Director of Information & Security (DOIS)

Position Summary

Stanbridge University is seeking a strategic and hands-on Director of Information & Security (DOIS) to lead the institution’s cybersecurity, infrastructure, systems governance, and enterprise technology operations. This leadership role is responsible for safeguarding university systems and data, ensuring operational continuity, strengthening compliance posture, and advancing technology initiatives that support academic innovation and institutional growth.

The DOIS serves as both a technical leader and operational strategist, overseeing cybersecurity programs, network and server infrastructure, cloud environments, disaster recovery, endpoint management, identity and access governance, and IT policy development. This role collaborates closely with executive leadership, academic departments, compliance stakeholders, and external vendors to ensure secure, scalable, and efficient technology operations across the university.

The ideal candidate combines strong technical depth with higher education or regulated-environment leadership experience and can balance cybersecurity rigor with user experience, operational practicality, and institutional mission alignment.

This is a full-time, on-site leadership position based at Stanbridge University's Irvine, California campus. Regular on-campus presence is required to support infrastructure operations, cybersecurity oversight, cross-functional collaboration, and institutional leadership initiatives.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

Cybersecurity & Risk Management

• Lead the university’s enterprise cybersecurity strategy, roadmap, and operational security posture.
• Develop, implement, and maintain security policies, standards, and procedures aligned with industry best practices and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee vulnerability management, endpoint security, threat detection, SIEM monitoring, patch management, penetration testing, and incident response activities.
• Direct security investigations, remediation efforts, forensic coordination, and breach response procedures when necessary.
• Conduct regular security risk assessments and recommend mitigation strategies across infrastructure, applications, and third-party systems.
• Manage identity and access management (IAM), multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access controls, and account governance.
• Ensure cybersecurity awareness and training initiatives are implemented across faculty, staff, and administrative departments.
• Maintain disaster recovery and business continuity strategies, including testing and recovery validation.

Infrastructure & Systems Administration

• Oversee enterprise infrastructure operations including servers, networking, virtualization, storage, wireless environments, cloud services, and telecommunications systems.
• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives and lifecycle planning for enterprise systems and hardware.
• Ensure reliability, scalability, uptime, and performance of university technology systems.
• Direct backup, redundancy, and recovery operations to minimize operational risk.
• Oversee Microsoft 365, Azure/AWS environments, directory services, device management, and institutional enterprise systems.
• Monitor system performance, capacity planning, and infrastructure optimization initiatives.
• Manage vendor relationships, service providers, licensing, and technology contracts.

Governance, Compliance & Policy

• Maintain governance frameworks and operational standards across departments.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulations and standards, including FERPA, HIPAA (where applicable), GLBA, PCI-DSS, and cybersecurity best practices relevant to higher education.
• Develop and maintain institutional IT policies related to acceptable use, access controls, data retention, incident response, and information security.
• Ensure institutional technology platforms support WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards and incorporate OWASP security best practices throughout application and infrastructure environments.
• Support accreditation and audit activities by maintaining accurate documentation, controls, and compliance evidence.
• Partner with institutional leadership to evaluate and mitigate operational and cybersecurity risks.
• Maintain asset management and technology inventory governance processes.

Leadership & Strategic Operations

• Lead and mentor IT infrastructure and security personnel, fostering accountability, technical excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Develop departmental goals, operational KPIs, and strategic technology initiatives aligned with university priorities.
• Collaborate with academic leadership to support instructional technologies, simulat