• Senior Director of IT Strategy and Innovation

    Unity (Unity Village, MO)


    Senior Director of IT Strategy and Innovation

    Job Details

    Job Location

     

    Unity School of Christianity - Unity Village, MO

    Position Type

    Full Time

    Description

    Position Summary

    The Senior Director of IT Strategy & Innovation leads the development, maintenance and implementation of both legacy systems and forward-looking technology strategies that align with the organization's mission and future growth. This role is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and integrating emerging technologies, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence, automation, cloud innovation, and data intelligence. Serving as the organization’s internal futurist, this director provides thought leadership across departments and ensures strategic adoption of transformative technologies within and across all departments.

    Essential Functions

    Strategic Infrastructure Leadership

    + Define and execute infrastructure strategy that supports UWH’s technology services and operational goals.

    + Develop and maintain a 3–5 year technology roadmap, integrating emerging trends in AI, machine learning, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure.

    + Align technological advancements with enterprise architecture, ensuring scalability, interoperability, and cybersecurity best practices.

    + Maintain current understanding of emerging technologies and solutions

    + Business partner relationship management, including communication alignment on strategic and operational matters for the assigned functional area(s) and solution portfolio

    + Partner with key internal and external stakeholders to develop solution roadmap, identify and recommend new solutions to meet business needs

    + Drive the creation of strategic and operational vision and goals in alignment with department leadership

    + Participate in annual financial budgeting/planning processes, work with teams to estimate project total cost of ownership. Partner and prepare benefit cases to establish justification for solutions and priority.

    Team Leadership & Development

    + Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement using the principles of servant leadership.

    + Lead and grow a high-performance team by selecting high potential talent, training, coaching and providing developmental assignments.

    Cloud & Hybrid Architecture

    + Champion infrastructure-as-code, automation, and DevOps practices to improve agility and reduce operational overhead.

    + Ensure high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.

    Operational Excellence

    + Oversee all aspects of IT department operations including IT infrastructure (servers, laptops, mobile devices), communication (LAN, WAN, email, VOIP, etc.), backup, security systems, disaster recovery (DR), regulatory compliance.

    + Establish and enforce infrastructure standards, policies, and SLAs.

    + Oversee monitoring, incident response, and root cause analysis for infrastructure-related issues.

    + Ensure 24/7 operational readiness to support mission-critical services.

    + Optimize and automate business processes by leveraging technology to reduce manual effort, minimize costs, and increase overall efficiency.

    + Lead enterprise-wide AI initiatives, ensuring ethical, secure, and scalable implementation. Define frameworks for AI governance, training, and responsible use.

    Project & Program Management

    + Lead infrastructure initiatives from planning through execution, ensuring alignment with business priorities.

    + Manage cross-functional projects involving security, compliance, and application teams.

    + Track KPIs and report progress to executive stakeholders.

    + Ensure clear communication on approach, status, issues and risks on a regular basis to manage stakeholder expectations.

    + Evaluate and manage vendor relationships, contracts, and service agreements.

    Core Competencies

    + Visionary leadership and systems thinking

    + Expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning

    + Strategic technology planning and digital transformation

    + Enterprise architecture and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

    + Change management and cross-functional collaboration

    + Cybersecurity principles and risk management

    + Exceptional communication and executive influence

    + Establishing Strategic Direction (balance strategic and pragmatic)

    + Planning & Organizing / Driving for Results

    + Customer Orientation

    + Process Improvement Mindset / Critical Thinking

    Qualifications

    Required Qualifications

    + Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, related technical degree and/or equivalent technical expertise or experience

    + Shared Solutions experience, including but not limited to Accounting and Finance, HR, Legal, and payroll.

    + 10+ years of proven progressive performance in IT, with strong Service Management and Solution Delivery foundation.

    + 5-10 years management experience, including business relationship management and vendor/contract management

    + Solution selection and implementation for large scale, complex environments

    + Iterative solution delivery experience to drive accountability and delivery, Agile experience preferred.