Manager, IT Architecture & Operations

Exacta Systems (a Churchill Downs Incorporated company) — Austin, TX. Requisition ID: 5138.

About the role

The Manager, IT Architecture & Operations is a hands-on technical leader with a dual mandate spanning enterprise architecture and IT service operations. The role leads architecture and engineering design for Exacta's platforms and infrastructure while supporting incident management, monitoring, and service delivery for internal and customer-facing systems as business needs require. The incumbent is expected to provide credible technical leadership in design review, major-incident response, and customer escalation while developing toward broader IT leadership responsibility.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise & Solution Architecture: Maintain Exacta's enterprise architecture strategy and standards across internal systems, customer-facing platforms, and integrations. Lead architecture and design for Exacta Connect and NXT, including integrations with game manufacturers, casino management, and player tracking systems. Maintain architecture patterns and reference designs for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Prepare build/buy/partner recommendations aligned with product roadmaps and Churchill Downs standards.
• Customer-Facing Technology & Operator Support: Serve as a technical escalation point for complex customer system, network, and infrastructure issues. Partner with Sales, Product, Development, and Operations on deployments and operator-site expansions. Lead technical onboarding of new venues, including infrastructure, connectivity, and compliance readiness. Work with operators to improve system performance, uptime, and reporting.
• Cloud, Infrastructure & Reliability: Execute cloud/hybrid infrastructure roadmaps and recommend improvements using operational data. Deliver reliability, scalability, backup, and disaster recovery plans, including testing and documentation. Establish infrastructure standards for deployments, networking, hosting, and remote monitoring. Manage infrastructure spend and cost optimization. Oversee configuration, patching, security hardening, access controls, and infrastructure lifecycle maintenance.
• Security & Regulatory Compliance: Ensure systems meet applicable gaming regulatory requirements and security-by-design principles. Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Churchill Downs security teams on audit readiness, data integrity, and responsible gaming safeguards. Support regulatory audits, security assessments, and incident reviews and drive follow-up actions to closure.
• Service Operations & Incident Management: Monitor, triage, and resolve infrastructure/network alerts and ensure timely critical-incident response. Perform root-cause analysis on recurring incidents and implement corrective actions. Lead major-incident response as needed, coordinating Engineering, Field Operations, vendors, and customer communications. Manage monitoring dashboards, alerts, and thresholds; analyze availability and performance trends. Provide incident summaries, service-level reporting, and technical updates to leadership and stakeholders.
• Cross-Functional Leadership & Development: Flex between architecture and service operations based on business needs. Partner across Product, Engineering, Field Operations, and Operations to align technical decisions with business outcomes. Maintain runbooks, network diagrams, configurations, and architecture documentation as reliable sources of truth. Manage vendor and third-party service relationships for infrastructure delivery and issue resolution. Own at least one enterprise-level initiative annually, including budget input, executive reporting, and cross-functional coordination. Deputize for IT leadership within defined architecture and service-operations escalation authority. Coach and develop technical team members while modeling accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in IT infrastructure, systems, or solution architecture, including 3+ years leading engineers, architects, or IT support/service teams.
• Demonstrated ownership of architecture for distributed platforms spanning on-premises, cloud, and hybrid deployments.
• Hands-on depth in AWS or Azure, networking, identity management, monitoring/observability, systems administration, and backup/disaster recovery.
• Experience integrating third-party systems and vendors; gaming-industry exposure strongly preferred.
• Experience in regulated environments and audit processes preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading customer-impacting incidents through root-cause analysis and closure.

Skills & Abilities

• Strong architecture and engineering judgment with the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Working knowledge of ITIL-aligned incident, problem, and change management practices.
• Hands-on experience with ITSM and monitoring platforms such as Freshdesk and LogicMonitor or comparable tools.
• Strong vendor management, cost optimization, documentation, and project leadership capabilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation of technical recommendations to executive and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to lead calmly and decisively during major incidents and shifting priorities.
• Availability to participate in an on-call rotation and lead major-incident response outside normal business hours.

Physical Requirements & Working Conditions

This position requires participation in an on-call rotation, availability to support major incidents outside standard business hours, and occasional travel to operator and venue sites as business needs require.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, sometimes for prolonged periods while working at a desk, on the phone, and/or on the computer; type on a computer keyboard; use hands to finger, handle or feel; talk or hear; reach with hands or arms; walk or stand; and perform some repetitive motion activities. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, color vision, color differentiation, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

The position requires the ability to work effectively as part of a team and concentrate on a variety of details when faced with interruptions and changing work priorities. Mental demands include demonstrated ability to anticipate and solve practical problems or resolve issues; reason, calculate figures and amounts; collect, interpret, and/or analyze complex data and information, and draw valid conclusions; interpret procedures and policies; and meet schedules in a dynamic and sometimes demanding work environment. The noise level is usually moderate, typical of an office environment. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.