OverviewREI Co-op is united around discovering, building and celebrating better ways of working in this world, all so that folks can find and pursue a love of the outdoors. When you work for the co-op, you do your best work with the help to live your best life. And you play a part in shaping the future of the outdoors, for people and our planet.The Director of Technical Services and Operations maintains, develops, supports, and optimizes key functional areas including network, server hardware, software and operating system, database and middleware, wireless, storage, data communications, Retail Infrastructure and telecommunications systems. Key aspects of the role include evaluating new and emerging technologies and services and identifying opportunities for increased operational efficiencies. Models and acts in accordance with REI’s guiding values and mission.Leading the Way (team leadership, coaching and development responsibilities for this “manager of staff”)
Identifies and communicates key responsibilities and practices to ensure the organization promotes a successful attitude, confidence in leadership, and teamwork to achieve business results.
Supports the implementation of company programs, procedures, methods and practices to promote REI key messages.
Challenges and inspires employees to achieve business results.
Ensures employees adhere to legal and operational compliance requirements.
Oversees training and development of employees directly and indirectly managed and makes effective staffing decisions.
Conducts and ensures the completion of performance reviews.
Provides coaching, direction and leadership to employees in order to achieve department, company and customer results.
Establishes and maintains visibility within the department.
Monitors operational statistics, reports trends, variances and issues, and takes appropriate action.
Your Planning & Navigating Requirements (the plans the job is responsible for creating and executing, and how the job ensures they are implemented)
Develops and updates multi-year plans for leveraging appropriate systems and resource strategies, (e.g. SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, DaaS, in-house resourcing, and commercially-available-off-the-shelf products)
Champions the consolidation of systems and solutions with overlapping functionality.
Evaluates and implements delivery models that provide efficient and effective infrastructure and operations responsibilities.
Oversees IT operational governance for all application development, infrastructure, and IT support services, to include, but not limited to, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, documentation, and readiness execution.
Ensures the technological well-being of the organization by adhering to established strategies and technology and architectural standards.
Develops, tracks and controls, the Operations and Technology Services annual operating and capital budget
Works with customers to ensure that services and service levels are aligned to business needs.
Delivers against service level agreements or service level targets
Identifies and reports on service quality & efficiency measures and initiates activities to proactively improve service quality and efficiency.
Heads up architecture and capacity planning disciplines to ensure that Operations and Technology Services develops and maintains capability and capacity to meet short-, medium- and long-term business demand.
Informally and formally benchmarks IT Operations and Technical Services against industry standards in support of REI goals and priorities.
Proactively addresses problems and incidents and ensures proper communication and escalation procedures are in place in support of end customers.
Develops and maintains key performance indicators for computing performance, network performance, and internal and external service levels.
Ensures that business systems, interfaces and processes are supported and operational 24x7x365; that application infrastructure is maintained, documented, and kept current; that development environments are maintained, refreshed, documented and usage is scheduled for maximum utilization.
Assists with the architecture planning and deployment of infrastructure security measures.
Provides strong partnership and collaboration with the Cybersecurity organization to ensure Co-Op data and assets are secured effectively.
Ensures equipment and software operation adheres to applicable laws and regulations.
Manages and sets priorities for the architecture, design, maintenance, development, and evaluation of all infrastructure systems.
Directs network services to include the architecture, engineering, configuration and support of data and voice network components, including wide area networks (WAN) and remote access, virtual private network (VPN), and wireless systems for the enterprise.
Directs services for database architecture, engineering and administration
Directs retail infrastructure services to include the architecture, engineering, configuration, and support of in-store infrastructure including in-store network, server, and storage equipment.
Oversees purchasing of hardware and operating system software, and systems management.
Directs services for the architecture, engineering, configuration and support of (data) storage management hardware and software, including backup and recovery policies and systems, and enterprise capacity monitoring/reporting. Ensures implementation of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) program.
Directs services for 24 X 7 data center operations for on-premises and offsite co-location facilities including power, network and environmental solutions for new equipment. Ensures SLAs are met, and operational metrics are tracked and reported.
Directs services for the architecture, engineering, configuration and support of server hardware.
Oversees management and negotiates contracts for data center lease, operational tools, offshore operations, and some hardware.
Runs cross-division collaboration to ensure coordination and integration of business needs and solutions.
Conducts effective negotiations with major technology vendors and ensures contractual performance standards are met or exceeded.
Develops professional relationships with internal and external peers, fostering these relationships through industry associations and providing education on how best to use division services to satisfy Company needs.
Ensures that division programs, policies and procedures meet regulatory requirements and industry best practices.
Works with all IT and Purchasing to ensure we have a robust Vendor Management and Negotiation Strategy.
Responsibilities and QualificationsWe need your ‘awesome’ in these areas:
Leadership experience in a shared platform context being a change agent at scale.
Translating business requirements to technical needs and the inverse, translating technical problems to a non-technical audience.
Contribute to an adaptable, mutually supportive work spirit and psychologically safe culture where people can do their best work.
You bring these technical skills and abilities:
Experience in being a technical leader for at least 5-10 years, including contributing to and leading work such as:
Leading distributed infrastructure solutions (e.g. Retail stores, 50-100+ physical locations)
Leading Data Center/Co-Location Hosted Infrastructure
Virtualization (ESXi, Nutanix)
Enterprise Storage (SAN, NAS)
Server Operating Systems (Windows and Linux Server)
Networking (SDWAN, Switching, Wireless)
Network Firewalls (Palo Alto / Fortinet)
Voice (Cisco WebEx, NICE inContact and Call Center Platforms)
Database Engineering (SQL, Postgres, Mongo, Oracle)
Job Scheduling (Tidal and/or BMC Production Control)
Automation and IaaC (e.g Ansible, Terraform)
Cloud Engineering (AWS)
Server Hardware (HPE Synergy, Hyperconverged Infrastructure, Blades, Rack Mounts and Firmware Management Practices)
Required Skills and Experience
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or business administration, or equivalent training and experience.
10+ years of progressive information technology management and leadership experience with Infrastructure and Operations Domain expertise.
10+ years information technology experience, including technology acquisition, applications development, infrastructure support, logistics and operations.
Practical understanding and experience with Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Information Technology Services Management (ITSM)
Experience leading technology capital projects for large multi-unit organizations
Insight and experience planning and delivering systems in the competitive marketplace.
Ability to develop department-level strategic plans, business plans and annual budgets.
Ability to lead and direct highly-technical work teams to achieve top performance
Ability to negotiate contracts and agreements with information technology product and service vendors and providers.
Excellent understanding of release and change management techniques and methods
Builds capacity of individuals and teams through effective employee development, involvement, communication, and supervision efforts.
Creates a strong, mutually supportive work spirit and culture where people can do their best.
Establishes trust and inspires others.
Makes effective organization and people decisions in a manner consistent with REI's values and ethics.
Delivers on commitments and holds others to same.
Champions the organization and advocates solutions in the overall Company's best interest.
Uses business knowledge, innovative thinking, and sound judgment in the solution of problems or the pursuit of business opportunities.
Consolidates information from various sources including feedback from others to reach sound decisions.
Considers the ultimate impact of decisions and actions on internal and external customers.
Champions IT Vendor Management and Negotiation
Fosters change in company direction.
Effectively plans and executes changes.
Preferred Qualifications
Knowledge of retail, manufacturing and logistics and distribution processes
Physical/Mental Requirements (the minimum physical/mental requirements necessary to perform the job)Core physical requirements can be determined by reviewing a Physical Capacity Worksheet (available in the HR Benefits Department).ClosingAt REI, we believe the outdoors is for all. We are committed to becoming a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural organization. We know that there's strength in our diversity – that each employee brings unique skills, experiences, and perspectives. Every day you are driving change, fostering a culture of respect, and knowing you're backed by benefits that support your whole life. To work towards this commitment and fulfill our brand promise of inspiring and enabling a life outside for everyone, we seek employees who demonstrate different ways of working, create a sense of belonging, and actively listen and learn.Pay TransparencyWe are committed to practices that promote pay equity and transparency. As required by applicable Pay Transparency laws, REI provides a range of compensation for roles that may be hired in locations under these requirements. Factors that may be used to determine your actual salary may include a wide array of factors, including: your specific skills and experience, geographic location or other relevant factors.REI offers all regular employees a generous employee discount, access to health benefits, a retirement savings plan and accrued time off. Click here (https://foryourbenefit-rei.com/) for a detailed overview of benefits plans by employee profile.Pay Range$158,100.00 - $269,000.00 per year