Director, IT Operations

The Director of IT Operations is responsible for leading the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of the organization's IT infrastructure and support services, including the IT Service Desk, End User Computing, and Voice/Video Telecommunication functions. This role ensures the reliability, security, and scalability of all technology systems that support editorial newsroom operations and corporate business functions.

As a key technology leader, the Director will provide hands‑on leadership and day-to-day management of the IT Operations team. The role oversees infrastructure, network operations, and vendor partnerships. It works closely with peer technology leads, business stakeholders, vendors, and strategic partners to align IT capabilities with the organization's evolving digital strategy, ensuring business continuity, enabling 24/7 newsroom and production operations, and delivering a high-quality end‑user experience across a fast‑paced media environment.

The role holds full decision‑making authority and accountability for department budgeting, vendor selection, vendor spend within an approved threshold, and directly hires and manages the headcount of its team.

• Lead all IT Operations teams, including Technical Support Specialist, the IT Service Desk, Infrastructure, Networking, Voice/Video Telecommunications, and End‑User Computing support, ensuring high availability and performance of systems critical to newsroom and business operations. Develop, staff, and maintain the after‑hours on‑call schedule (nights and weekends) to ensure continuous support coverage.
• Drive IT Operational strategy:
  Define and execute the strategy and roadmap for IT operations, infrastructure, and end‑to‑end user computing, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and digital publishing initiatives; identify, evaluate, and recommend new processes, technologies, and systems to improve and optimize the use of resources.
• Ensure the stability, performance, and security of enterprise systems, including editorial platforms, content management systems (CMS), ad‑tech systems, and corporate applications.
• Oversee enterprise incident, problem, and change management processes, serving as the senior point of escalation for major outages and critical business disruptions. Ensure timely resolution of issues and continuous service improvement.
• Manage and optimize relationships with external vendors, service providers, on‑and offshore support organizations, and technology partners, including contract and service level management negotiations (CSLAs/SLAs/KPIs), invoice review, coding, and cost control.
• Establish and maintain IT operational policies, procedures, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and standards to ensure consistency, compliance, and efficiency across the organization; maintain the IT Service Catalog, knowledge base, and CMDB accuracy.
• Provide strategic oversight of 24/7 production operations, setting standards for P1/P2 incident handling, defining escalation and on‑call models, and ensuring major incidents, outages, and performance issues are resolved consistently against agreed business SLAs.
• Drive enterprise‑wide asset and configuration management strategy across infrastructure, endpoints, applications, and cloud services, ensuring the CMDB, license posture, and configuration baselines remain accurate, governed, and audit‑ready.
• Lead IT infrastructure planning, including system upgrades, capacity planning, and technology lifecycle management.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, legal, and security requirements, including data protection standards and industry frameworks (e.g., PCI‑DSS, CCPA, CPRA, PII where applicable).
• Develop and maintain disaster recovery and business continuity plans to support uninterrupted newsroom, publishing, and production operations.
• Partner cross‑functionally with Editorial, Product, Advertising, Finance, and Operations teams to deliver scalable and innovative technology solutions.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, including process automation, cost optimization, and service delivery enhancements.
• Build, mentor, and lead a high‑performing IT Operations team,…