IT Director of Operations

JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the VP of Infrastructure, the IT Director of Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for the organization's Service Desk, Field Services, IT Service Management, Change Control, Major Incident Management, Problem Management, service request fulfillment, and end-user support functions. This role is accountable for delivering reliable, responsive, secure, and consistent technology support to corporate offices, service centers, remote workers, and operating locations.

The Director establishes a customer-focused operating model, develops high-performing support teams, improves service quality through standardization and automation, and ensures operational processes produce measurable improvements in user experience, service availability, response time, resolution time, change success, and cost efficiency. The position partners closely with Infrastructure Engineering, Information Security, Enterprise Applications, Clinical Applications, Human Resources, Compliance, Finance, vendors, and business leaders, and serves as a senior leader during major incidents and high-risk changes.

II. DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

- Provide leadership, direction, and accountability for Service Desk, Field Services, IT Service Management, Change Control, Major Incident Management, Problem Management, and related operational support functions, including organizational design, workforce planning, recruiting, coaching, succession planning, performance management, and professional development.

- Develop and maintain a multi-year IT operations strategy and service improvement roadmap aligned with business growth, acquisitions, technology modernization, cybersecurity requirements, financial objectives, employee experience, and operational risk tolerance.

- Own the Service Desk operating model, including intake channels, call handling, ticket triage, prioritization, escalation, request fulfillment, knowledge management, shift coverage, quality assurance, customer communications, and service-level performance.

- Lead Field Services and deskside support across distributed locations, including onsite incident resolution, device deployment and recovery, site support, technology readiness for openings and relocations, executive support, inventory coordination, and local vendor management.

- Own IT service management practices and governance, including incident, request, major incident, problem, change, knowledge, service catalog, configuration, and continual improvement processes, using ITIL-aligned practices and clearly defined ownership, controls, and measures.

- Lead enterprise Change Control and the Change Advisory Board process. Establish risk and impact criteria, approval thresholds, peer and technical review requirements, testing expectations, implementation and rollback standards, maintenance-window governance, emergency change controls, post-implementation validation, and reporting.

- Serve as the senior operational leader for major technology incidents. Ensure rapid business-impact assessment, clear command and escalation structures, timely stakeholder communications, cross-team coordination, service restoration, executive updates, after-action reviews, root-cause analysis, and completion of corrective actions.

- Establish problem management practices that identify recurring incidents and service degradation, prioritize root-cause investigation, assign accountable owners, track known errors and workarounds, and verify that permanent corrective actions reduce repeat demand.

- Build and govern a usable service catalog, supported by defined services, request offerings, ownership, fulfillment workflows, service targets, knowledge articles, and customer-facing expectations.

- Improve employee technology experience through self-service, automation, shift-left support, remote-support tools, standardized knowledge, proactive communications, customer feedback, and reduction of avoidable contacts and repeat incidents.

- Partner with engineering, security, and application teams to establish effective operational handoffs, support readiness, monitoring and alert response, escalation paths, runbooks, knowledge transfer, and acceptance criteria before new or changed services enter production.

- Ensure effective joiner, mover, and leaver support in coordination with Human Resources, Identity and Access Management, Security, and business leaders, including equipment, access requests, onboarding readiness, transfers, and timely recovery of company assets.

- Establish asset and endpoint support controls, including device inventory accuracy, stock and depot processes, warranty and repair coordination, refresh planning, secure disposal, loaner equipment, peripheral standards, and accountability for equipment assigned to users and locations.

- Define and report meaningful operational metrics, including contact volume, abandonment rate, speed to answer, first contact resolution, response and resolution attainment, mean time to restore, backlog age, reopen rate, escalation rate, customer satisfaction, change success rate, emergency change rate, incident recurrence, field dispatch performance, and cost per contact.

- Use performance data, customer feedback, quality reviews, trend analysis, and process audits to identify service gaps, prioritize improvements, and hold teams accountable for measurable outcomes rather than activity alone.

- Manage operating budgets, forecasts, staffing models, contracts, licensing, support tools, managed-service providers, hardware support partners, and vendor performance. Identify opportunities to reduce total cost of ownership without creating unacceptable service, security, compliance, or resilience risk.

- Lead operational due diligence and integration for acquisitions, divestitures, new locations, relocations, and major business initiatives, including support discovery, staffing impacts, device and asset planning, service onboarding, cutover support, communications, and stabilization.

- Ensure operational services comply with company policies, contractual requirements, data-protection obligations, records requirements, and healthcare-related security and privacy requirements, including HIPAA where applicable.

- Communicate service performance, customer-impacting risks, staffing needs, process maturity, investment priorities, and improvement progress clearly to technical teams, business leaders, executive leadership, auditors, and other stakeholders.

- Perform other job-related duties as assigned and provide hands-on operational leadership when business-critical conditions require it.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by this position. They are not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications. The employee may be asked to perform other job-related duties consistent with the role.

III. JOB REQUIREMENTS

Education and Experience

- Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business, Management, Computer Science, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.

- Eight or more years of progressive experience in IT service delivery, service desk, field services, or technology operations, including at least five years leading technical teams or managers in a complex, multi-site enterprise environment.

- Demonstrated experience leading Service Desk, Field Services, IT service management, change enablement, major incident management, problem management, and service improvement functions.

- Experience establishing service levels, operating procedures, quality controls, staffing models, escalation structures, knowledge management, service catalogs, and performance reporting.

- Experience with enterprise IT service management platforms such as ServiceNow, Zendesk, Jira Service Management, BMC Helix, or comparable tools, including workflow, reporting, knowledge, and self-service capabilities.

- Experience managing operating budgets, strategic vendors, managed-service providers, and distributed support delivery. Experience in healthcare, home health, hospice, post-acute care, or another regulated industry is strongly preferred.

- Experience supporting acquisitions, site openings or relocations, large technology deployments, endpoint refreshes, organizational change, and critical-incident response is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

- Strong working knowledge of ITIL-aligned incident, request, problem, change, knowledge, service catalog, major incident, configuration, and continual improvement practices.

- Strong knowledge of service desk and field support operations, including call and ticket workflows, prioritization, escalation, workforce planning, queue management, remote support, deskside support, asset handling, and customer communications.

- Ability to design and govern mature change controls using business impact, technical complexity, implementation risk, security exposure, validation requirements, rollback readiness, segregation of duties, and approval thresholds.

- Ability to lead major incidents using clear command roles, business-impact assessment, technical workstreams, communication cadences, restoration priorities, and disciplined after-action follow-through.

- Working knowledge of Microsoft 365, Windows endpoints, Microsoft Intune, Entra ID, collaboration tools, endpoint security, remote-support technologies, identity and access processes, and common enterprise support dependencies.

- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret service metrics, identify demand and failure patterns, distinguish activity from outcomes, and translate data into staffing, process, automation, and investment decisions.

- Proven ability to improve customer experience while balancing service quality, security, compliance, standardization, speed, cost, and operational risk.

- Strong financial and vendor-management skills, including budgeting, forecasting, contract review, licensing analysis, staffing and sourcing models, and service-level accountability.

- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate operational performance, business impact, risks, and recommendations in clear business terms.

- Demonstrated commitment to documentation, automation, knowledge-centered support, standardization, continuous improvement, service ownership, customer experience, and measurable outcomes.

- Ability to participate in after-hours escalation as needed, support planned maintenance or deployment windows, and travel to company locations based on business needs.

- Relevant certifications such as ITIL 4 Managing Professional, HDI Support Center Manager, HDI Support Center Director, Certified Change Management Professional, Microsoft 365 Certified: Endpoint Administrator Associate, or comparable credentials are preferred, not required.

- Positive attitude and commitment to the Company's culture, core values, ethical standards, privacy expectations, and service-oriented operating model.

Location: Hybrid, TN

Why Join Us?

Something else that sets us apart from other companies is the quality of our most valuable resources – our people! We are dedicated to living out our culture as defined by our core values, “ CAPLICO ”:

- Customer Second – We prioritize and support our team so they can deliver exceptional care.

- Accountability – Own your work and outcomes.

- Passion for Learning – Grow continuously with curiosity and culture.

- Love One Another – Build authentic, respectful, and trusting relationships.

- Intelligent Risk Taking – Innovate and challenge the status quo.

- Celebrate – Recognize the small wins, they add up!

- Ownership – Be the CEO of your role.

Additional Benefits:

- True Work-Life balance – We believe in taking care of yourself before you take care of others!

- Full benefits package (medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with match)

- Paid time off, holiday pay, and professional development

- Your voice matters! - Work with other passionate and high-achieving leaders who care deeply about patient outcomes and team success.

About Pennant Services

We support over 250 home health, hospice, senior living, and home care operations across 19 states. Our Service Center model empowers local leadership while providing centralized clinical, legal, HR, IT, and compliance support to help ensure high-quality care.

www.pennantgroup.com

The employer for this position is stated in the job posting.  The Pennant Group, Inc. is a holding company of independent operating subsidiaries that provide healthcare services through home health and hospice agencies and senior living communities located throughout the US.  Each of these businesses is operated by a separate, independent operating subsidiary that has its own management, employees and assets.  More information about The Pennant Group, Inc. is available at http://www.pennantgroup.com.