Director IT Platform Engineering

Goodlettsville, TN

The Director of IT Platform Engineering collaborates with senior leaders to define strategic roadmaps, develop architectural plans, produce solution alternative studies, create and manage product/service catalogs, execute tactical plans, administer complex financial processes, and manage ongoing team activities.

The Director will promote and implement IT best practices and ITSM methodologies; lead the development and implementation of cost-effective solutions; ensure the department remains aligned with the IT department’s overall vision and strategies; lead and enforce technical documentation practices; and direct the execution of complex activities across multiple engineering and operations teams.

The Director must have a proven track record of driving innovation, formulating appropriate solutions to complex problems, managing projects from initiation through completion, and successfully managing daily workloads. The Director is accountable for achieving results, verifying key objectives are accomplished, and communicating results in a professional manner.

This position’s purview includes engineering decisions, contract negotiations, vendor management, fiscal responsibilities and guiding the day-to-day operation and problem resolution for all Retail, Corporate and Distribution Center computing, storage and backup/recovery solutions for all company locations (corporate and DR data centers, distribution centers, international data centers, etc.).

Job Details

Leads ongoing innovation and modernization efforts, ensuring the company remains aligned with broader strategies and modernization initiatives. Acts as visionary and evangelist for the department in alignment with the company’s overall IT strategy.
Manage all aspects of a heavy project load within an enterprise environment, maintaining direct responsibility for ensuring spending is on target within budgets, producing high-quality deliverables, and meeting project deadlines.
Plans and controls departmental staffing, development, organization, hardware/software acquisitions, and facilities to ensure consistency with the company plans.
Manages schedules and workload to utilize support resources effectively and efficiently and supports various projects and initiatives.
Selects, develops, and motivates qualified staff to effectively carry out department functions and provide for the continuity of managerial and specialized skills.
Leads by example and manages support services with a strong focus on information security and compliance with applicable policies, standards, and procedures to ensure proper physical and intellectual assets.

Qualifications

Excellent written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills and able to (i) translate non-technical requests in to technical requirements and action plans and (ii) effectively communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences across all levels of the organization.
Excellent organizational, project management, and critical thinking skills. Must be able to apply principles of critical thinking to a variety of practical and emergent situations and accurately follow standardized procedures that may call for deviations.
Must be able to apply sound judgment beyond a specific set of instructions and apply knowledge to different factual situations.
Must poses a set of skills including, but not limited to: team leadership; and sensitivity to business and information system needs; awareness of the information systems and strategic implications inherent in proposals for change; and a strong drive to achieve superior results.
Effective leadership through strong people and performance management skills. Selects and develops talented resources, can identify and resolve low performance and other team problems, can effectively use performance management tools, and can effectively manage virtual teams, third party service providers and resources, etc.
Proven ability to thoroughly assess complex problems, collaborate with various levels of management and technical personnel, conceptualize effective solutions, communicate strategies, and partner with key stakeholders to bring initiatives to successful conclusions.
Experience bringing solutions from ideation through their life cycles, including the creation, implementation, feature roadmap, and refresh / retirement phases.
Experience interoperating with distributed teams, including offshore third-party organizations and remote employees.
Extensive hands-on experience designing, implementing, and managing a variety of technologies for a minimum of seven years.
Strong oral and written communication skills and the ability to speak in front of large audiences.
Desire and ability to help team members grow in their careers.
Foster a culture of innovation for an environment that requires a high degree of scalability, capacity, and reliability.
Drive evolution by advising engineering and operations teams of the external technology landscape.
Review new technologies, support appropriate POCs/evaluations, and participate in the development of new platforms for the benefit of the enterprise.

Work Experience and/or Education:

Master’s degree (or equivalent knowledge) in Information Technology or related field preferred. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field required.
15 years of experience in information systems. Including 7 years of management experience in strategically directing a major component of information technology in a large-scale environment with a complex project mix.
Bachelor’s degree or extensive experience managing enterprise-level programs and initiatives required.
Twelve or more years in the information technology field required, with at least 5 years directly supporting engineering/operations.
Seven or more years of hands-on experience managing teams building and supporting diverse, complex technical solutions required.
Working knowledge of multi-vendor, enterprise-scale infrastructure/platforms.
Experience negotiating significant/complex contracts with providers and third parties in previous management roles.