Director - Application Support and Site Reliability Engineering

R. L. Polk Mobility LLC; Southfield (MI); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

R. L. Polk Mobility LLC is seeking a Director of Application Support and Site Reliability Engineering to lead a global team of 12 engineers. You will own uptime targets for 50+ business-critical applications and middleware, while modernizing the support model through automation and observability improvements.

You will shape vendor relationships, drive resilience initiatives, and mentor engineers toward broader technology leadership roles in a fast-growing environment.

Qualifications

• Experience leading enterprise application support teams at global scale.
• Strong incident, problem, change, release, and service management practices.
• Experience managing third-party vendors within formal service frameworks.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive reporting.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the global team of engineers responsible for 50+ business-critical applications and middleware, ensuring uptime targets.
• Oversee middleware integration, patching, upgrades, and capacity planning to ensure resilience.
• Manage vendor performance, SLAs, and contract negotiations across external products.
• Define KPI dashboards and run post-incident reviews to drive real improvements.
• Grow and coach a high-performing global team with clear career paths.
• Communicate status and risks to senior leadership and governance bodies.

Skills

Incident management

Leadership

Communication

Vendor management

Observability

Cloud readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/Engineering or related

Tools

ITIL framework

API integration

ESB / Middleware tooling

Job description

Why This Role Matters

Our business runs on the systems this team keeps stable. As Director Application Support and Site Reliability Engineering, you will lead a global team of 12 engineers responsible for the health of 50+ business-critical applications and the middleware that connects them, holding uptime targets of 99.9-99.95%. Beyond keeping systems running, you will lead the modernization of how a large support organization operates: automating manual work, improving observability, consolidating platforms, and building a team that engineers reliability rather than just reacting to outages. This role carries direct executive visibility, real influence over budget and vendor relationships, and a clear path to broader technology leadership.

What You Will BuildModern observability and monitoring across 50+ applications and middleware platforms, cutting the time it takes to detect and resolve issues. Automation that eliminates repetitive manual support work and frees the team for higher-value engineering. A consolidated, simplified support model across applications, middleware, and third-party products, with fewer tools and fewer handoffs. Vendor and engineering partnerships that treat resilience as a shared engineering problem rather than a compliance exercise. A high-performing, globally distributed team with clear growth paths and a strong culture of ownership.

Key Responsibilities

1. Service & Platform LeadershipLead the global team of 12 engineers responsible for the operational health of 50+ business-critical applications, middleware platforms, and third-party products. Own uptime, performance, and resilience against targets of 99.9-99.95%, and drive root cause resolution when targets are missed. Build support models, escalation paths, and runbooks that scale as the application portfolio grows. Lead major incident response and turn recurring issues into permanent fixes rather than repeat tickets. Ensure new systems and releases are genuinely production-ready before they land in support.
2. Middleware & Integration EngineeringLead operational support for middleware, integration platforms, and interfaces connecting the application portfolio. Keep middleware environments secure, monitored, and performant through patching, upgrades, and capacity planning. Partner with infrastructure, cloud, network, and security teams to design for resilience and fast recovery. Modernize integration architecture over time, reducing fragility and technical debt in how systems communicate.
3. Third-Party Product & Vendor PartnershipOwn the relationship and performance of externally supplied applications, SaaS products, and middleware vendors. Hold vendors accountable to SLAs and resolution targets, and escalat firmly when service quality slips. Shape vendor selection, onboarding, renewal, and exit decisions. Ensure third-party products are woven into the team’s support and the security practices from day one.
4. Resilience & Continuous ImprovementDefine the KPIs and dashboards that show the team, and leadership, how the portfolio is actually performing. Get ahead of operational and supplier risk before it becomes an incident. Win‑f? Run post-incident and problem‑management reviews that produce real fixes, not just documentation. Lead modernization initiatives, including cloud adoption, platform rationalization, and support model redesign.
5. People Leadership & GrowthBuild and grow a high‑performing global team of 12 engineers: hire well, coach directly, and create real paths for advancement. Set clear expectations and give direct, useful feedback. Design coverage and on-call models that are sustainable, not merely compliant. Build a culture where engineers own outcomes and want to solve hard problems, not just close tickets.
6. Stakeholder Partnership & CommunicationBuild trusted relationships with business leaders, engineering, architecture, cybersecurity, and vendors. Translate technical issues into business impact for senior leadership, clearly and without spin. Represent the team in governance and planning forums, and bring outside perspective back to the team.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

• Significant experience leading enterprise application support, production support, middleware operations, or related technology service teams, ideally at global scale. Track record leading teams responsible for business-critical applications and platforms in a complex environment.
• Strong grounding in incident, problem, change, release, and service management practices.
• Experience managing third-party vendors and externally supplied technology within formal service frameworks.
• Sound judgment on operational risk, control design, and resiliency.
• Experience leading major incident response and driving stabilization.
• Strong stakeholder management across business and technology functions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level reporting.
• Proven people leadership: hiring, coaching, performance management, and team growth.

Preferred Experience

• Preferred Experience in a regulated, high-availability, or global enterprise environment.
• Familiarity with middleware and integration technologies such as APIs, message brokers, ESBs, application servers, iPaaS platforms, or comparable technologies.
• Experience supporting hybrid environments spanning on-premise and cloud-based application estates.

• Knowledge of service monitoring, observability, automation, and operational tooling.
• Experience with vendor contracts, commercial support models, and cost management.
• ITIL certification or equivalent practical service management experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!

It is the policy of Mobility to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, Mobility will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.

Mobility delivers Essential Intelligence® that shapes decision making. We provide the world’s leading organizations with the right data, connected technologies and expertise they need to move ahead.

As part of our team, you’ll help solve complex challenges that equip businesses, governments and individuals with the knowledge to adapt to a changing economic landscape.