IT Director

Overview The IT Director is a hands-on working leadership position responsible for the management, operation, security, reliability, and continued improvement of information technology environments. This position combines IT leadership and personnel management with senior-level infrastructure engineering responsibilities. The IT Director is expected to lead technical staff, establish priorities and standards, communicate with organizational leadership, manage vendors and technology initiatives, and provide direction for the overall IT environment. At the same time, this individual will remain directly involved in the technical work required to operate and support the environment. This is not a management-only position. The successful candidate must be comfortable working directly with servers, networks, virtualization, firewalls, Microsoft 365, cloud services, backup and recovery systems, security technologies, and other infrastructure while also managing people and operations. DutiesLead and manage IT staff, providing priorities, technical direction, coaching, and accountability while ensuring effective service delivery.Serve as the primary escalation point for critical infrastructure, operational, and cybersecurity issues.Oversee the design, administration, security, and reliability of Windows Server, Active Directory, Microsoft 365, Azure, Hyper-V, networking, firewalls, VPNs, and related infrastructure.Maintain the overall health, availability, performance, security, and supportability of the IT environment, including backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity.Diagnose and resolve complex infrastructure issues and provide hands-on technical leadership for critical incidents, upgrades, migrations, and infrastructure projects.Establish and enforce IT standards, procedures, documentation, change management, and proactive maintenance practices.Identify and manage technology and cybersecurity risks, including access controls, endpoint security, patching, vulnerability remediation, and incident response.Lead technology projects and vendor relationships, evaluating solutions based on business requirements, security, reliability, scalability, and cost.Communicate IT priorities, risks, projects, and recommendations to organizational leadership and translate technical issues into business impact and actionable recommendations.Required Skills7+ years of progressively responsible IT/infrastructure experience, including significant hands-on server and network engineering experience.3+ years of IT leadership, supervisory, team-lead, or management experience with responsibility for directing the work of other technical personnel.Strong hands-on experience with Active Directory, Windows Server, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and related Microsoft infrastructure technologies.Strong experience with Microsoft 365, Azure and Entra ID and associated cloud and hybrid environments.Strong virtualization experience, particularly Microsoft Hyper-V, with VMware experience beneficial.Strong networking fundamentals and practical experience with TCP/IP, VLANs, routing, switching, WAN/LAN, VPNs, wireless, DNS, DHCP, NAT, and firewall technologies.Experience configuring and troubleshooting enterprise firewalls such as Cisco, Meraki, Fortinet, SonicWall, or comparable platforms.Experience with backup, disaster recovery, replication, recovery testing, and business-continuity technologies.Experience with storage technologies, including SAN/NAS and virtualized storage environments.Working knowledge of cybersecurity technologies and practices including identity security, endpoint protection, firewalls, network segmentation, vulnerability management, privileged access, and incident response.Experience planning and implementing infrastructure upgrades, migrations, replacements, and modernization initiatives.Ability to independently troubleshoot complex technical problems across multiple infrastructure layers.Strong documentation skills, including the ability to develop network diagrams, standards, procedures, implementation plans, and technical recommendations.Ability to manage multiple priorities while distinguishing between urgent operational issues and longer-term strategic requirements.Ability to make sound technical decisions during outages and other high-pressure situations.Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.Ability to communicate effectively with technical personnel, end users, vendors, and executive leadership.Strong customer-service orientation, organization, judgment, professionalism, honesty, and integrity.Self-motivated and comfortable operating in a fast-moving environment.Preferred SkillsAssociate's or Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related discipline is preferred.