Sr. Director, Infrastructure

Sr. Director of Infrastructure

The Sr. Director of Infrastructure will lead the strategic direction, design, and management of ICANN's on-premise, hybrid, and cloud-based infrastructure and IT operations. This leader will ensure the reliability, scalability, performance, and security of systems that support ICANN's workforce, community, and applications. This person will oversee enterprise infrastructure, networks, data centers, cloud services, workplace technologies, and service delivery, and align E&IT investments to enable growth and operational excellence.

The Sr. Director will directly run and mature the IT infrastructure for the organization, ensuring that all infrastructure is designed, built, and operated using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), managed through version control systems, and changed exclusively via peer-reviewed pull requests. The organization will operate using modern engineering practicesautomation first, observability by default, and clear ownership models aligned with ICANN's mission and growth.

Key Responsibilities & Duties:

Strategic Leadership

Develop and execute the E&IT infrastructure and operations roadmap, ensuring alignment with ICANN's strategic objectives.

Lead digital transformation initiatives, including cloud adoption, automation, and modernization of legacy systems.

Partner with senior executives to understand their needs and provide scalable and resilient technology solutions that support their objectives.

Operate Infrastructure as a product portfolio, with clearly defined roadmaps, service ownership, SLAs/SLOs, and success metrics

Infrastructure & Operations Oversight

Oversee all aspects of IT infrastructure, including data centers, network services, storage, disaster recovery, databases and end user technologies.

Manage IT operations and service delivery, ensuring high availability and performance of business-critical systems.

Ensure infrastructure is scalable, resilient, secure, and observable, supporting business continuity and future growth.

Establish strong operational practices, including incident management, problem management, and post-incident reviews focused on systemic improvement.

Execute IT service management (ITSM) processes to enhance the quality and performance of core IT services.

Mandate Infrastructure as Code as the default and required approach for all environments

Ensure all infrastructure changes are managed through version control systems (e.g., Git)

Security & Compliance

Partner with Information Security leadership to maintain a secure infrastructure environment.

Ensure compliance with regulations, industry standards, and IANA audit requirements.

Team Leadership

Lead and grow a high-performing Infrastructure & Operations team, including systems engineers, network engineers, cloud specialists, and IT operations staff.

Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Vendor & Budget Management

Manage relationships with key infrastructure and cloud service providers.

Oversee budgets for infrastructure projects, ensuring cost-effective investments.

Other duties as assigned or requested

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): (Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions)

Strong understanding of networking, systems, storage, and enterprise IT operations.

Expertise in improving IT operational efficiency, managing budgets, and implementing ITIL-based processes.

Deep hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code and modern cloud platforms.

Proven ability to run infrastructure teams as engineering organizations, not ticket-driven support functions.

Strong expertise in version control systems and pull-requestdriven operational models.

Experience with disaster recovery, business continuity planning, and ITIL or similar frameworks.

Demonstrated success in managing cross-functional technology teams and strategic vendor partnerships.

Strong communication, executive presence, and ability to influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

Experience with security technologies, including SIEM, IDS/IPS, and managing incidents and crisis response.

Familiarity with DevOps and modern infrastructure automation practices.

Familiarity with AI-driven security solutions and emerging threat landscapes.

Ability to effectively facilitate meetings

Education and Experience Requirements:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or a related field.

15+ years of progressive IT leadership experience, including 5+ years in a senior infrastructure leadership role.

Minimum eight (8) years of supervisory experience.

Industry certifications such as TOGAF, ITIL, AWS, CCSP a plus.

Fluency, both written and spoken, in English is required

ICANN is a global organization that values diversity; preference will be given to candidates with demonstrated skills in additional languages besides English

Working Conditions & Physical Requirements:

Work is performed in a normal office environment with limited privacy and some exposure to background noise

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand and walk. The employee regularly is required to sit. The employee is frequently required to talk or hear; use hands and arms to reach, handle or feel. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.