Director of Information Technology, Cloud Operations & Security

Primary Responsibilities

• Serve as the executive leader responsible for the Information Technology, Cloud Operations, and Cybersecurity organizations.
• Develop and execute strategies that align technology operations with Journal Technologies’ business objectives.
• Lead, mentor, and develop managers responsible for each functional area while building a culture of accountability, collaboration, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Establish organizational priorities, performance objectives, succession plans, and leadership development initiatives.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Executive Leadership Team on technology strategy, operational performance, cybersecurity, business risk, and technology investments.

Cloud Operations

• Provide executive leadership for Journal Technologies’ managed cloud hosting business.
• Develop and execute the company’s cloud operations strategy.
• Standardize customer-hosted environments to improve scalability, consistency, automation, and operational efficiency.
• Establish cloud architecture standards, operational procedures, and governance across all hosted customer environments.
• Optimize AWS infrastructure utilization, capacity planning, performance, resilience, and cloud consumption.
• Ensure customer environments consistently meet established service-level objectives for availability, security, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• Monitor and improve the profitability of cloud hosting services through effective financial management, cost optimization, and operational efficiency.
• Partner with Product and Sales to develop hosting service offerings, pricing strategies, and commercial models that support profitable growth.
• Support sales opportunities by providing technical guidance, cloud architecture recommendations, hosting estimates, and commercial input.
• Develop operational reporting that provides visibility into cloud performance, customer profitability, utilization, service quality, and operational metrics.

Information Technology

• Provide executive leadership for the company’s Information Technology organization.
• Develop and execute the enterprise Information Technology strategy.
• Oversee internal technology infrastructure, including networking, identity and access management, collaboration platforms, end-user computing, hardware lifecycle management, and technology support services.
• Lead the strategy, implementation, administration, and continuous improvement of enterprise business systems, including Jira, Confluence, Zendesk, HubSpot, Microsoft 365, and other internal applications.
• Improve operational efficiency through systems integration, workflow automation, and continuous improvement of enterprise technology.
• Ensure technology services are reliable, secure, scalable, and delivered in a financially responsible manner.
• Establish operational metrics, service levels, and continuous improvement initiatives that improve employee productivity and organizational effectiveness.

Cybersecurity

• Provide executive leadership for the company’s cybersecurity program.
• Develop and execute the organization’s cybersecurity strategy.
• Lead the CISO Group and coordinate enterprise-wide security initiatives.
• Establish governance processes that protect company and customer information while supporting business objectives.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory and industry standards including CJIS, SOC 2, NIST, CIS Controls, HIPAA, and other applicable frameworks.
• Oversee enterprise security operations, vulnerability management, penetration testing, incident response, identity security, and cloud security.
• Partner with Product Engineering to promote secure software development practices and strengthen product security.
• Oversee technology risk management and ensure appropriate mitigation strategies are implemented.
• Support customer security reviews, compliance assessments, audits, and due diligence activities.

Financial & Business Management

• Develop and manage annual operating budgets for Information Technology, Cloud Operations, and Cybersecurity.
• Own the financial performance of the Cloud Operations organization, ensuring managed hosting services are delivered profitably while maintaining high service quality.
• Develop business cases and return-on-investment analyses for technology initiatives.
• Monitor cloud infrastructure costs, software licensing, vendor performance, and technology investments to maximize business value.
• Negotiate and manage strategic relationships with cloud providers, technology vendors, software providers, and managed service partners.
• Provide regular executive reporting on operational performance, financial results, cybersecurity posture, cloud profitability, technology investments, and strategic initiatives.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Product Management to align cloud services with product strategy and contribute to commercial offerings and pricing models.
• Collaborate with Customer Experience and Professional Services to improve customer satisfaction, service delivery, and operational efficiency.
• Support Sales by providing technical leadership during customer pursuits and strategic opportunities.
• Partner with Finance to improve forecasting, budgeting, cost management, and profitability.
• Work with Human Resources to develop organizational capability, attract talent, and strengthen leadership within the technology organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Business Administration, or related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Ten or more years of progressive leadership experience in Information Technology, Cloud Operations, Cybersecurity, or related technology organizations.
• Experience leading managers and multidisciplinary technology organizations.
• Experience managing customer-hosted cloud environments or managed cloud operations.
• Strong understanding of AWS architecture, cloud operations, automation, security, and cloud financial management.
• Experience managing enterprise Information Technology organizations and business systems.
• Experience with enterprise applications including Microsoft 365, Jira, Confluence, Zendesk, HubSpot, identity management, and collaboration platforms.
• Strong knowledge of cybersecurity governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance.
• Experience with CJIS, SOC 2, NIST, or comparable security frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience managing operating budgets, technology investments, and financial performance.
• Excellent leadership, communication, organizational, and executive presentation skills.