Director, Systems Engineering

Director, Systems Engineering

Reporting to the Assistant Chief Technology Officer, Infrastructure Services and Architecture, the Director of Systems Engineering will oversee the operation, administration, and engineering of the university's systems environment, including servers, storage, cloud computing, and virtualization, along with infrastructure DevOps, application system and security support, and Campus Safety Services.

Information technology plays a vital and ever-expanding role in the institutional mission. The institution's information technology environment is highly distributed and diverse, and the Director of Systems Engineering must be an adept and informed leader who can offer strategic vision, comprehensive planning, and direct technical involvement alongside the engineers who report to the role. This senior leadership role is responsible for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the systems that support the university's educational and operational objectives, and for the reliability of the physical access control, video surveillance, emergency radio, and emergency phone systems that support campus safety.

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

• Manage the DevOps resource supporting the infrastructure organization, receiving strategic DevOps and automation requirements from the Assistant CTO and directing the work accordingly.
• Identify commonly performed actions, repeated requests, and recurring requirements across every area reporting to this role, including systems operations, storage, virtualization, cloud, application system support, and Campus Safety Services.
• Define, document, and standardize the processes behind that work so it can be measured and performed consistently by both full-time employees and the managed service provider.
• Identify and prioritize the automation opportunities with the greatest return on team efficiency, and direct their design, build, and adoption.
• Measure the effect of automation and process improvement on toil, cycle time, and error rates, and adjust priorities based on results.
• Promote the adoption of automation and consistent operating practice across the teams reporting to this role.

Application System and Security Support

• Own the systems and middleware layer beneath the university's enterprise and departmental applications, including database platforms, web services, and load balancing.
• Ensure that these platforms are appropriately sized, patched, monitored, hardened, and recoverable.
• Partner with application owners and the Office of Information Security to remediate vulnerabilities and apply security controls at the system and middleware layer.
• Coordinate maintenance windows and upgrade planning with application stakeholders to minimize disruption to academic and administrative operations.

Campus Safety Services

• Oversee the technology, operation, and support of campus safety systems, including physical card access, video surveillance, emergency radios, and the emergency phone system.
• Ensure the security, reliability, and availability of these physical security and life-safety systems.
• Oversee deployment, upgrade, and lifecycle planning for campus safety technology, including coverage associated with building renovation and construction projects.
• Collaborate with Campus Police, Facilities, and external vendors and integrators to align technology capability with campus safety requirements.

Security, Compliance, and Resilience

• Ensure all systems components meet institutional security and compliance requirements, and implement best practices for securing server, storage, virtualization, cloud, and campus safety infrastructure.
• Ensure system designs and procedures are aligned with, and capable of enforcing, university policies and best practices.
• Ensure backup, recovery, and business continuity capabilities are designed, documented, and regularly tested against defined recovery objectives.
• Ensure vulnerabilities are remediated within institutional service level targets and provide the Information Security operations team with the access and tooling required to identify, locate, and isolate systems involved in security incidents.
• Support audit activity and the production of control evidence, and assist Information Security in drafting policies that overlap with the systems team.

Budget, Vendor, and Resource Management

• Develop and manage the operating and capital budget for the systems team and Campus Safety Services technology.
• Ensure efficient use of resources and identify opportunities for cost savings and license optimization.
• Oversee vendor relationships and negotiate contracts for systems, storage, cloud, and campus safety related services and products, interacting directly with vendors, resellers, and integrators.
• Plan and forecast refresh and renewal cycles to support multi-year budget development.

Performs all other duties and responsibilities as assigned or directed by the supervisor.

Qualifications:

• 4-year bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or Information Technology, or equivalent experience. A bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field is preferred.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience, including direct leadership of a systems, infrastructure, or operations team.
• Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to develop and retain technical staff.
• Excellent strategic thinking and planning abilities.
• Deep understanding of server, storage, virtualization, and cloud computing technologies across both Windows and Linux environments.
• Working knowledge of the middleware layer supporting enterprise applications, including database platforms, web services, and load balancing.
• Ability to direct DevOps and automation resources against strategic requirements set by the Assistant CTO.
• Knowledge of physical access control, video surveillance, and emergency communications systems.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making capabilities, including the ability to serve as a senior escalation point during major incidents.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience developing and managing operating and capital budgets and negotiating with vendors.

Preferred Certifications: Certifications are preferred, not required, and no candidate is expected to hold all of them. Credentials relevant to WPI's technology stack include:

• Windows Server: Microsoft Certified: Windows Server Administrator Associate (Exam AZ-802), or the predecessor Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate (Exams AZ-800 and AZ-801).
• Cloud platforms: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) or Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305); AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate or AWS Certified Solutions Architect.
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA