Director of IT Operations & Application Support

Director of IT Operations & Application Support

Oneida Innovations Group (OIG) / Turning Stone Enterprises

Location: Verona, NY (100% On-Site, Relocation Package available) Reports To: Vice President for Information Technology

About the Role

We are seeking a strategic, enterprise IT leader to serve as Director of IT Operations & Application Support, responsible for the evolution, governance, and operational maturity of enterprise technology operations across a complex, always-on environment. This is a highly visible leadership role for someone who thrives at the intersection of operational excellence, modern IT service management, and business enablement.

You will own the reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement of technology platforms supporting gaming, hospitality, retail, entertainment, and enterprise functions-while helping modernize how IT delivers value through automation, metrics, and customer-focused service delivery.

This role is ideal for a leader who has operated at enterprise scale, is comfortable with regulatory rigor and audit accountability, and has successfully balanced operational excellence with governance, compliance, and risk management in high-availability environments.

What You'll Do

• Provide enterprise-level operational and governance leadership for IT Operations, a 24/7 Technical Operations Center (TOC), Help Desk, Customer Support, Computer Engineering, and Application Support teams.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and resilience of mission-critical systems operating 24/7.
• Act as the senior escalation point for major incidents, driving calm, structured resolution and executive-level communication.

Modernize Service Delivery

• Own and continuously evolve IT Service Management (ITSM) practices, including incident, problem, change, and request management.
• Champion automation, monitoring, and proactive operations to reduce incidents and improve mean time to resolution.
• Define and track service performance metrics, SLAs, and operational health indicators.

Drive Application Stability & Readiness

• Lead end-to-end operational ownership for a large and diverse portfolio of approximately 250 gaming and enterprise applications.
• Partner with development, infrastructure, security, legal, compliance, audit, and vendors to ensure applications are production-ready, secure, compliant, and audit-ready.
• Guide operational readiness for upgrades, migrations, and new technology rollouts.

Build High-Impact Teams

• Lead and develop multiple layers of management, setting clear expectations and accountability.
• Create career pathways, mentoring, and succession plans for technical and operational leaders.
• Foster a culture of ownership, service excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Partner with the Business

• Work closely with executive IT leadership and business stakeholders to align operations with enterprise strategy.
• Translate business needs into scalable operational capabilities.
• Provide clear, data-driven reporting on service performance, risks, and improvement initiatives.

Govern, Secure, and Optimize

• Ensure direct accountability for compliance with regulatory requirements, security standards, internal controls, and audit obligations-especially within gaming and hospitality environments.
• Lead operational risk management, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
• Manage budgets, forecast capacity needs, and oversee vendor relationships and contracts.

What Success Looks Like

• Stable, reliable 24/7 operations with measurable improvements in uptime and service quality.
• Clear operational visibility through dashboards, metrics, and executive reporting.
• A confident, empowered management team capable of running day-to-day operations.
• Reduced incident volume through proactive monitoring and root-cause resolution.
• Strong partnerships with business leaders who view IT as a trusted service provider.

What You Bring

Required Experience & Skills - Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, MIS, Business, or equivalent experience. - 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including 5+ years leading enterprise IT operations or application support organizations with regulatory and compliance responsibilities. - Proven experience managing large, multi-team enterprise environments (50+ staff) with 24/7 support requirements and formal governance expectations. - Strong background in IT service management, enterprise operations leadership, incident response, and operational governance. - Experience managing complex budgets and vendor relationships. - Ability to communicate clearly with both technical teams and executive stakeholders.

Preferred Experience - Experience in gaming, hospitality, resort, or other highly regulated industries. - Exposure to large application ecosystems and enterprise platforms. - ITIL or other IT service management training or certification. - Experience supporting multi-property or enterprise-scale operations.

Why Join Us

• Lead technology operations for a highly visible, mission-critical enterprise.
• Influence the modernization of IT operations in a complex, regulated environment.
• Build and mentor large teams with real impact on customer and employee experience.
• Partner closely with executive leadership on enterprise strategy and transformation.

If you are a leader who enjoys building resilient systems, developing strong teams, and continuously improving how IT delivers value, we'd love to hear from you.

Oneida Innovations Group is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified candidates will be considered without regard to legally protected characteristics.