Director of IT Operations

Reporting to the Vice President of Information Technology, the Director of IT Operations will lead the technology operations and infrastructure that power one of the most innovative entertainment destinations in the world. This leader will help build, operate, and continuously evolve VAI Resort's technology ecosystem, ensuring reliable, secure, and seamless experiences across the resort, Mattel Adventure Park™, entertainment venues, retail, and corporate operations.

The Director provides both strategic and technical leadership across infrastructure, cloud and virtual networks, systems administration, service delivery, technical support, and IT operations. The right leader can see the big picture, make sound decisions quickly, solve complex technical problems, and translate technology into an exceptional guest and team member experience.

• Help build VAI's IT operational environment from development and pre-opening through full resort operations.
• Lead the daily operation of enterprise infrastructure, including networks, servers, cloud and virtual environments, telecommunications, data centers, and business-critical systems.
• Continue to lead and oversee the operational strategies, architecture standards, processes, documentation, and best practices required to support a complex 24/7 entertainment resort.
• Ensure enterprise systems are secure, reliable, resilient, scalable, and designed for high availability.
• Balance long-term technology strategy with the immediate operational needs of a rapidly evolving pre-opening environment.

• Maintain the technical depth to work hands-on alongside the IT team when business needs, project demands, or complex technical challenges require it.
• Support, manage, maintain, and troubleshoot large-scale virtual environments, including high availability, redundancy, failover, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• Support and manage large, complex, heavily segmented enterprise networks supporting diverse operational and guest-facing environments.
• Provide technical leadership across Microsoft technologies, including Azure, Microsoft Purview, SharePoint, and related cloud and enterprise platforms
  .
• Diagnose complex infrastructure, network, systems, and performance issues, identify root causes, and drive solutions through resolution.
• Oversee the management of our strong monitoring, patching, configuration, backup, recovery, capacity, and performance-management practices.

• Lead IT service delivery, including service desk operations, incident response, change management, asset management, and technical support.
• Ensure technology decisions consider the experience of both the guest and the team member
  , not simply the technical solution.
• Establish and monitor service levels and performance measures that create accountability and exceptional support.
• Anticipate operational challenges and address potential points of failure before they impact the guest or business.
• Continuously improve IT processes, systems, and support models to increase reliability, efficiency, and service.

• Build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing IT Operations team capable of supporting VAI's complex technology environment.
• Establish clear expectations, accountability, technical standards, and operating disciplines.
• Develop the technical capabilities of the team through coaching, knowledge sharing, cross-training, and hands‑on leadership.
• Create an environment where team members take ownership, solve problems, challenge conventional thinking, and continuously improve.
• Know when to lead, when to coach, and when to jump in alongside the team to get the job done.
• Identify and implement technologies that improve reliability, automation, operational efficiency, and the guest and team member experience.
• Maintain strong functional knowledge of Generative AI and Agentic AI
  , including enterprise use cases, administration, integration, governance, security, support, and responsible deployment.
• Partner across the organization to identify opportunities where AI, automation, and emerging technologies can improve how VAI operates and serves its guests.
• Evaluate emerging technology with both curiosity and discipline, balancing innovation with cybersecurity, privacy, scalability, reliability, and business value.
• Help create an IT environment built not just for today's requirements, but for where VAI is going next.

• Lead infrastructure resilience, disaster recovery, business continuity, system monitoring, patch management, backup, and recovery practices.
• Design and maintain appropriate redundancy and failover capabilities across critical technology environments.
• Partner with Cybersecurity to ensure alignment with security standards, risk management practices, regulatory requirements, and data governance.
• Proactively identify vulnerabilities, capacity concerns, single points of failure, and…