Director, IT Operations and Service Management - Information Technology

NYU Abu Dhabi is pioneering a new model of higher education for a global world, dedicated to excellence in teaching and research and to advancing cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. Drawing on the strengths of the NYU global network, it offers an outstanding liberal arts and sciences education to students from the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and around the world, with a distinctive focus on intercultural understanding and leadership. It supports innovative research and graduate education programs that push forward the frontiers of knowledge and respond in powerful and interdisciplinary ways to vital global and local challenges.

Position Summary

Applications are welcome from all qualified candidates. In line with UAE regulations, Emirati candidates are encouraged to apply.

New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) seeks to appoint a Director, IT Operations and Service Management reporting to the Chief Information Officer.

The Director, IT Operations and Service Management provides leadership for the delivery, performance, and continuous improvement of IT services at NYU Abu Dhabi. This role is accountable for ensuring that technology services are reliable, user-centered, scalable, and operationally sustainable, directly enabling the university’s academic, research, and administrative missions.

Serving as the operational service owner, the Director assumes responsibility for IT services as they transition from design and build into steady-state operations. The role leads IT Service Management (ITSM), service desk operations, incident and problem management, change enablement, and service performance governance. A core objective is to deliver a highly effective, tiered support and service management model that prioritizes early resolution, strong operational ownership, and well-governed escalation aligned with service maturity and design intent.

This role builds and leads a best-in-class, dynamic IT operations organization. The Director fosters a culture of trust, accountability, continuous learning, and service excellence, empowering teams with clear frameworks, meaningful metrics, and the authority to act. Through strong leadership, data-driven decision-making, and user-centric service design, the role ensures IT Operations functions not merely as a reactive support organization, but as a strategic partner to the institution.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage the full suite of IT operational functions including service management, incident response, problem resolution, change management, service request fulfillment, and enterprise support operations. Establish and maintain service delivery frameworks, SLAs, and KPIs to ensure reliability, stability, and responsiveness. Oversee operational dashboards and reporting to drive continuous improvement, strengthen service quality, and ensure user satisfaction across faculty, students, staff, and researchers
• Manage the daily operation, maintenance, and lifecycle of the university’s core IT infrastructure including data center systems, cloud and hybrid services, enterprise networks, storage, backup, unified communications, and endpoint technologies. Lead proactive capacity planning, performance monitoring, patching, upgrades, and lifecycle refresh programs to ensure resilient, secure, and modern systems that support NYUAD’s mission
• Ensure all new technology solutions and infrastructure projects transition effectively into steady-state support. Establish operational readiness artifacts including runbooks, support models, asset documentation, disaster recovery procedures, and knowledge bases. Collaborate with Architecture, Engineering, and Information Security to ensure supportability, compliance, cohesive handover processes, and ongoing operational sustainability
• Coordinate with NYU IT (NYU Global Partners) to align local systems, processes, standards, and service frameworks with global platforms. Facilitate integration, consistency, and interoperability across campus and global environments. Communicate local needs, ensure adherence to global standards where applicable, and support unified user experiences across the global university network
• Develop and enforce ITSM policies, governance practices, and operational standards that support reliable service execution. Enhance ITIL-aligned processes for change governance, configuration management, service catalog development, and continuous improvement. Establish operational KPIs and review mechanisms to ensure compliance, efficiency, and quality across all service domains
• Lead and manage the IT Operations and Service Management department, overseeing personnel, budget utilization, vendor relationships, and internal operations. Recruit, develop, and mentor technical and service-delivery professionals. Foster high performance, accountability, and a culture of operational excellence, ensuring teams have the skills, support structures, and resources necessary to deliver dependable services

Required Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or diploma in a related field or 25+ years of relevant industry experience

Preferred Education:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration (MBA), or a related field

Required Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in IT operations, service management, infrastructure operations, or enterprise support in large-scale academic or enterprise environments
• 5+ years in a senior leadership or directorial role with responsibility for IT operations, service management, infrastructure reliability, and team leadership
• Extensive experience managing enterprise networks, data center operations, cloud and hybrid infrastructures, endpoint technologies, unified communications, and backup/DR systems
• Demonstrated leadership in operational lifecycle management, capacity planning, reliability improvement, and the execution of campus-wide or enterprise infrastructure projects
• Strong background in vendor management, contract negotiation, and operational procurement workflows
• Extensive experience managing multi-disciplinary operations and service-delivery teams, ensuring reliable and high-quality IT support
• Demonstrated experience in leading cross-functional technical teams and delivering complex IT infrastructure projects in a dynamic, enterprise environment
• Proven track record of overseeing infrastructure operations, service performance, and large-scale system lifecycle programs
• Deep understanding of service transition, ITSM frameworks, operational governance, and support model design
• Ability to translate institutional objectives into operational strategies, process improvements, and service-aligned operational frameworks
• Deep expertise in IT service management frameworks (ITIL) and operational governance principles
• Strong understanding of scalable, secure, and resilient systems operation and enterprise infrastructure management
• Broad knowledge of cloud architectures, hybrid environments, and systems integration in operational contexts
• Comprehensive understanding of networking, cybersecurity fundamentals, identity and access management, and data governance
• Expertise in endpoint management, asset lifecycle planning, and support frameworks for distributed IT environments
• Strong ability to translate operational needs into service models, process structures, and performance metrics
• Exceptional leadership and people-management skills with demonstrated success developing high-performing operational and support teams
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, capable of conveying technical information to diverse audiences
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with experience making operational decisions in complex environments
• Ability to embed service management frameworks into solution deployments to ensure long-term operational viability

Preferred Experience:

• ITIL Expert, ITIL Master, or ITIL v4 Managing Professional
• Project Management certifications (e.g., PMP)
• Cloud platform certifications (e.g., AWS, Azure)
• Understanding of higher-education operational technology needs, including teaching, learning, and campus services
• Knowledge of research computing support environments
• Familiarity with DevOps/SRE approaches to reliability, monitoring, automation, and operational efficiency
• Experience improving workflow automation and operational tooling aligned with ITSM and support frameworks
• Ability to balance innovation with operational stability and long-term sustainability

Other Information About NYUAD

NYU Abu Dhabi is a degree-granting research university with a fully integrated liberal arts and science undergraduate program in the Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, and Engineering. NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU New York, and NYU Shanghai, form the backbone of NYU’s global network university, an interconnected network of portal campuses and academic centers across six continents that enable seamless international mobility of students and faculty in their pursuit of academic and scholarly activity. This global university represents a transformative shift in higher education, one in which the intellectual and creative endeavors of academia are shaped and examined through an international and multicultural perspective. As a major intellectual hub at the crossroads of the Arab world, NYUAD serves as a center for scholarly thought, advanced research, knowledge creation, and sharing, through its academic, research, and creative activities.