Director, Systems Engineering - Worcester Polytechnic Institute

OpenTalent; Worcester (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenTalent is seeking a senior IT systems leader to drive the university's systems strategy and operations. You will direct the design, deployment, and ongoing management of physical and virtual infrastructure, enterprise storage, and cloud environments.

You will mentor staff, set performance expectations, and coordinate with other IT leaders to align initiatives with institutional priorities. You will oversee system operations, ensure uptime, implement robust monitoring, and manage incident

Responsibilities

• Strategic leadership and staff development: set vision, develop staff, and manage workload for the systems team.
• Coordinate with senior IT leaders to align initiatives with university priorities.
• Oversee day-to-day operations ensuring system stability, availability, and performance.
• Monitor services and components with proactive alerting and incident response.
• Lead capacity planning, lifecycle management, and resource utilization.
• Evaluate and adopt new platform technologies to enhance capabilities.
• Ensure documentation and standards are followed across implementations.
• Direct the design, implementation, and management of physical and virtual server infra.
• Oversee enterprise storage, backup platforms, and cloud environments (AWS/Azure).
• Engage in solution design, technical reviews, and implementation planning with engineering teams.
• Drive efficiency through virtualization and standardized processes.
• Lead project prioritization and architectural decision-making across IT operations.
• Serve as senior escalation point during major incidents and RCA actions.
• Maintain SLA commitments and effective cross-team communication (e.g., Service Desk).
• Lead DevOps, automation, and process improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate with other groups to develop solutions for unique system requirements.

Job description

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JOB DESCRIPTION SUMMARY

JOB DESCRIPTION

Strategic Leadership and Team Development

• Develop and implement a comprehensive systems strategy aligned with the university's goals and objectives.
• Provide strategic direction for systems operations and administration, storage, cloud computing and virtualization, application system and security support, and Campus Safety Services.
• Collaborate with the Assistant CTO and other senior leaders to prioritize systems initiatives and align them with institutional priorities.
• Develop staff, set clear performance expectations, and manage workload and operational tasks across the systems team.
• Work with other groups within IT and other business units as needed to develop solutions for unique system requirements, including technical and regulatory requirements.

Systems, Storage, Virtualization, and Cloud Engineering

• Working directly with the Systems Engineers who report to this role, direct the design, implementation, and management of the university's physical and virtual server infrastructure, enterprise storage and backup platforms, and AWS and Azure cloud environments.
• Participate actively in solution design, technical review, and implementation planning alongside the engineering team.
• Ensure efficient utilization of resources through effective virtualization, capacity planning, and lifecycle management.
• Lead the evaluation, selection, and adoption of new platform technologies to enhance systems capabilities.
• Ensure new implementations are documented, supportable, and aligned with institutional standards and architecture.

Systems Operations and Administration

• Oversee the team that performs the day-to-day operation and administration of the university's systems environment, ensuring the stability, availability, and performance of all system components.
• Ensure all key services, systems, and components are under appropriate monitoring and alerting.
• Ensure operating system patching, firmware maintenance, and lifecycle activities are performed on a defined and predictable cadence.
• Ensure that all documentation and databases are up to date and accurate, including asset inventory and configuration records.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for the team during major incidents, directing the response, restoring service, and driving root cause analysis and preventive action to completion.
• Ensure all systems incidents and service requests are fully resolved within the applicable SLA and maintain open lines of communication with other ITS teams, including the Service Desk.

DevOps, Automation, and Process Improvement