Director, Enterprise Services & Innovation

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The Director, Enterprise Services and Innovation is part of a forward-thinking team that leverages innovative technology, data-driven insights, and personalized learning pathways to create a truly life-changing educational experience.  The Director will lead the transformation of the university’s enterprise services ecosystem.  In this role, they will oversee the architecture, engineering, and operational excellence of our common, core services, including SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaC (infrastructure as code). 

The Director will partner with the Infrastructure, Security, Engineering, and Product teams to drive the adoption of innovative technologies and practices that improve scalability, resilience, and automation across all enterprise platforms, creating a seamless digital experience for internal and external stakeholders.  They will lead multiple engineering teams responsible for delivering enterprise common and core services including identity management and Salesforce solutions.  The Director will also lead a ‘Beyond’ team focused on innovation, POC’s, and partnering with business and executive stakeholders on truly out-of-the-box ideas and transformational technology solutions.

Primary Responsibilities

• Defines and leads the vision and roadmap for common and core services that support the organization’s operational needs, including identity management, collaboration platforms, and cloud solutions architecture.  Ensures these services are highly scalable, secure, and aligned with business objectives and the long-term architecture.

• Identifies opportunities to automate manual processes within enterprise services, from infrastructure management to software deployment, code generation, and service monitoring, leads initiatives to incorporate cutting-edge technologies like AI/ML, advanced analytics, and serverless architectures to enhance operational capabilities and support innovation across the organization.

• Drives the transition to and ongoing evolution of SOA, establishing best practices for scalable, modular services.

• Collaborates with business, executive leadership, Engineering, Infrastructure, Security, DevOps, and product teams to understand their needs and ensure that enterprise services support organizational objectives.  Provides a clear vision and roadmap for enterprise services that address both current and future business requirements.

• Leads the design and development of high-performance, scalable core services using SOA principles, ensuring modular and maintainable architecture.

• Oversees the integration of core services with internal and external systems, fostering interoperability and seamless data flow across platforms.

• Partners with Infrastructure and Cloud teams to drive the development and design of PaaS environments that enable rapid application development, deployment, and scalability.  Ensures that PaaS offerings are optimized for developer productivity and operational efficiency, allowing teams to focus on delivering business value.

• Optimizes the use of cloud platforms (AWS) to deliver flexible, cost-effective, and scalable services, ensuring that the organization is maximizing the value of its cloud investments.

• Ensures that SOA implementations adhere to architectural standards, including design patterns, APIs, security practices, and data integrity protocols.

• Manages, mentors, and grows a team of software engineers and architects, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.

• Drives continuous improvement initiatives across the team, ensuring best practices for SOA, service reusability, and performance.

• Conducts regular performance reviews, sets development goals, and identifies growth opportunities for team members.

• Leverages expertise in SOA and microservices architecture to guide the development of highly modular, reusable, and robust core services.

• Stays current with industry trends and emerging technologies to pro