Director, Technology Operations

LE0099 Focus Operating, LLC; Clayton (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Focus Financial Partners is seeking a Director of Technology Operations to lead the operational service management function within Infrastructure & Operations. This role directly oversees Service Delivery Managers responsible for partner-delivered day-to-day infrastructure operations across multiple service towers.

The role emphasizes ownership of operational health, governance, and partner performance, with collaboration across architecture, risk, and process/tooling to ensure readiness and

Qualifications

• Experience leading enterprise infrastructure operations and service delivery governance.
• Strong understanding of ITSM practices, ServiceNow, SLA/KPI governance, and dashboards.
• Proven ability to manage partner-delivered operations at scale.

Responsibilities

• Lead Technology Operations and Service Delivery Management across network, server/storage, cloud, monitoring, and identity/access domains.
• Define operating expectations, performance reporting, and escalation processes for Service Delivery Managers.
• Own service health, SLA/KPI governance, reporting, and partner accountability across in-scope towers.
• Oversee Managed Services Partner performance, ensuring alignment with agreed scope and service acceptance criteria.
• Ensure governance discipline across ITSM, Change, ARB/TRM, and operational runbooks; enforce approvals and CAB participation.
• Lead transition, knowledge transfer, runbook maturity, and operational readiness gates with partners.
• Drive escalation management and stakeholder confidence, coordinating with service owners and architecture teams.
• Collaborate with Process & Tooling to drive continuous improvement and automation.

Job description

Job Description Summary: The Director, Technology Operations, leads the operational service management function within Infrastructure & Operations (I&O). This role directly manages the Service Delivery Managers responsible for governing partner-delivered day-to-day infrastructure operations across the in-scope service towers, including Network Administration, Server & Storage Administration, Cloud Infrastructure Services, Monitoring & Event Management, Infrastructure Protection, and Identity & Access Management. This role owns operational service health, Managed Services Partner performance, escalation management, stakeholder engagement, and operational governance. The Director ensures partner work is executed within FFP standards, ServiceNow workflows, Change Management, ARB/TRM guardrails, documented runbooks, SLA/KPI expectations, and agreed service acceptance criteria. The role partners closely with the Director, Technology Architecture, Design & Delivery to receive new infrastructure capabilities into operations, validate supportability, confirm runbook and knowledge requirements, and ensure the partner can effectively manage newly delivered capabilities before operational ownership is transferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Technology Operations and Service Delivery Management: Directly manage the Service Delivery Managers responsible for operational service performance, stakeholder engagement, escalations, and partner accountability across assigned infrastructure service areas.
• Establish clear operating expectations for SDMs, including service review cadence, escalation handling, performance reporting, and operational ownership boundaries.
• Ensure the Technology Operations function owns service health and partner outcomes without duplicating the Managed Services Partner’s routine execution responsibilities.
• Govern Managed Services Partner Performance Across In-Scope Towers: Oversee partner delivery across Network Administration, Server & Storage Administration, Cloud Infrastructure Services, Monitoring & Event Management, Infrastructure Protection, and Identity & Access Management. Ensure partner execution covers Tier 2 administration and operations, including health checks, routine maintenance, documented operational work, incident resolution, service request fulfillment, monitoring/event triage, and escalation support. Hold the partner accountable for support across FFP’s distributed operating environment and for operating within agreed service scope, coverage model, escalation model, and service acceptance criteria.
• Own Operational Service Health, SLA/KPI Governance, and Reporting: Define and maintain operating visibility into SLA compliance, ticket trends, response/resolution performance, backlog aging, reopen/rework rates, runbook adherence, CSAT, escalation accuracy, automation impact, and service tower performance. Ensure monthly operations reports, real-time ServiceNow dashboards, weekly operational syncs, quarterly business reviews, and annual efficiency reporting provide actionable visibility into performance, risk, and improvement opportunities.
• Drive remediation plans for repeated SLA/KPI misses, persistent service degradation, or tower-level performance concerns; ensure every issue has an owner, due date, and escalation path.
• Maintain ITSM, Change, ARB/TRM, and Operational Governance Discipline: Ensure all partner work is tracked in FFP’s ServiceNow instance, including work originating from email, project plans, monitoring alerts, or ad-hoc requests. Ensure partner representatives follow FFP Change Management and attend CAB as required for planned changes; no partner-executed changes may proceed without appropriate approval. Ensure partner operations remain inside FFP architectural guardrails defined through ARB and TRM governance; partner recommendations must be proposed through FFP processes, not implemented unilaterally. Partner with Architecture, Design & Delivery on Operational Readiness.
• Lead Transition, Knowledge Transfer, and Runbook Maturity: Oversee transition activities including discovery, knowledge transfer, access/tooling readiness, shadowing/reverse shadowing, operational readiness reviews, go-live readiness, and hypercare stabilization. Ensure runbooks and standard operating procedures are developed, reviewed, accepted, maintained in FFP’s environment, and treated as enduring FFP operational assets. Use runbook adherence and operational readiness gates to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge and ensure consistent execution by partner resources.
• Drive Escalation Management and Stakeholder Confidence: Serve as the operational escalation leader for significant infrastructure service issues, recurring performance concerns, partner delivery breakdowns, and operational risk items. Maintain clear stakeholder communication during major incidents, sustained degradation, and recurring operational issues. Coordinate with Service Desk, service owners, architecture, cybersecurity/risk, Process & Tooling, and partner leadership to resolve operational issues and prevent recurrence.
• Partner with Process & Tooling on Continuous Improvement and Automation: Collaborate with the Process & Tooling team to identify systemic operational patterns, automation candidates, reporting gaps, process defects, and tooling improvement opportunities. Ensure partner-driven automation and efficiency opportunities are measured, prioritized, governed, and reported as part of the service improvement lifecycle. Confirm automations, scripts, workflows, dashboards, runbook improvements, and operational artifacts are documented, maintained in FFP’s environment, and aligned to FFP standards.
• Support Resiliency, Monitoring, and Service Continuity Expectations: Ensure monitoring and event management processes provide actionable alert triage, event correlation, appropriate alert-to-ticket conversion, critical event notification, and noise reduction. Coordinate operational support for backup monitoring/remediation, capacity monitoring, patch/maintenance activity, and critical infrastructure service continuity expectations. Partner with architecture, systems, cybersecurity/risk, and Process & Tooling to ensure resiliency and DR-related operational requirements are visible, documented, tested where applicable, and supportable.

Required Qualifications

Experience leading enterprise infrastructure operations, service delivery management, or managed services governance across distributed enterprise environments. Demonstrated ability to manage service delivery leaders or service owners responsible for operational performance, escalations, stakeholder communication, and partner accountability.

Strong understanding of ITSM operating practices, ServiceNow-based work tracking, incident/request/change processes, SLA/KPI governance, operational dashboards, and executive-ready service reporting.

Experience governing managed services partners or outsourced operations teams at scale (multi-million-dollar engagements), including performance management, escalation management, runbook maturity, transition/hypercare, and continuous improvement expectations.

Working knowledge across infrastructure domains such as network, systems/server, storage/backup, monitoring/event management, identity and access management, and hybrid cloud-adjacent operational models.

Proven ability to partner with architecture, cybersecurity/risk, PMO, service owners, and business stakeholders to ensure operational readiness and supportability for new or changed services.

Strong executive communication skills with ability to translate operational performance, risk, and service health into concise, actionable leadership update.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building or transforming an organization that governs partner-delivered operations while preserving internal decision rights, service ownership, and standards accountability.

Experience establishing operational readiness gates, service acceptance criteria, runbook governance, and production handoff processes for infrastructure capabilities.

Experience with regulated environments requiring strong change discipline, auditability, security/risk alignment, and formal operational governance.

Experience using data-driven service improvement methods to reduce recurring incidents, improve monitoring quality, optimize workflows, and mature automation in partnership with process/tooling teams.

Familiarity with ITIL-aligned service management practices, SIAM concepts, vendor performance management, and operating model transformation from internal execution to managed services governance.

Focus is a leading financial services firm comprised of integrated wealth management, family office, and business management services. Blending deep expertise and expansive resources with a boutique, client-first fiduciary philosophy, Focus helps individuals, families, and institutions navigate complex financial situations with highly personalized solutions tailored to their unique needs. To learn more about Focus, visit www.focusfinancialpartners.com or follow the company on LinkedIn.

EEO Statement

Focus is an equal opportunity employer and bases its employment decisions on the employee or candidate’s skillset, and without regard to an employee or candidate’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state and/or federal law. Focus complies with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [e-mail]

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Focus, a business division of Focus Financial Partners, brings together businesses across Wealth, Business Management, Family Office, and International. Collectively, these firms—spanning the U.S., Canada, and Australia—deliver a broad spectrum of financial advice solutions to individuals, families, and institutions.

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