Director, IT Operations and Engineering

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter. By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.

The Director of IT Operations and IT Engineering will be responsible for overseeing the technical support provided to our worldwide employees, managing a SaaS native application environment, running an IT operations center (including management of office infrastructure and our 24x7 incident management capabilities), and driving automation in our IT support capabilities. This role requires someone who is strategic while balancing the need to drive detailed operations. This person will be part of the office leadership team in Bangalore.

What you will be doing:

Strategic Leadership:

• Set the vision and strategy for the IT Operations and IT Engineering team, aligning with company goals and objectives
• Lead and manage the IT Operations and IT Engineering teams by providing guidance, mentorship, and support necessary to scale to a world-class Operations organization
• Acts as a thought leader to introduce and assess emerging capabilities and technologies
• Drives consolidation and simplification of applications and technologies
• Partners with the engineering infrastructure team to ensure a seamless deliver across the stack
• Establishes dashboards, reports, and KPIs to manage the environment and drive efficiencies from
• Looks for ways to use AI both for the company and within the team to increase employee satisfaction and productivity

Technical Support:

• Oversee the provision of technical support to Elastic employees, ensuring timely and effective resolution of IT issues.
• Manage user provisioning, application support, and access management across all core business systems.
• Ensure the proper integration and setup of applications such as Okta and Workday.

IT Engineering:

• Build out automation to improve reliability, reduce tickets, and decrease risk.
• Facilitate domain registrations and our certificate renewals
• Provide guidance, direction, and ownership of company wide capabilities and applications

Office Infrastructure:

• Coordinate with the Workplace Excellence Team to oversee the maintenance and support of audio-visual equipment in conference rooms and telecommunications systems.

Security and Compliance:

• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and company policies related to IT operations and data security.
• Promote a culture of information security awareness and best practices among employees.
• Partner with Infosec in the rollout, maintenance, and support of information security tools, controls, and best practices

Team Leadership:

• Lead a worldwide team of Elasticians and contractors
• Grow and develop the team through quarterly performance conversations
• Build collaborative networks with business systems analysts and architects
• Works closely with IT leadership and business partners to understand business value and priority of work to manage stakeholder expectations
• Partners with the IT Risk & Compliance team to ensure compliance is built into each project.

Financial Management:

• Work with IT leadership and finance to manage infrastructure, software, and laptop costs
• Find opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements.

What you will bring:

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Minimum of 20 years of experience in IT operations and engineering, with at least 10 years in a leadership role.
• Solid understanding of IT infrastructure, including network management, endpoint management, office and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with user provisioning, application support, and access management.
• Experience working in a SaaS/remote environment
• Experience managing an Okta and Gsuite environment
• Solid understanding of information security principles and practices.
• Experience in leveraging Elastic for the delivery of operational processes is a plus

Skills:

• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Excellent communication and social skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to lead multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to effectively apply AI / ML to business challenges

Personal Attributes:

• Strategic problem solver with a proactive and solution-oriented mentality.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to influence and motivate change across the organization.
• Resilient and able to work under stress.