally, you will be responsible for operational and service management processes to ensure quality, efficiency and agility goals are met or exceeded. As a member of the IT senior leadership team, you will contribute to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and ensure its alignment with the company's business strategy and the delivery of capabilities required to achieve business success.

To thrive in this role, you will have solid technical infrastructure experience, strong project management acumen, excellent vendor management skills, and a superior, service-oriented approach to infrastructure operations.

Sets the strategy and roadmap mission and vision of the I&O organization to foster a business-oriented culture and mindset driven by continual service improvement techniques.

• Leads the development of the I&O strategy and roadmap and ensures its integration with the overall IT and enterprise strategic plans.

• Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritize resources.

• Acts as a trusted advisor and builds and maintains relationships with other IT leaders and business executives to develop a clear understanding of business needs; ensures cost-effective delivery of IT services to meet those needs and responds with agility to changing business priorities.

• Develops and controls the annual operating and capital expenditure budget for I&O to ensure it is consistent with overall strategic objectives of IT and the enterprise and is within plan.

• Leverages influencing and negotiation skills across IT and the enterprise to enable cost-effective and innovative shared solutions in achievement of business goals.

• Participates in the assessment of external and internal technology capabilities required to achieve desired competitive positioning.

• Maintains currency on new technologies and platforms and provides direction on what emerging technologies should be assimilated, integrated, and introduced within I&O to ensure IT capabilities respond to the needs of the enterprise's business strategy.

• Champions I&O involvement in the IT organization's innovation efforts and its role in experimenting with new solutions to take advantage of business opportunities.

• Provides strategic direction and oversight for the design, development, operation, and support of IT systems that fulfill the needs of the business, including the full life cycle of technical architecture, infrastructure engineering, infrastructure operations and business continuity/disaster recover (BC/DR) capabilities.

• Directs the development of I&O sourcing strategy and provides executive oversight for strategic vendor and partner relationship management.

• Works with HR and the IT leadership team to develop an I&O "people strategy" that aligns with the business and IT strategy. Continually looks for leading-edge and innovative solutions to the recruitment, development, and retention of the I&O workforce.

• Forecasts future skill needs to acquire and develop an IT workforce with the appropriate mix of business knowledge, technical skills and competencies that balance between growing the agility required to achieve digital business objectives and ensuring the core IT functions are reliable, stable, and efficient.

• Serves on IT planning and policymaking committees; drives the development of enterprise technology standards, resiliency, governance processes and performance metrics to ensure I&O delivers value to the enterprise.

• Provides leadership, coaching, and direction to, and with, the infrastructure team.

• Support and maintain a positive safety culture by being an active leader in all safety program initiatives.

• Other duties as assigned

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• Minimum of ten years of experience in IT and business industries required.
• A minimum of four years in a manager or higher-level role is required.
• Prior experience with AWS, cloud technologies and vendor management required.
• A minimum five years of experience in large, cross-functional teams influencing senior-level management and key stakeholders effectively across the organization and within complex contexts preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, organization design and development preferred.
• Proven experience or demonstrated capability in leading IT transformational initiatives in complex and dynamic environments preferred.