Director of IT Operations

Director of IT OperationsHeadquartered in Evansville, Indiana, Escalade Sports is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: ESCA) manufacturer of consumer sporting goods and recreational products. As a multi-category industry leader, Escalade Sports markets its products under multiple consumer brands distributed through major sporting goods retailers, mass merchandisers, specialty dealers, and online retailers across the United States and internationally. The company's involvement in sporting goods spans nearly 100 years since its founding in 1927. Escalade Sports competes in a dozen categories including basketball, table tennis, archery, darting, fitness, pickleball, game room, billiards, outdoor lawn and tailgate games, and playground equipment, with a portfolio that includes brands such as Goalrilla, STIGA, Bear Archery, Onix, and Brunswick Billiards.The Director of IT Operations leads the day-to-day operational delivery of Escalade's technology infrastructure, IBM systems and development, and (pending) custom/web development functions. This role creates a single, credible layer of operational leadership across those teams so that prioritization, coordination, and support do not depend solely on the VP, IT's availability, addressing a single-point-of-failure risk in the current organization. This role reports directly to the VP, IT and is being built as the organization's #2 in IT, with a clear development trajectory toward broader IT leadership. Over time, the Director will take on progressively greater ownership of incident response, vendor and budget management, and IT general controls (ITGC) awareness across the technical estate. Named enterprise business platforms, such as BI/analytics platforms and digital solutions platforms, along with the AI program, remain directly owned by the VP, IT: this covers platform strategy, business requirements, vendor relationship, and compliance accountability, and is not part of this role's scope. Custom/web application development, meaning the internal team and delivery process that builds and maintains Escalade's internally-developed applications and tools, sits under this role. Where the Director's teams provide underlying technical support to a VP-owned platform (hosting, integration, backup, uptime), that support does not convert into platform ownership. Consistent with how every manager operates at Escalade, and especially within IT, this is a working-manager role. The trajectory over time is toward leading more and personally executing less, but hands-on problem-solving and solutioning, including direct involvement in technical troubleshooting, architecture decisions, and escalated issues, is an ongoing expectation, not a phase to graduate out of.Key ResponsibilitiesDirectly manage the Infrastructure Manager, the IBM Systems Manager, and (pending confirmation) the Custom/Web Development Manager.Own day-to-day operational delivery, prioritization, and cross-team coordination across infrastructure, IBM systems and development, and custom/web development.Serve as the primary escalation point and decision-maker for those teams, freeing VP, IT capacity for enterprise platform strategy, business/data analysis, digital solutions, and the AI program.Own custom/web application development for internal tools, including the team and delivery process, while providing technical support (hosting, integration, uptime) to VP-owned enterprise platforms without assuming ownership of those platforms.Develop progressively into a credible successor for IT leadership: own incident response, build ITGC and SOX awareness across the technical estate, and take on vendor and budget exposure for the infrastructure and IBM systems portfolios.Stay hands-on: personally troubleshoot, architect, and solution alongside the teams on escalated or high-complexity problems, not just review and unblock from a distance.Support recruiting, onboarding, and development of team members within the managed teams.Required Experience & Qualifications10+ years of progressive IT leadership experience, with a strong background in infrastructure, systems, or applications delivery in a mixed technical environment (modern stack plus legacy ERP/iSeries).Demonstrated experience managing managers, not just individual contributors.Public-company or regulated-environment experience preferred, including familiarity with SOX and ITGC frameworks.Track record of shipping in a resource-constrained environment, with comfort operating in a flat, working-manager culture.Comfort operating as a cross-team escalation point across infrastructure, IBM systems, and custom development without needing to be the deepest specialist in any single area.Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent experience.Personal AttributesLeads through others while staying close enough to the work to ask sharp questions and unblock decisions quickly.Operates as a true working manager: expects to be hands-on with technical problem-solving alongside the team, not solely a delegator.Comfortable operating in a lean, flat organization with no tolerance for pure-overhead layers.Builds trust with technical teams and executive stakeholders alike; translates between the two fluently.Takes ownership of outcomes across teams without needing tightly-defined lane boundaries.Approaches vendor, budget, and audit responsibilities with rigor and follow-through.Motivated by a genuine path toward broader IT leadership responsibility over time.Physical DemandsPosition requires sitting, talking, and listening at least 2/3 of the time.Occasional lifting up to 10 pounds.Working ConditionsOffice environment.Occasional domestic travel may be required.