Director of Information Technology

ARKA Group L.P. is an advanced technologies company serving the U.S. military, intelligence community, and commercial space industry delivering next-generation solutions to support the national security space domain. ARKA has a 60-year legacy reaching back to the very beginning of our country’s space endeavors. We’re a legacy of mission excellence built on ground-breaking technologies. We are searching for an experienced leader to direct a team of IT professionals in defining and delivering IT strategy and capabilities across a dynamic growing IT environment, including classified and unclassified, across multiple business units and locations, including international. Join the ARKA mission and discover your next career opportunity now.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Director of Information Technology will ideally sit at one of our ARKA sites.  Sites include Danbury, CT, Ypsilanti, MI, Aurora or Colorado Springs, CO, King of Prussia, PA, or Chantilly, VA.   The position will be responsible for developing and informing senior leadership on the overall IT strategy and functionality across multiple IT environments, including both classified and unclassified, collaborating with ARKA leadership as well as our private equity partners’ IT leadership, to ensure the ARKA environment continues to mature, and managing network infrastructure, business system applications, and technical services to drive creativity, productivity and security across the enterprise.  This position is a key hands-on contributor to the company’s strategy and planning process, including managing the consolidation of systems across the company currently being managed independently by various functional areas and business units.  

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop an IT vision, strategy and roadmap to support the company’s continued growth and expansion and lead the IT team and its’ business the business units in effective execution.
• Ensure, on an ongoing basis, that current and planned technical architecture, investments and solutions are aligned with company business objectives and identifying areas of risk management.
• Prepare and monitor complex IT operational budgets that meet prevailing objectives and constraints.
• Build strong relationships with business units and their leaders across the organization and develop a detailed understanding of their issues, challenges and opportunities while providing plans for resolution.
• Implement the most appropriate and effective IT organizational design to support and engage with the business.
• Partner with the Security team to ensure the design and maintenance of the technical environment consistent with NIST and CMMC standards.
• Direct the overall IT compliance strategy.
• Hire, develop, and motivate a highly qualified team of IT professionals.
• Foster a culture of innovation, transparency and accountability in IT.
• Ensure that the organization has strong systems analysis and project management skills, and the ability to execute business-critical projects.
• Direct the design, planning, implementation, and maintenance of the computing and cloud infrastructure that supports the company’s operations and business applications.
• Assess and enhance the company’s business information systems, including the quality of data and analytics capabilities, and build plans to address gaps.
• Establish performance metrics/KPIs for managing IT effectiveness and for measuring the impact of IT on the business.
• Maintain oversight of all IT projects, ensuring that commitments are properly planned, staffed, monitored, reported and executed.
• Establish a comprehensive enterprise information security program to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of relevant data.
• Lead the design and implementation of an enterprise-wide disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
• Establish and enforce IT policies, processes, portfolio management, development standards and methodologies.
• Monitor the industry for developments in IT operations; evaluate and implement relevant new tools and service management frameworks.
• Review, recommend, and oversee all vendors and managed service agreements for computing, telecommunications IT services, and equipment.

Skills and Experience:

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in Information Technology and 5+ years in a leadership role.
• Ability to create a clear strategic vision for information technology that supports business objectives and can execute on that vision.
• Able to work collaboratively with diverse leaders, communicate an IT vision and strategy across all levels of the organization, and build consensus around key initiatives and projects.
• Experience in driving strategy, IT controls and cybersecurity.
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