Senior Director of IT Operations

The Senior Director of IT Operations runs the day to day of IT for Southern Orthodontic Partners. This role manages infrastructure, end user services, and IT project delivery across our partner practices and the central support team.

Most of the job comes down to making sure practices have technology that works and people who answer when they need help. That takes real time with practice managers and clinical teams, understanding how they actually work, and turning what they need into something IT can deliver. We are growing quickly and adding practices, so this individual needs to be organized, self-motivated, and comfortable building process while the work is already moving.

Essential Job Functions:

· Manage day to day IT operations across all partner practices and the central support team, keeping systems available and supported during clinic hours.

· Lead, coach, and develop the IT operations team across end user support, infrastructure, applications, and project delivery.

· Own the service desk and field support model, including ticket handling, escalation paths, response and resolution targets, and on-call coverage.

· Oversee the infrastructure practices depend on, including networks, wireless, firewalls, servers, telephony, and endpoint devices.

· Administer and secure the Microsoft 365 environment, including Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Intune, and Entra ID.

· Manage Azure workloads and the hybrid environment with an eye on performance, capacity, and cost.

· Standardize hardware, software, and configuration across practices while allowing for the differences that matter clinically.

· Own the IT operations project portfolio, including intake, prioritization, staffing, scheduling, and delivery against committed dates.

· Lead IT onboarding for new practice partnerships and new office openings, covering diligence, network and hardware buildout, system conversion, data migration, account setup, and go-live support.

· Serve as a primary point of contact for practice managers and regional operations leaders, communicating clearly and early during outages, changes, and rollouts.

· Maintain backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity plans for practice-critical systems, and test them on a regular schedule.

· Keep IT practices aligned with HIPAA and company security requirements, and act as the senior escalation point for major incidents.

· Track and report on service levels, project status, and spend in terms leadership and practice teams can act on.

Essential Job Skills:

· Proven experience running IT operations for a multi-site organization, ideally healthcare, dental, or another clinic-based model.

· Hands-on depth across infrastructure, networking, endpoint management, and end user support.

· Strong working knowledge of Microsoft 365 and Azure administration, identity, and security.

· Experience supporting clinical or practice management applications and working side by side with clinical staff.

· Project management skills strong enough to run several efforts at once and finish them on schedule.

· Budget ownership experience, including forecasting, tracking, and vendor negotiation.

· Working knowledge of HIPAA and healthcare data privacy and security requirements.

· Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain technical issues to people who do not work in technology.

· Track record of building trust and credibility with operational leaders who do not report to IT.

· Team player able to effectively interact cross-functionally with a variety of individuals with different competencies and backgrounds.

· Self-propelled work ethic with ability to stay on task and focused with minimal supervision.

· Willingness to work on a flexible work schedule, and travel as the job requires.

· Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.

· Strong attention to detail and organization.

Minimum Requirements:

· Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, or equivalent work experience

· 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including 5+ years leading IT teams

· Experience supporting a distributed, multi-site organization

· Demonstrated experience administering Microsoft 365 and Azure environments

· Experience owning an IT operating budget and managing vendor contracts

· Ability to travel to partner practices as needed (approximately 30%)

· Preferred: experience in a private equity backed, acquisitive organization, including diligence and post-close IT integration

· Preferred: familiarity with orthodontic or dental practice management, imaging, and patient engagement platforms