Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations

Job Description

Job Description

Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations

About Us:
Now Optics is a leader in the eye care industry. Its retail brand, Stanton Optical, is amongst the fastest-growing, full-service retail optical centers throughout the country. The company consistently ranks among the largest optical retailers in the country by Vision Monday. Now Optics continues to expand its retail footprint with over 350 corporate and franchise locations while delivering affordable eye care services and providing a fast and friendly customer experience. We believe in building a positive and cohesive culture where everyone is contributing towards a common goal and set of values.
Vision: Modernizing the eye care experience for all people.
Mission : Making eye care easy.
Values: iCARE
Integrity: We see integrity as building a foundation of trust with our customers, employees and stakeholders by communicating honestly, ensuring consistency and delivering on our commitments.
Collaboration: We see collaboration as combining the talents of a diverse group, offering proactive communication and being open-minded to new ideas.
Accountability: We see accountability as taking initiative, delivering our best in all we do, accepting responsibility for our actions and taking ownership of results.
Respect: We see respect as prioritizing human relationships, being present, connecting with transparency and empathy.
Empowerment: We see empowerment as making purpose-driven decisions to support the company vision, showing appreciation for others, and taking care of the individuals, we serve.

Job Description and Profile
The Head of IT Infrastructure & Operations is a strategic and hands-on leader responsible for the design, delivery, and reliability of Now Optics’ enterprise technology infrastructure. This role owns network architecture, cybersecurity, store technology support, and telecommunications across all retail and corporate locations. This role partners with business and technology stakeholders to ensure a secure, resilient, and scalable infrastructure that supports Now Optics’ growth.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and manage enterprise LAN/WAN, SD-WAN, and wireless infrastructure across corporate offices and retail store locations.
• Establish network standards, capacity planning processes, and architecture roadmaps aligned with business growth
• Lead network performance monitoring, incident response, and root cause analysis
• Own the enterprise security posture including firewalls, endpoint protection, identity & access management (IAM), and SIEM
• Lead vulnerability management, penetration testing programs, and security incident response
• Ensure compliance with PCI-DSS, HIPAA (where applicable), and other relevant regulatory frameworks
• Partner with Legal and Compliance teams to maintain and test the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) plans.
• Drive a security-first culture through training, policy enforcement, and awareness programs.
• Oversee the store IT support function, ensuring retail locations receive timely, high-quality technical support for POS systems, optical equipment integrations, and in-store technology.
• Define and enforce SLAs for store incident resolution and service request fulfillment.
• Lead deployment and lifecycle management of store hardware and software rollouts.
• Manage enterprise voice, video, and collaboration platforms (VoIP, UCaaS, contact center solutions) and infrastructure meets availability and redundancy requirements

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of progressive IT infrastructure experience, including 5+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Demonstrated expertise in network engineering (routing, switching, SD-WAN, wireless) and cybersecurity operations.
• Experience supporting multi-site retail or distributed enterprise environments.
• Proven ability to manage vendors, budgets, and cross-functional stakeholder relationships.
• Industry experience in retail, omnichannel commerce, or healthcare/optical services.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and cloud architecture; cybersecurity frameworks and tools (Defender, SIEM/SOC, IAM); network infrastructure and security architecture.
• Strong familiarity with SOC 2, HIPAA, HITRUST compliance, and Zero Trust principles.

Skills & Requirements

• Prior Senior leadership roles in building IT Network and security standards for high growth retail companies.
• Experience with cloud platforms. Can be Azure or GCP or AWS. Azure is preferable.
• Ability to dive into details, hands on technologist with strong core computer science fundamentals.
• Proven leadership of large-scale distributed network teams that have delivered projects on deadline.
• Excellent communication skills, strong team player, with the ability to work across departments.