Senior Director, Infrastructure

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Pay Range: $245,300.00 - $441,500.00

Job Description

The Director of Infrastructure will lead day-to-day operations and long-term strategy across WGU’s infrastructure platforms, including cloud environments, physical data centers, networking, Microsoft technologies, desktop engineering, and core collaboration tools. Reporting directly to the VP of Infrastructure, this senior leader will oversee critical systems, support hybrid-cloud innovation, and ensure reliability, scalability, and resilience across all infrastructure services.

This role requires a seasoned technical leader with deep experience in enterprise environments, a strong operational mindset, and a track record of building and leading high-performing teams. The ideal candidate has led infrastructure modernization efforts, supported high-uptime environments, and is comfortable navigating a blend of legacy and emerging technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Operational Leadership

• Oversee infrastructure operations across cloud (AWS, Azure, Oracle Cloud), data centers, networking, and enterprise collaboration platforms.

• Lead future-state planning and drive infrastructure transformation in alignment with WGU’s technology strategy.

• Own disaster recovery planning and execution for both cloud and on-prem environments.

• Collaborate across engineering, architecture, and security to ensure seamless, secure, and scalable infrastructure delivery.

• Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities in performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency.

Team & People Leadership

• Lead and mentor infrastructure leaders, engineers, and specialists across multiple locations.

• Support succession planning and organizational growth through hiring, coaching, and development of technical talent.

• Foster a high-performing, inclusive team culture aligned with WGU’s values and leadership principles.

Technology Ownership

• Drive the design, delivery, and support of enterprise technologies including virtualized environments, authentication systems, collaboration tools, and database platforms.

• Manage infrastructure across both physical data centers and public cloud environments.

• Oversee deployment and operations of critical systems such as Active Directory, Banner SIS, Exadata, and Microsoft enterprise tools.

Financial & Vendor Management

• Partner with the VP of Infrastructure and Finance teams to support infrastructure budgeting, forecasting, and procurement planning.

• Lead vendor relationship management, ensuring value, performance, and alignment with strategic objectives.

• Contribute to business cases and decision-making around infrastructure investments and cost optimization.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in infrastructure leadership roles.

• 7+ years of experience managing technical teams, including at the Director level or higher.

• Deep expertise in en