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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Director of IT Operations - **Company:** Escalade Sports - **Location:** Evansville, IN, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics Applications, Data Analysis, Custom Software, Web Development, IBM Systems Network Architecture, IT Management, Information Technology Operations, IT General Controls (ITGC), Information Technology - **Published:** September 13, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=92447faaa1ca13a3 ## About the Role * 10+ years of progressive IT leadership experience, with a strong background in infrastructure, systems, or applications delivery in a mixed technical environment (modern stack plus legacy ERP/iSeries). * Demonstrated experience managing managers, not just individual contributors. * Public-company or regulated-environment experience preferred, including familiarity with SOX and ITGC frameworks. * Track record of shipping in a resource-constrained environment, with comfort operating in a flat, working-manager culture. * Comfort operating as a cross-team escalation point across infrastructure, IBM systems, and custom development without needing to be the deepest specialist in any single area. * Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent experience., * Leads through others while staying close enough to the work to ask sharp questions and unblock decisions quickly. * Operates as a true working manager: expects to be hands-on with technical problem-solving alongside the team, not solely a delegator. * Comfortable operating in a lean, flat organization with no tolerance for pure-overhead layers. * Builds trust with technical teams and executive stakeholders alike; translates between the two fluently. * Takes ownership of outcomes across teams without needing tightly-defined lane boundaries. * Approaches vendor, budget, and audit responsibilities with rigor and follow-through. * Motivated by a genuine path toward broader IT leadership responsibility over time. Physical Demands * Position requires sitting, talking, and listening at least 2/3 of the time. * Occasional lifting up to 10 pounds. ## Description The Director of IT Operations leads the day-to-day operational delivery of Escalade's technology infrastructure, IBM systems and development, and (pending) custom/web development functions. This role creates a single, credible layer of operational leadership across those teams so that prioritization, coordination, and support do not depend solely on the VP, IT's availability, addressing a single-point-of-failure risk in the current organization. This role reports directly to the VP, IT and is being built as the organization's #2 in IT, with a clear development trajectory toward broader IT leadership. Over time, the Director will take on progressively greater ownership of incident response, vendor and budget management, and IT general controls (ITGC) awareness across the technical estate. Named enterprise business platforms, such as BI/analytics platforms and digital solutions platforms, along with the AI program, remain directly owned by the VP, IT: this covers platform strategy, business requirements, vendor relationship, and compliance accountability, and is not part of this role's scope. Custom/web application development, meaning the internal team and delivery process that builds and maintains Escalade's internally-developed applications and tools, sits under this role. Where the Director's teams provide underlying technical support to a VP-owned platform (hosting, integration, backup, uptime), that support does not convert into platform ownership. Consistent with how every manager operates at Escalade, and especially within IT, this is a working-manager role. The trajectory over time is toward leading more and personally executing less, but hands-on problem-solving and solutioning, including direct involvement in technical troubleshooting, architecture decisions, and escalated issues, is an ongoing expectation, not a phase to graduate out of., * Directly manage the Infrastructure Manager, the IBM Systems Manager, and (pending confirmation) the Custom/Web Development Manager. * Own day-to-day operational delivery, prioritization, and cross-team coordination across infrastructure, IBM systems and development, and custom/web development. * Serve as the primary escalation point and decision-maker for those teams, freeing VP, IT capacity for enterprise platform strategy, business/data analysis, digital solutions, and the AI program. * Own custom/web application development for internal tools, including the team and delivery process, while providing technical support (hosting, integration, uptime) to VP-owned enterprise platforms without assuming ownership of those platforms. * Develop progressively into a credible successor for IT leadership: own incident response, build ITGC and SOX awareness across the technical estate, and take on vendor and budget exposure for the infrastructure and IBM systems portfolios. * Stay hands-on: personally troubleshoot, architect, and solution alongside the teams on escalated or high-complexity problems, not just review and unblock from a distance. * Support recruiting, onboarding, and development of team members within the managed teams. ## Related Videos - [Data Science in Retail](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/586-data-science-in-retail) - [Your Manager Doesn’t Come with a User Manual (But You Can Totally Write One)](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1495-your-manager-doesn-t-come-with-a-user-manual-but-you-can-totally-write-one) - [Product discovery techniques developers should know](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1009-product-discovery-techniques-developers-should-know) - [Navigating the Corporate Jungle: Life as a Developer in a large Company](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/621-navigating-the-corporate-jungle-life-as-a-developer-in-a-large-company) - [Engineering/Manager Pendulum: Generating compound interest on your career](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100348-engineering-manager-pendulum-generating-compound-interest-on-your-career) - [Data Science on Software Data](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/162-data-science-on-software-data) ## Related Articles - [From developer to manager – what does it take to become an engineering manager?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/42-from-developer-to-manager-what-does-it-take-to-become-an-engineering-manager) - [The Most Popular IT Jobs on the Market](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/376-the-most-popular-it-jobs-on-the-market) - [Best Paying Jobs in Technology](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/256-best-paying-jobs-in-technology) - [How We Built a Worry-Free System That Runs for 10+ Years – And What We’d Do Again](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/751-how-we-built-a-worry-free-system-that-runs-for-10-years-and-what-we-d-do-again) - [Highest Paying Tech Companies for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/220-highest-paying-tech-companies-for-developers) - [Top-Paying Tech Jobs (with Salaries)](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/372-top-paying-tech-jobs-with-salaries)