Director, Technical Operations

Summary/Objective

The Director of Technical Operations is a senior IT leader responsible for the reliability, performance, and continuous improvement of API's internal technology environment. This leader oversees all aspects of corporate IT operations, including helpdesk and end-user support, employee hardware lifecycle management, corporate systems administration, enterprise AI tooling ownership, and the tools and processes that keep our global workforce productive every day. Operating across teams in Canada, India, Brazil, and the United States, the Director will lead a team of approximately [X] employees, including [X] direct reports, and manage and develop geographically distributed IT support and systems teams, setting clear service standards and fostering a culture of responsiveness, accountability, and employee-first service delivery. This role requires a seasoned IT operations leader who brings deep experience in enterprise support environments, strong people management skills, and the ability to align internal technology services with the needs of a growing, globally distributed organization.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop distributed IT operations teams across Canada, India, Brazil, and the US, fostering a collaborative, service-oriented culture that bridges time zones and delivers a consistent employee experience globally

• Define team structure, staffing levels, roles, and career development frameworks for helpdesk technicians, desktop support engineers, and systems administrators across Canada, India, Brazil, and the US

• Establish clear goals, KPIs, and performance expectations for the IT operations organization; conduct regular performance reviews and provide ongoing coaching and feedback

• Partner with HR and talent acquisition to recruit and retain skilled IT support professionals in Canada, India, Brazil, and the US; build a team capable of scaling to meet growing organizational demand

• Foster a customer-service culture within the IT team, setting expectations for responsiveness, communication quality, and employee satisfaction across all support interactions

• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration between IT operations and HR, Finance, Legal, and business teams to anticipate technology needs and deliver solutions proactively

Helpdesk & End-User Support

• Own the global helpdesk function end-to-end, including service desk operations, ticket management, escalation procedures, SLA definitions, and performance reporting for teams in Canada, India, Brazil, and the US

• Administer the helpdesk ticketing and knowledge management tools used by the global support team, ensuring workflows, categorization, and reporting meet organizational needs

• Define and enforce helpdesk SLAs and response time targets; monitor queue performance, ticket aging, and resolution rates, and drive continuous improvement initiatives to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR)

• Establish and maintain a comprehensive, searchable knowledge base and self-service portal to reduce repeat ticket volume and empower employees to resolve common issues independently

• Oversee Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 support workflows, ensuring clear escalation paths and effective knowledge transfer between support levels

• Develop and report on helpdesk metrics and employee satisfaction scores (CSAT) to executive leadership; use data to identify systemic issues and prioritize improvements

• Manage on-call and after-hours support coverage across time zones to ensure critical support needs are addressed outside standard business hours

Employee Hardware & Asset Management

• Own the full lifecycle of employee hardware including procurement, provisioning, deployment, tracking, maintenance, refresh, and secure decommissioning for laptops, desktops, mobile devices, peripherals, and other end-user equipment

• Develop and maintain a hardware refresh strategy and multi-year capital plan, ensuring employees in Canada, India, Brazil, and the US are equipped with current, standardized, and reliable devices

• Administer mobile device management (MDM) and endpoint management platforms (such as Jamf, Microsoft Intune, or equivalent) to enforce security policies, manage configurations, and support remote provisioning and wipe capabilities

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date IT asset inventory using asset management tooling; ensure all hardware and software assets are tracked, auditable, and compliant with licensing and security requirements

• Work with the procurement function to manage hardware vendor relationships and purchasing programs; partner on pricing negotiations, warranty and support evaluations, and timely fulfillment for new hires and hardware replacements

• Define and enforce hardware standards for different employee roles and personas (office-based, remote, executive, field); maintain an approved hardware catalog that balances performance, cost, and supportability

• Coordinate onboarding hardware readiness in partnership with HR and People Operations, ensuring new employees in Canada, India, Brazil, and the US receive fully configured, ready-to-use equipment on or before their first day

Corporate Systems Administration

• Oversee the administration, availability, and performance of Microsoft 365, including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and associated services; ensure the platform is well-governed, properly licensed, and continuously optimized for employee productivity

• Manage identity and access management (IAM) infrastructure, including Ping Identity and Microsoft Entra ID, ensuring employee access is provisioned accurately, reviewed regularly, and deprovisioned promptly at offboarding

• Administer and maintain corporate SaaS application portfolio in coordination with business stakeholders; manage license assignments, user provisioning, vendor relationships, and renewal cycles

• Ensure endpoint security standards are enforced across all corporate devices, including antivirus/EDR, patch management, disk encryption, and security baseline configurations

• Manage corporate file storage, backup, and data retention systems; ensure business data is protected, recoverable, and compliant with relevant data governance policies

• Maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans for corporate IT systems, including regular testing and documented recovery procedures

• Support security incident response for corporate systems and endpoints in coordination with the security team

• Support audit readiness and compliance requirements (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, or equivalent) as they relate to internal IT systems, access controls, and asset management

AI Tooling & Ownership

• Serve as the business owner of the company's enterprise AI tools (such as Microsoft Copilot, Claude, or equivalent), accountable for tool selection, rollout, configuration, and ongoing performance

• Define and maintain the AI tooling strategy and roadmap, aligned with business priorities and in partnership with executive leadership and the security team

• Establish AI usage governance, including acceptable-use policy, access controls, data-protection and confidentiality standards, and an approval process for new AI tools, integrations, and use cases

• Administer AI platform licensing, user provisioning, and tenant or workspace settings; manage AI vendor relationships, contracts, renewals, and spend

• Partner with Security, Legal, and Compliance to assess AI tool risk, data handling, privacy, and regulatory requirements before and after deployment

• Drive employee adoption through training, enablement, documentation, and internal champions; help teams identify and prioritize high-value AI use cases

• Measure and report AI adoption, usage, cost, and productivity impact to executive leadership; use the data to refine tooling and enablement priorities

• Track the evolving AI tooling landscape; evaluate new tools and capabilities and recommend changes to the AI tool stack

Strategy, Governance & Stakeholder Engagement

• Develop and execute the multi-year IT operations roadmap, aligning internal technology capabilities with the company's growth plans, workforce needs, and executive priorities

• Provide regular reporting to the SVP Corporate Technologies and executive leadership team on IT service performance, helpdesk metrics, hardware spend, system availability, and strategic initiative progress

• Manage the IT operations budget, including headcount, hardware procurement, software licensing, and vendor spend; provide accurate forecasting and variance analysis to finance and leadership stakeholders

• Lead technology vendor relationships for hardware and corporate software; oversee contract negotiations, SLA management, and vendor performance reviews

• Establish and maintain IT policies, standards, and procedures covering acceptable use, hardware standards, access management, data handling, and support processes; ensure policies are current, communicated, and enforced

• Lead IT components of new office build-outs, office moves, and facilities technology upgrades, ensuring hardware and systems are ready for occupancy

• Partner with the security team to ensure internal IT practices align with the company's information security program and that corporate systems are appropriately protected and monitored

Competencies

• Proven leadership ability with experience building, scaling, and retaining high-performing IT operations teams across multiple geographies and time zones

• Strong service-delivery orientation with a genuine commitment to employee experience; sets high standards for helpdesk responsiveness, communication quality, and issue resolution

• Executive presence and communication skills; able to translate IT operational metrics and investment needs into clear, compelling narratives for C-suite stakeholders and non-technical audiences

• Skilled at leading geographically distributed teams; experienced navigating the logistical and interpersonal dynamics of cross-timezone collaboration across North America, South America, and Asia

• Data-driven approach to operations management; uses helpdesk metrics, asset data, and service performance KPIs to identify trends, prioritize investments, and report on team effectiveness

• Strong financial acumen with experience managing IT operations budgets covering hardware procurement, software licensing, and staffing, with a track record of cost-effective resource allocation

• Highly organized with strong process discipline; skilled at building repeatable, scalable IT workflows that reduce manual effort and improve consistency across a growing organization