• Job Description

  Req#: 586

  ONLY INTERNAL CANDIDATES BEING CONSIDERED.

  INTRODUCTION
  The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) provides death, disability, and pension retirement benefits to employees of local governments and school districts in Illinois (with the exception of the City of Chicago and Cook County). We are the second largest—and best funded—statewide public pension system in Illinois, IMRF serves approximately 3,000 municipal employers in the State. We are an award-winning organization, located in Oak Brook. IMRF is looking for top talent, for a direct hire opportunity that is benefit eligible.

  SUMMARY
  Leads the Technology Infrastructure department of 22 staff with up to 4 Team Leaders managing a total budget of over $6 million dollars including staff salary.

  This position provides enterprise leadership and project management support relating to Infrastructure, Telecommunications, SQL data management, IV&V compliance, and all security governance implementation and compliance.

  Leads the technology infrastructure staff to provide reliable and secure computing, network, and telecommunications resources for all users. Oversees major system projects through all phases of their life cycles. Collaborates with other senior staff to ensure cross project and cross platform consistency and integration, and in the application of technology to further support IMRF’s Vision and Values. Develops staff’s skills and depth to both meet project requirements and ensure depth of support knowledge (cross-training).

  ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

  Strategy and Planning
  • Creates the operational Technology Infrastructure strategy, roadmap, and prioritization.
  • Oversees and provides guidance for the delivery of Technology Infrastructure projects fulfilling operational needs.
  • Oversees budget development and tracking for all computing, network and telecommunications hardware, software, and services.
  • Reviews and evaluates bids for procurement of infrastructure hardware, software, and services.
  • Accountable for the annual Disaster Recovery drill to support Business Continuity planning and testing to ensure recovery goals can be met.

  Staff Leadership and Development
  • Responsible for managing a staff of up to 22 employees, with no more than 5 direct reports. Responsible for hiring, salary administration, performance appraisals, performance management, training & development, planning, counseling, and coaching.
  • Leads infrastructure staff with responsibility for the analysis, development, modification,
  installation, testing and maintenance of all computing, network, and telecommunications hardware and software. Additional responsibility includes implementation of extraordinary
  software requests, user assistance, and system troubleshooting.
  • Ensures staff adherence to all relevant department policies and processes – project management, development life cycle, change management, and problem management.
  • Analyzes staff skills and support requirements and maintains cross-training plans to ensure support depth in all critical support areas.
  • Promotes, implements, and supports a team environment with a strong customer service focus and participation from all members in continuous improvement activities.

  Technology Management
  • Provides technical leadership for Technology Infrastructure including solution architecture and maintenance.
  • Manages End User Support to ensure that users have highly available and highly secure access to IMRF computing resources.
  • Maintains a cost-effective level of hardware and software technology which achieves continuously improving customer service and productivity.
  • Manages the infrastructure needed for the highest levels of availability and performance of IMRF internet and intranet sites.
  • Oversees voice telecommunications technology, including local and long distance, 1-800 service, field rep and Springfield office service.

  Project Management
  • Assigns tasks, reviews work, and monitors progress for infrastructure projects and ongoing maintenance and enhancement activities.
  • Fosters completion of projects on time with allocated human and technical resources in accordance with standards.
  • Controls project scope, milestones, analysis, and reporting on project variances.

  Operations Management
  • Communicates infrastructure status and goals to all layers of the organization.
  • Tracks and reports key system performance, capacity, and reliability metrics to ensure superior customer service. Implements formal processes to achieve continuous process improvement.
  • Ensures that the computing and network resources are functioning properly and are highly available, by ensuring hardware is monitored, software updates are applied in a timely fashion, security settings are appropriately set, backups are done nightly and tested regularly.
  • Oversee the physical and virtual server environment required for file storage and retrieval, communication systems and application hosting.
  • Monitor performance of data systems, develop plans and implement improvements for necessary updates, replacements and expansion based on business needs.
  • Work with the Chief Security Officer, IS Team Leads, Technical Solution Architect Leads, partners/contractors, and Enterprise Business Solutions department to optimize the computing resources and network for security, compliance and efficient use of software applications.
  • Oversees information backup, replication, recovery, and retention processes.
  • Approves service providers and associated contracts and service level agreements.

  SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
  The Infrastructure Manager supervises a department of 22 staff consisting of 4 Team Leaders, Network architects, Vmware architects, Telecom Specialists, DBA’s, Cybersecurity architects, Security & Governance compliance specialists, and Network Operations staff. The selected candidate will work with the Chief IS Officer to define and periodically review the infrastructure organization structure, which may include some staff reporting directly to the Manager and other staff reporting up through an IS Team Leader.

  QUALIFICATIONS
  To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or
  ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with
  disabilities to perform the essential functions.

  EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE
  Minimum
  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or Information Technology.
  • 7 years' experience with many of the key computing and network hardware / software platforms utilized by IMRF (Microsoft, VMware, Cisco, storage / SAN, SQL).
  • 5 years project management experience including managing multiple projects.
  • Budget development and expense management experience.
  • 3-5 years' experience supervising infrastructure, operations, or technical support staff including coaching and staff development.
  • Experience with IT security operations, cybersecurity areas, inclusive of patching, Disaster Recovery planning and testing.
  • Budget development and expense management experience.
  • Must demonstrate experience managing and supporting a highly available 24 X 7 technology infrastructure to achieve superior customer service.
  • Must be able to work extended days (over 7 hours per day) and extended weeks (more than 5 days per week) when necessary.
  • Must be able to work nights and weekends in support of major technology implementations.

  Preferred
  • Master’s in Computer Science or in Business Administration
  • Relevant project management, operations, or technology certifications (e.g. PMP, ITIL)
  • Business process / applications experience

  MANAGEMENT SKILLS / BEHAVIORS
  • Ability to influence and break down silos within an organization.
  • Strong communication skills adaptable to different levels of the organization, including ability to communicate complex business and technical challenges in a simplified manner.
  • Must have experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies and have the ability to formulate new programs to generate excitement and engagement.
  • Solid understanding of current and emerging infrastructure & operations technologies and practices.
  • Solid understanding of current and emerging Disaster Recovery, security, and threat vulnerability management practices.
  • Highly focused on providing superior customer service to both internal and external stakeholders.
  • Results-oriented individual with strong problem-solving, influencing, consensus building, and negotiating skills.
  • Ability to focus on critical business issues and demonstrate flexibility to make progress in a dynamic environment with multiple priorities which frequently change.
  • Must be able to work effectively in a team oriented, participative environment, with vendors, visitors and all employees in a professional and respectful manner.
  • Ability to work independently, efficiently, and effectively under general direction to meet critical deadlines.
  • Must be highly ethical, have strong integrity and use value-based decision-making.

  IMRF Benefits:
  • Generous insurance benefits, including medical and dental
  • 35-hour base work week, Monday - Friday
  • Death, disability, and pension retirement benefits as a member of IMRF
  • Paid vacation, 12-13 paid holidays and 2 personal days
  • Business casual attire
  • Award-winning organizational approach to performance excellence

• About the company

  IMRF has been providing the highest quality retirement services to our members, their beneficiaries and employers since 1941.

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