Director Information Technology

About the role

The Director of Information Technology is a senior technology leader responsible for leading the delivery, operation, and continuous improvement of Colorado PERA’s core technology services. This position provides leadership for IT operations, infrastructure, end-user computing, service management, enterprise applications, and related technology functions that support PERA’s business operations. The Director works as part of the technology leadership team to implement PERA’s technology strategy, mature IT operations, and strengthen the partnership between technology and the business. This role is accountable for ensuring that IT services are reliable, secure, well-managed, cost-effective, and aligned with business needs. The Director works closely with application development leaders to ensure infrastructure, platforms, operational practices, and technology services accelerate the delivery of business capabilities.

Ideal candidate

The ideal candidate is an experienced technology leader with a proven ability to deliver reliable, secure and high-performing technology services while also continually improving the organization’s technology capabilities, resilience, and customer experience. They develop people, improve operations, and partner effectively across the organization. They understand how to run reliable technology and are comfortable leading organizational change and helping teams adopt new ways of working that improve accountability, service delivery, and business outcomes. They are effective at translating technology strategy into operational priorities, measurable goals, and actionable plans that teams can successfully execute. They bring strong operational discipline and use data, metrics, and process improvement to help teams deliver reliable and effective services. They understand how technology investments, service costs, and operational commitments support decision making and long-term planning and work effectively with the CTO, CISO, enterprise architecture, Finance, business, and other leaders to align priorities, manage risk, and deliver technology services that support PERA's mission.

Leadership

• Build capable teams, establish accountability, and provide leadership, direction, and oversight to IT managers and teams responsible for technology operations, infrastructure, end-user computing, service management, and related functions.
• Establish clear expectations for managers who are responsible for day-to-day staff supervision, hiring, performance management, budget management, operational execution, and achievement of service level expectations within their areas.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, service excellence, and partnership with business stakeholders.
• Ensure managers have the direction, tools, and support needed to lead their teams effectively.
• Develop leadership capability within the IT organization and support succession planning, cross-training, and professional development.
• Ensure performance expectations, development goals, and corrective actions are managed consistently and appropriately through the management structure.
• Support a high-performing team environment focused on service delivery and achieving business outcomes.

Strategy

• Provide operational input and participate as part of the technology leadership team in the development of the overall technology strategic plan.
• Translate technology strategy into actionable plans, roadmaps, priorities, and measurable goals for IT teams and ensure their successful execution.
• Help managers connect daily work to broader technology and business goals.
• Participate in organizational and technology planning to ensure IT services support PERA’s business needs.
• Provide input on technology priorities, operational risks, staffing needs, service improvements, and modernization opportunities.
• Work with technology leadership to align investments, resources, and execution plans across technology teams.
• Support resource planning, workforce planning, and prioritization across IT teams.
• Advise the Chief Technology Officer and business leaders on operational priorities, impacts, service risks, technology constraints, and opportunities for improvement.

Business partnership

• Maintain strong relationships and partnerships with business leaders and Product Management to understand needs, clarify expectations, and improve the delivery of technology services and business capabilities.
• Establish and champion adoption of a service-based operating model focused on business outcomes, capabilities, customer experience, and clear service ownership.
• Ensure IT services are clearly defined, documented, measured, and aligned with business needs.
• Ensure IT teams focus on service outcomes, business value, and proactive planning rather than only responding to individual technology requests.
• Promote collaboration across technology teams to reduce silos and improve end-to-end service delivery.
• Ensure service ownership, support responsibilities, escalation paths, and performance expectations are clear.
• Use service catalogs, metrics, and reporting to help the business understand IT services and performance.
• Ensure proactive communication regarding planned work, service impacts, changes, and issue resolution.
• Represent IT in meetings, committees, and working groups.
• Work collaboratively with technology leaders, including Application Development, Information Security, Product Management, Project Management, vendors, and business stakeholders to align priorities, services, strategy, and resources.

Operations

• Accountable for the performance, availability, reliability, scalability, and operational effectiveness of core technology services.
• Ensure technology services are managed as business capabilities with clear ownership, measurable outcomes, defined service expectations, and visibility into operational costs and resource commitments.
• Maintain visibility into service performance, operational risks, technology lifecycle status, and service health, and take action to address emerging issues.
• Ensure appropriate operational practices, controls, monitoring, maintenance, lifecycle management, capacity planning, and change management processes are maintained.
• Use metrics and performance data to drive continuous improvement in service quality, operational effectiveness, business outcomes, and user experience.
• Partner with Information Security leadership to ensure security requirements, practices, and risk mitigation strategies are effectively integrated into technology services and operations.
• Ensure managers maintain multi-year technology lifecycle, replacement, and modernization plans and identify areas of technical debt, operational risk, and aging technology.

Governance, risk and compliance

• Participate in technology governance, business governance and other enterprise decision-making teams as appropriate.
• Ensure IT functions follow established governance, architecture, security, compliance, risk management, and operational control practices and align with approved standards, roadmaps, and enterprise direction.
• Partner with the CISO on security priorities, operational security practices, risk mitigation and compliance activities.
• Ensure technology decisions align with standards, roadmaps and enterprise architecture and direction.
• Support the development, review, testing and continuous improvement of business continuity and disaster recovery plans for IT services.
• Ensure risks, control gaps and operational issues are documented, communicated and addressed through appropriate channels.
• Partner with Internal Audit, Risk, and Compliance to support audits or compliance reviews of IT business processes, risks, and controls, and to help develop collaborative solutions that are implemented in a timely manner.

Financial and vendor management

• Hold managers accountable for budget planning, forecasting, commitments, and ongoing management of costs within their areas of responsibility.
• Promote visibility into service costs, resource commitments, and technology investments.
• Support technology planning, budgeting, and cost management activities and provide operational input into investment decisions, service planning, and lifecycle management.
• Review and approve technology purchases, contracts, and vendor commitments within delegated authority.
• Ensure vendor relationships are managed effectively and aligned with service expectations, contract requirements, and business needs.
• Ensure managers proactively manage vendor performance, contract obligations, renewal timelines, and operational dependencies.

Technology modernization

• Lead evaluation of emerging technologies and operational improvements that may benefit PERA.
• Balance return on investment, implementation cost, risk, security, and total cost of ownership when evaluating technology options.
• Promote continuous improvement in IT processes, service delivery, documentation, automation, and reporting.
• Encourage teams to apply lessons learned from incidents, projects, and operational reviews to improve future performance.
• Lead modernization efforts that improve reliability, scalability, security, and business alignment.
• Advance the evaluation and adoption of cloud, automation, AI, and other emerging technologies where they provide measurable business value, improve service delivery, reduce risk, or increase organizational effectiveness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, computer science, business administration, technology management, or a related field.
• Ten years of progressive technology experience, including leadership experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Significant and progressive experience leading managers, supervisors, or team leads in a complex technology environment.
• Experience overseeing multiple IT disciplines, including IT service management practices and service delivery, infrastructure, end-user computing, enterprise applications, technology operations, incident management, change management, service lifecycle management, and continuous improvement.
• Experience with technology budgeting, cost tracking, vendor management, and resource planning.
• Strong understanding of technology risk, information security, business continuity, disaster recovery, and compliance practices.
• Knowledge of infrastructure, cloud services, networking, telecommunications, endpoint management, enterprise platforms, service desk operations, data center operations, and related technologies.
• Strong communication, facilitation, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and lead through ambiguity.
• Ability to travel as necessary for business purposes.

Preferred experience

• Experience leading cross-functional teams.
• Experience leading IT organizational transformation or operating model change initiatives.