IT Operations Lead Bilingual EnglishSpanish

Role Overview

The IT Operations Lead is accountable for the daily execution coordination reliability and continuous improvement of technology services supporting Talpas corporate offices and retail locations. The role establishes priorities coordinates internal and external resources maintains visibility into operational risks and ensures that incidents requests deployments and application initiatives progress to a verified business outcome.

This position leads IT service delivery store technology support operational application support vendor coordination field activities technology deployments major incidents new-store readiness and the operational adoption of new technology.

The IT Operations Lead maintains operational ownership of technology issues and initiatives affecting stores and business departments. The role performs appropriate initial assessment assigns or engages the correct resources coordinates escalation and testing communicates status validates the business outcome and ensures complete documentation and handoff.

The role serves as the operational coordination point among the IT Director IT personnel store and corporate departments and external vendors. It ensures that responsibilities priorities dependencies risks and required decisions are visible and that work is advanced by the appropriate accountable party.

This is a hands-on operational leadership role requiring strong ownership organization troubleshooting ability communication business awareness and the ability to coordinate multiple technology priorities in a fast-paced retail environment.

The IT Operations Lead ensures reliable efficient and accountable IT operations across Talpas corporate offices and retail locations supporting business continuity operational efficiency and consistent service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Authority: Within priorities and policies established by the IT Director the IT Operations Lead may assign operational work set incident and service priorities coordinate store and field coverage require appropriate ticket and change documentation initiate vendor escalation organize testing and deployment activities and escalate unresolved resource performance security or business-risk concerns. Budget commitments policy exceptions personnel actions major contractual decisions cybersecurity risk acceptance and changes to enterprise architecture remain subject to IT Director approval.

• Lead daily IT operations across corporate and retail locations by assessing business impact establishing priorities assigning ownership coordinating dependencies monitoring execution and escalating risks or resource constraints that could prevent timely resolution.
• Coordinate incidents and operational initiatives requiring systems cloud networking infrastructure security application reporting or vendor expertise. Define the operational owner required contributors business priority next action communication cadence and escalation path while preserving technical accountability within each specialized function.
• Serve as the operational owner for retail and business applications including BRdata NCR Encore/ABO Central POS loyalty queue management e-commerce and related operational platforms. Coordinate application support vendor escalations testing reporting issues implementation activities change readiness user communication issue validation documentation and transition into normal operations.
• Lead the operational workstream for technology implementations migrations and rollouts including BRdata implementation activities. Coordinate business requirements readiness criteria user acceptance testing (UAT) issue tracking cutover support stakeholder communication training dependencies post-go-live stabilization and formal transition to operational support.
• Develop sufficient subject-matter expertise in Talpas operational systems and retail processes to assess business impact guide troubleshooting coordinate vendors and specialists validate changes and support informed operational decisions. Coordinate change release and deployment activities in accordance with established approval testing communication validation and rollback requirements.
• Oversee daily Service Desk operations and the IT support queue. Ensure incidents and requests are prioritized by business impact assigned to an accountable owner documented in the approved IT service-management platform updated at appropriate intervals escalated when progress is at risk validated with the affected user or location and closed with meaningful resolution information.
• Coordinate IT readiness for new store openings relocations remodels and major deployments by maintaining an integrated readiness plan confirming accountable owners and due dates tracking dependencies and risks validating that required systems and equipment are operational coordinating opening support and documenting the transition into normal support.
• Lead and coordinate IT support personnel by setting daily priorities assigning work and field coverage monitoring workload and follow-through reinforcing service and documentation standards providing coaching and feedback promoting cross-training and identifying capability or resource gaps for escalation to the IT Director.
• Provide the IT Director with concise decision-ready reporting on service demand ticket aging critical incidents recurring problems application and POS reliability vendor escalations implementation and store-readiness risks team capacity and corrective actions. Reporting must identify trends business impact accountable owners target dates decisions required and items requiring leadership attention.

Success Measures

Success in this position is demonstrated by clear ownership of operational work; timely prioritization and escalation; reduced aging and recurrence of incidents; reliable store application and vendor follow-through; accurate readiness for deployments and openings; effective communication during major incidents and changes; complete operational documentation; stronger team coverage and cross-training; and concise reporting that enables timely management decisions.

Specific targets will be established using reliable operational baselines and approved departmental priorities.

Work Environment Travel & Availability

Talpa operates a multi-location retail environment where technology availability directly affects business operations.

This position requires:

• Regular travel between corporate offices and retail locations.
• Hands-on participation in store technology activities when necessary.
• Participation in new-store openings and major technology deployments.
• Participation in application implementations and go-live activities.
• Participation in the established IT on-call process.
• Availability for planned evening and weekend technology activities when required.
• Flexibility to participate in occasional overnight deployments or maintenance when work cannot safely be completed during store operating hours.
• Participation in critical incident escalation when business operations are significantly affected.

This position is not expected to be personally available 24/7. After-hours responsibilities operate through established on-call escalation maintenance and deployment processes.

Required Qualifications

• 4 years of experience in IT Operations technical support retail technology business applications or a comparable IT environment preferably supporting multiple locations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead daily IT operations prioritize business-critical issues coordinate technical resources and ensure accountability through resolution.
• Strong experience with Help Desk operations IT ticketing systems incident management troubleshooting escalation and resolution documentation.
• Experience supporting POS ERP inventory pricing merchandising or other business-critical retail applications.
• Experience coordinating with technology vendors internal IT specialists and business stakeholders to troubleshoot issues and deliver effective solutions.
• Experience participating in technology implementations migrations upgrades and production deployments including testing change coordination go-live readiness and post-implementation support.
• Strong problem-solving organizational and decision-making skills with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced multi-location environment.
• Ability to coordinate mentor and guide IT support personnel reinforce operational standards promote cross-training and address performance or resource concerns.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to work effectively with technical teams store personnel business leadership and external vendors.
• Willingness to travel regularly between locations participate in an established on-call rotation and support occasional evening weekend or overnight activities as business needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Retail or grocery IT experience.
• Experience with BRdata NCR Encore/ABO Central or comparable POS retail and back-office platforms.
• Application UAT/testing experience.
• Operational reporting experience.
• Microsoft 365 operational support experience.
• SolarWinds Service Desk or comparable ITSM experience.
• ITIL Foundation or practical IT service-management experience.

Bilingual English/Spanish Required.