Executive Director, Network, Data Center and Communications Services - Computing Services

Technology Leadership Opportunity at Carnegie Mellon University

As a technology leader at Carnegie Mellon University, you will provide executive leadership for the network, data center, and communications services that support the university's academic, research, and administrative missions. You will lead an organization responsible for critical infrastructure and services, balancing operational excellence with the continued evolution of how those services are designed, delivered, and managed.

Building on a strong technology foundation, supported by sustained investment and regular technology refreshes, the next phase of that evolution is an automation-first operating model spanning university-operated, hosted, and cloud environments. The goal is to make services more consistent, scalable, and easier to deliver while preserving the reliability and service quality the university depends on. Your leadership will be central to that transition.

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President for Infrastructure Services, you will lead directors and senior technical experts and engage closely with IT teams and university partners to align capabilities, investments, and service delivery with evolving institutional needs.

What You'll Do:

• Develop and implement a cohesive, multi-year strategy across the portfolio, including infrastructure architecture, software platforms, management, and automation. Build automation into the operating model through consistent configuration management, standard interfaces, observability, and shared automation platforms and practices.
• Ensure services are secure, scalable, sustainable, and reliable while continuously improving how they are operated and delivered. Collaborate with IT and campus partners to establish clear service standards and improve resource management, availability, performance, incident response, and lifecycle management. Develop reusable capabilities that enable teams to consume infrastructure consistently, automate processes, and innovate more quickly.
• Negotiate major vendor contracts, service level agreements (SLAs), and pricing for enterprise networking and services in your portfolio.
• Lead architecture, capacity, resilience, sustainability, and capital planning across the portfolio, including determining the right balance of university-operated, hosted, and cloud infrastructure and services to meet evolving institutional needs.
• Set direction for the organization, develop leaders and technical talent, and foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and engineering rigor. Lead the organizational and operational changes required to expand automation at scale while maintaining the reliability of critical services.
• Establish priorities and make decisions within delegated authority, balancing institutional needs, technology, risk, service quality, staffing, and cost. Provide financial stewardship and oversee strategic vendor relationships.
• Represent the portfolio in university planning, governance, and major institutional initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Significant progressive leadership experience (10+ years) in enterprise networking, data centers, IT infrastructure, or related technology services, including leading managers and senior technical contributors.
• Demonstrated success leading architectural, technical, and organizational change to advance standardization, automation, and service delivery without sacrificing the reliability, availability, and stability of critical infrastructure services.
• Experience with operational resilience, service management, financial planning, strategic sourcing, vendor management, and contract negotiation.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating complex, high-value vendor contracts and managing strategic network provider agreements.
• Ability to discuss technical issues with engineers, frame choices for executives, and build productive relationships with technical and nontechnical collaborators and partners.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree or equivalent advanced experience.
• Experience in higher education, research computing, or another complex, distributed organization.
• Experience leading infrastructure automation at scale, including infrastructure as code, software-defined and intent-based networking, configuration management, observability, service APIs and interfaces, and hybrid cloud and hosting environments.

Why Carnegie Mellon?

We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse environment. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. We support equal opportunity and value diversity within our staff. As an equal opportunity employer, we provide reasonable accommodations for the application process, job duties, and employment benefits. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Seize this exceptional chance to join a group committed to quality, creativity, diversity, and both collective and personal development.…