Senior Director, Infrastructure & Operations

Overview

Great Day Improvements - Senior Director, Infrastructure & Operations

Company Overview:

In the 13 years since its founding, Great Day Improvements, LLC has grown rapidly toward its vision of becoming one of the largest home improvement companies in the U.S. Headquartered in Twinsburg, Ohio, Great Day Improvements is a $1.5 billion, vertically integrated, direct to consumer provider of premium home improvement products.

The company’s family of brands includes Patio Enclosures®, Champion Windows and Home Exteriors®, Universal Windows Direct®, Apex Energy Solutions®, LeafGuard®, Englert®, and The Bath Authority.

With an expanding workforce of more than 4,800 employees across 130 metropolitan markets throughout the US, Great Day Improvements ranks among the top home improvement companies nationwide and one of the fastest growing private companies in America.

Job Summary:

The Senior Director, Infrastructure & Operations is responsible for leading the teams that support the company’s core technology foundation, including infrastructure, network, cloud, data center, identity and access management, endpoint computing, collaboration platforms, service desk operations, and infrastructure security support.

This role supports a national, highly distributed environment of more than 4,800 employees across branch locations, manufacturing facilities, corporate offices, and data centers. The Senior Director will ensure critical technology services remain stable, secure, scalable, and aligned to business needs.

The ideal candidate is an infrastructure and operations leader who began their career in a hands-on technical role and has advanced into senior leadership. They should be comfortable working with executives and technical teams, assessing current operations, building practical roadmaps, improving service levels, developing talent, and raising accountability across the organization.

Application development, ERP systems, enterprise integrations, business intelligence, and software engineering are managed by a separate technology organization and are not part of this role.

Job-type: Full-Time, exempt

Location: Hybrid role based out of one of the following office locations: Twinsburg, OH; Cincinnati, OH; or Somerset, NJ. Candidates must be located within a commutable distance of one of these offices.

Salary Range: $160,000 – $180,000. This range represents a good faith estimate of the expected base salary for this position. Final base salary will be determined based on factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and alignment with market data.

Responsibilities

Infrastructure & Operations Leadership

• Set the direction for infrastructure and operations across the enterprise.
• Build roadmaps that support growth, scalability, security, and business needs.
• Evaluate current platforms, identify gaps, and prioritize improvements.
• Establish operational standards, processes, and expectations across the organization.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on infrastructure-related decisions, investments, and risks.
• Partner with enterprise technology leadership to ensure infrastructure, identity, and endpoint platforms are ready to support AI tools and services across the organization.
• Participate in enterprise AI governance, including evaluation of infrastructure, security, and data implications of new AI tools entering the environment.

IT Operations

• Lead the day to day operation of enterprise infrastructure and support services.
• Create consistency in how incidents, changes, problems, and outages are managed.
• Improve operational visibility through monitoring, reporting, and performance metrics.
• Improve service quality, responsiveness, and user experience.
• Partner with business leaders to understand challenges and remove technology obstacles.

Network, Cloud & Infrastructure Services

• Oversee enterprise networking, including WAN, SD WAN, LAN, wireless, internet connectivity, and telecommunications services.
• Lead hybrid cloud and on-premise infrastructure environments.
• Guide infrastructure modernization efforts, including automation and platform improvements.
• Manage data center operations, backup platforms, recovery capabilities, and infrastructure lifecycle planning.
• Reduce operational risk through sound architecture, planning, and execution.

Identity, Security & Risk

• Partner closely with cybersecurity leadership on infrastructure-related security initiatives.
• Oversee identity and access management platforms and processes.
• Support vulnerability remediation efforts across infrastructure platforms.
• Participate in security incident response and recovery activities.
• Maintain compliance with internal security standards and audit requirements.
• Support secure deployment of AI platforms by enforcing identity, access, and data protection standards across AI-enabled applications and services.
• Partner with security leadership to assess and manage risks associated with AI tool adoption, including data handling, endpoint controls, and acceptable use enforcement.

Operational Metrics & Performance Management

• Establish and maintain KPIs and operational scorecards across Infrastructure and Service Desk functions.
• Develop executive dashboards that provide visibility into infrastructure health, service performance, operational risk, customer satisfaction, and team productivity.
• Track and report metrics such as infrastructure availability, SLA attainment, MTTR, MTTD, First Contact Resolution, change success rates, incident trends, vulnerability remediation, endpoint compliance, and customer satisfaction.
• Present operational performance, trends, risks, and improvement plans to executive leadership.
• Use metrics to identify opportunities for improvement and strengthen accountability across the organization.
• Build a culture where decisions are supported by data, measurable outcomes, and business impact.

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of infrastructure and operations professionals.
• Establish clear priorities, expectations, and accountability.
• Build future leaders within the organization.
• Recruit and retain strong technical talent.
• Create a culture where people take ownership, communicate openly, and follow through on commitments.

Business Partnership & Vendor Management

• Build strong relationships with executives, business leaders, and operational stakeholders.
• Communicate technical concepts in a way that business leaders can understand.
• Manage relationships with technology vendors, service providers, and strategic partners.
• Oversee infrastructure budgets and technology-related operating expenses.
• Review contracts and technology investments to maximize value and reduce risk.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field strongly preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in infrastructure and operations environments.
• At least 5 years leading infrastructure, network, cloud, platform, or IT operations teams.
• Candidates must have previously reported directly to a CIO, CTO, Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President, or equivalent executive technology leader.
• Previous hands-on experience as a Systems Administrator, Infrastructure Engineer, Network Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Architect, or similar technical role.
• Experience supporting organizations with at least 2,500 employees across multiple locations.
• Experience leading hybrid cloud and on-premise environments.
• Strong understanding of enterprise networking, cloud services, identity management, endpoint management, and infrastructure operations.
• Experience leading service desk and end-user support organizations.
• Experience managing vendors, service providers, contracts, and technology budgets.
• Experience developing and managing Infrastructure and Service Desk KPIs, operational scorecards, and executive dashboards.
• Experience presenting operational performance, risks, trends, and improvement plans to executive leadership.
• Experience leading infrastructure and operations teams through periods of growth, organizational change, acquisitions, or transformation.
• Strong communication skills and executive presence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in a related field.
• Experience supporting manufacturing, distribution, retail, field services, or other highly distributed environments.
• Experience supporting organizations with 3,000+ employees and 100+ locations.
• Experience leading infrastructure modernization initiatives.
• Infrastructure architecture or enterprise architecture experience.
• ITIL certification or similar operational framework experience.
• Relevant certifications such as CISSP, CCNP, Azure, AWS, VMware, PMP, or ITIL.
• Working knowledge of AI platform infrastructure requirements, including data security, licensing, and endpoint considerations.

Competencies

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to build trust and credibility across the organization.
• High emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability to develop teams, raise performance standards, and hold people accountable.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical topics into business discussions.
• Customer-focused mindset with a commitment to service quality and employee experience.
• Strong operational leadership skills with a focus on execution, follow through, and results.
• Ability to prioritize competing demands and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure, networking, cloud platforms, identity management, and end-user computing.
• Experience building KPI frameworks, operational scorecards, and executive dashboards.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect technology investments to business outcomes.
• Comfortable working with executives, business leaders, and technical teams.
• Maintains composure and sound judgment during major incidents and high pressure situations.
• Curiosity and fluency with emerging technologies, including practical understanding of how AI tools affect infrastructure, security, and end-user support.

Success Measures

During the first 12 to 18 months, this leader will:

• Build credibility with the Infrastructure & Operations team.
• Establish clear priorities and performance expectations.
• Improve service desk responsiveness and customer satisfaction.
• Strengthen operational discipline around change management, monitoring, documentation, and incident response.
• Improve infrastructure reliability and reduce recurring operational issues.
• Establish an Infrastructure and Service Desk KPI framework with executive dashboards and reporting.
• Provide leadership with visibility into operational performance, technology risks, trends, and improvement opportunities.
• Improve partnerships between IT (ETI) and business stakeholders.
• Develop and begin executing a practical infrastructure modernization roadmap.
• Strengthen infrastructure security and recovery capabilities.
• Create a culture where ownership, accountability, urgency, and follow-through become the standard.
• Provides executive leadership with clear and consistent reporting on operational health, risks, trends, and business impact.
• Creates accountability throughout the organization through measurable goals and performance standards.
• Establish infrastructure and identity readiness to support enterprise AI tool adoption, in partnership with security and ETI governance processes.

GDI is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

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