Manager, System and Platform Operations

Monday-Friday; 8:00am-5:00pm.

The Manager, System and Platform Operations is a critical member of the Development/Operations unit in Office of Information Technology (OIT). This role — which is a mid-level managerial position — and reports to the Assistant Director of Operations, is to act as an interface between strategic and process-based activities and the work of the technology-focused analysts, engineers and administrators in the IT organization. You must be able to translate the IT-risk requirements and constraints of the business into technical control requirements and specifications, as well as develop metrics for ongoing performance measurement and reporting. You will coordinate the IT organization’s system and network administrators and the Cloud technical teams to implement and manage our cloud and on-premise enterprise infrastructure, and to provide regular status and service-level reports to management. While providing strong technical leadership, the position must embrace product thinking to enable our university to scale digital. You must develop a culture of trust, purpose, engagement, commitment, collaboration and a passion for learning and a relentless ability to make progress. It is a people-first principle that requires a willingness to change leadership styles and approaches to each situation as circumstances change. You will be responsible for managing highly technical staff as they work to accomplish university goals and must, therefore, have proven leadership skills. Documentation and presentation skills, analytical and critical thinking skills, and the ability to identify needs and take initiative are key requirements of the position.

Strategic Support:
Work closely with the Assistant Director of Operations to develop a program that focuses on business agility and addresses identified risks and business requirements. Applies broad knowledge of product/service capabilities and environment to identify new growth areas, new technology and emerging product/service opportunities. Team with the Assistant Director of Operations to develop the business using agile capabilities and grow the business. Work closely with the Special Project teams for rapid system turn over to ensure the high delivery rate is maintained. Manage and develop a staff with different technical backgrounds to work cohesively and as a single unit to deliver growth and embrace automation and orchestration. Hire and train new staff, conduct performance reviews, and provide leadership and coaching, including technical and personal development programs for team members. 

Architecture/Engineering Support:
Team with leadership to plan technology investments that introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to expedite growth and meet the organizations strategic goal. Plan and build programmable infrastructure through orchestration. Work with business units to foster the development process to build automated systems with one touch provisioning. Manage production issues and incidents, and participate in problem and change management forums. Work with various stakeholders to identify information asset owners to classify data and systems as part of a control framework implementation. Serve as an active and consistent participant in the systems and platform governance processes working with the security function to ensure compliance within the organization. Work with IT and business stakeholders to define metrics and reporting strategies that effectively communicate successes and progress the infrastructure and cloud program. 

Operational Support:
Coordinate, measure and report on the technical aspects of systems, network, and cloud platforms. Manage outsourced vendors that provide technical and architectural recommendations with contracted service-level agreements. Manage and coordinate operational components of incident management, and request fulfillment. Maintain a knowledge base comprising a technical reference library, trends and practices, and industry best practice. Manage the day-to-day activities of threat and vulnerability management, identify risk tolerances, recommend treatment plans and communicate information about residual risk. Manage projects and provide expert guidance on system and platform architectural matters for other IT projects. Ensure audit trails, system logs and other monitoring data sources are reviewed periodically and are in compliance with policies and audit requirements. Design, coordinate and oversee testing procedures to verify the security and authenticity of systems, networks and applications, and manage the remediation of identified risks. Positions in this classification may perform all or some of the responsibilities above and all positions perform other related duties as assigned.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or the related field. Seven (7) years of IT experience with demonstrated in-depth knowledge of IT, strategic and process planning. Five (5+) years of people and project management experience or the equivalent experience. Experience with orchestration and automation with AI and ML.

An M.B.A. or M.S. in Computer Science is preferred. AWS, VMWare, Juniper certifications are considered valued for this role; having all would be ideal. Proven delivery experience with a complex internal IT structure

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Strong leadership skills and the ability to work effectively with business managers, IT engineering and IT operations staff.

• The ability to build strong relationships at all levels and across all business units and organizations, philanthropizing automation and orchestration.

• Expert ability in grasping new concepts and leading transformation in the organization.

• Strong leadership abilities, with the capability to develop and guide system and platform team members and IT operations personnel, and work with minimal supervision.

• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills.

• Experience developing and maintaining policies, procedures, standards and guidelines.

• Able to participate in organization development of methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for projects, programs, and people. 

• Strong project management skills and experience in creating and managing project plans, including budgeting and resource allocation.

• Able to make final decisions on administrative or operational matters and ensure objectives are achieved.

• Demonstrated ability of working on complex issues where analysis of situations or data requires in-depth knowledge of the organization.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily with or without reasonable accommodations. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. This job description should not be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or requirements, but a general description of the job.

UTA is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution. Minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Additionally, the University prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. A criminal background check will be conducted on finalists. The UTA is a tobacco free campus.