Director of IT & Automation - Appen

appen-2; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

appen-2 seeks a senior IT leader to own the IT function in an AI-native organization. You will shape the IT roadmap, oversee security, governance, and cost, and partner with executives to align technology with business strategy.

You will lead a team across support, enterprise tech, and automation, drive vendor management, incident response, and ensure audit readiness for SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Deep experience with M365, cloud platforms, and AI tooling is essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years leading IT in fast-paced tech/ services environments.
• Credible across SaaS, cloud infra, endpoints, identity and integrations.
• Experience with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 in governance/audit readiness.
• Strong vendor management, negotiation, and technology spend oversight.
• Proven track record turning AI/automation into working IT solutions.

Responsibilities

• Set the IT roadmap spanning enterprise tech, security, and automation.
• Provide tech leadership across M365, Salesforce, Workday, and more.
• Own SOC 2, ISO 27001 controls, audits, and risk remediation.
• Apply AI and automation to help desk, onboarding, provisioning.
• Oversee vendor portfolio, renewals, licence rationalisation, cost.
• Build a high-performing IT team and drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Executive leadership

IT strategy

Vendor management

AI/automation

Incident response

Executive presence

Education

8+ years IT leadership

Tools

Microsoft 365

Salesforce

Workday

Atlassian

AWS

Databricks

AI tooling

Job description

Role overview

Senior leadership role owning the IT function of a modern, AI-native organization. The position combines technical depth, operational judgement, and people leadership, partnering with executive leadership to align technology, risk, service, and investment priorities across the business.

Responsibilities

• Set the IT roadmap spanning enterprise technology, support, security, and automation, while leading endpoint management and major incident response.
• Provide technical leadership across Microsoft 365 (administration, identity, access, security) and broader enterprise platforms including Salesforce, Workday, Atlassian, AWS, Databricks, and AI tooling.
• Own the IT contribution to SOC 2 and ISO 27001, including controls, audit readiness, evidence collection, remediation, and identification of risks before they become incidents.
• Apply AI, automation, agents, and self-service to areas such as help desk triage, onboarding, provisioning, IT administration, and vendor management.
• Oversee the technology vendor portfolio, including selection, negotiation, performance management, renewals, licence rationalisation, and cost optimisation in partnership with Finance.
• Build and develop a high-performing IT team across support, enterprise technology, and automation, fostering ownership and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• 8+ years in IT, including significant leadership experience.
• Proven background leading IT support and service delivery in a fast-paced technology, software, or services environment.
• Hands-on knowledge of Microsoft 365 and enterprise IT administration, with credibility across SaaS, cloud infrastructure, endpoints, identity, and integrations.
• Experience with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and IT security governance.
• Commercial acumen in vendor management, negotiation, and technology spend.
• A track record of turning AI and automation into working solutions for real IT problems, with examples of automated, redesigned, or eliminated processes.
• Executive presence and the ability to operate with ambiguity.

Nice to have

• Deep AWS experience and cloud cost management.
• Hands-on administration of Salesforce, Workday, or Atlassian.
• Familiarity with Databricks or AI platform tooling.
• DevOps or SRE exposure.