Director, IT Business Operations - Mortgage Insurance

The Director, IT Business Operations, is the operational backbone of the IT organization. This role serves as the primary liaison between IT and the company’s corporate administrative functions - Finance & Accounting, Legal & Compliance, Human Resources, and Facilities - ensuring the IT division operates with financial discipline, workforce integrity, and sound contractual oversight. The Director enables the CIO to focus on technology strategy by owning the day-to-day operating processes that keep IT running as an effective, accountable business unit.

As a dynamic and resourceful professional, we will rely on you to perform the following duties:

• Lead IT budgeting, forecasting, and financial management, including variance analysis and partnership with Finance on cost allocation, chargebacks, and capitalization.
• Establish and enforce spend controls, approval processes, and purchasing governance across IT.
• Drive cost optimization initiatives (e.g., vendor consolidation, license management) and report results to leadership.
• Serve as IT’s lead in contract and agreement review, partnering with Legal, Compliance, and Security to assess IT-specific risks, obligations, and requirements (e.g., data handling, integrations, SLAs, access controls), and confirm operational readiness before execution.
• Maintain oversight of IT contracts and software asset management (SAM) lifecycle, including centralized tracking of agreements, renewal calendars, license entitlements, compliance, and spend.
• Coordinate with Legal on NDAs, DPAs, BAAs, and other agreements to ensure IT obligations are properly defined, managed, and compliant.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Information Systems, or related field required; MBA preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in IT operations, business management, or a chief of staff function - ideally within financial services, insurance, or mortgage industry.
• Strong financial acumen - hands-on experience owning budgets, building forecasts, and collaborating with Finance & Accounting teams.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating IT contract and license reviews, with a working understanding of common IT contractual terms and obligations.
• Familiarity with contingent workforce management and HR partnership in a corporate environment.
• Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills - comfortable representing IT in cross-functional settings and influencing without direct authority. Comfortable communicating to all levels of management in IT and across the Enterprise.

Pulled from the full job description

• 401(k)
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance, Our commitment to your success is enhanced by our competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical, dental, vision, 401(k) and disability benefits. We work to maintain a positive environment for our employees, where people can learn and grow with the company. Essent is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a Bermuda-based holding company (collectively with its subsidiaries, “Essent”) which serves the housing finance industry by offering private mortgage insurance, reinsurance, risk management products and title insurance and settlement services to mortgage lenders, borrowers, and investors to support homeownership. We are focused on managing risk and dedicated to serving as a strong and fair counterparty. As a company, we bring strong private capital and a commitment to risk management to the mortgage insurance industry.