Senior Director, Mission Service Delivery

Penn State University; State College (Centre County); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Penn State University is seeking a Senior Director, Mission Service Delivery to provide executive leadership for enterprise IT services across the Mission portfolio. You will lead Service Managers, drive operational excellence, and align resources to deliver reliable, secure IT services across the university.

In this role you will collaborate with senior leaders to implement service management practices, manage governance, and deliver service roadmaps while fostering a service-oriented culture

Qualifications

• Significant progressive leadership experience in information technology, service delivery, IT operations, or a related field.
• Experience leading large, diverse teams (20+ employees) with accountability for performance and talent development.
• Experience implementing IT service management practices and enterprise service delivery governance.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive oversight of Service Managers and ensure consistent operational practices across the Mission portfolio.
• Coordinate cross-functional service delivery and workforce planning to align resources with service needs.
• Lead adoption of enterprise service management practices, advancing ITSM standards and governance across the portfolio.
• Ensure service lifecycle processes are executed with discipline, including incident, problem, change, and release management.
• Drive customer experience improvements, stakeholder engagement, and measurable business value delivery.
• Serve as the executive escalation point for critical service issues and maintain operational accountability.

Skills

Leadership

IT operations

Service delivery

Service management

Strategic planning

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

POSITION SPECIFICS

As part of the Penn State IT's Optimized Service Team project, IT is implementing a new operating model designed to enhance service delivery, operational efficiency and collaboration across the university . Penn State is seeking an experienced, strategic, and collaborative leader to serve as the Senior Director, Mission Service Delivery .

The Senior Director, Mission Service Delivery provides executive leadership for the operational delivery of enterprise IT services across the Mission portfolio. This role is accountable for leading Service Managers, driving operational excellence, enhancing customer experience, and ensuring the consistent delivery of reliable, secure, and high-quality IT services.

The position collaborates closely with the Senior Director overseeing Service Owners, the Service Management Office (SMO), and Capability Team leadership to ensure the effective adoption of enterprise service management practices, alignment between services and capabilities, and successful execution of service roadmaps and operational priorities. This leader is responsible for fostering a service-oriented culture, aligning talent and resources with service needs, and ensuring services deliver measurable value to the University.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead service delivery operations across the Mission portfolio by providing executive oversight of Service Managers, ensuring consistent operational practices, service performance, accountability, and effective execution of day-to-day IT services.
• Coordinate cross-functional service delivery and workforce planning by partnering across organizational boundaries to align resources, define service team needs, and support staffing strategies that enable reliable and efficient service delivery.
• Lead the implementation and adoption of enterprise service management practices by partnering with the Service Management Office to advance ITSM standards, processes, governance, and continuous improvement initiatives across the Mission portfolio.
• Ensure consistent execution of service management processes throughout the service lifecycle by driving operational discipline and adoption of Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Major Incident, Request, Knowledge, and Service Transition Management practices across service delivery teams.
• Lead customer experience and service adoption initiatives by leveraging stakeholder insights to improve service engagement, increase customer satisfaction, drive adoption, and ensure services deliver measurable business value.
• Oversee service communications and serve as the executive escalation point for critical service issues, ensuring effective stakeholder engagement, coordinated messaging, timely issue resolution, and operational accountability across the Mission portfolio.

QUALIFICATIONS

Qualified candidates will demonstrate strength across several of the following areas:

• Significant progressive leadership experience in information technology, service delivery, IT operations, service management, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading large, complex teams (20+ employees), including managers and cross-functional teams, with accountability for organizational performance, talent development, and operational outcomes in a complex, preferably higher education or similarly decentralized environment.
• Experience with product management, product-oriented operating models, or leading product and service delivery teams preferred.
• Experience overseeing enterprise-scale service delivery, operational performance, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Experience implementing and advancing IT service management practices, operational governance, and service performance management.
• Proven ability to build relationships, influence decision-making, and collaborate effectively with senior leaders, stakeholders, and technical teams.
• Excellent communication, strategic planning, problem-solving, and organizational leadership skills.

MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's Degree
• 10+ years of relevant experience, includes 5+ years of supervisory experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience accepted
• Req