Director of IT

Hearst Television is seeking a Director of IT Operations to lead enterprise technology operations supporting approximately 30 television stations and business locations. This role is responsible for delivering reliable, secure, and cost-effective infrastructure while driving operational excellence across a geographically distributed organization.

Reporting to the Vice President of Information Technology, the Director provides strategic and technical leadership through collaboration with station leadership, Shared Services, Corporate IT, and external technology partners. Success in this role requires strong technical expertise, sound business judgment, and the ability to influence teams and stakeholders without direct reporting authority.

this is an in-person position that requires periodic travel to Hearst Television locations and participation in an on-call rotation supporting critical technology operations.

What You'll Do

Lead enterprise IT operations that enable broadcast, business, and digital teams to operate securely, efficiently, and reliably. You'll establish technology standards, modernize infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, and leverage automation and AI-enabled tools to improve operational performance while partnering across the organization to support business priorities.

How You'll Use AI Here

Hearst Television is investing in AI-enabled technologies that improve operational efficiency, monitoring, documentation, and decision-making. You'll evaluate and implement AI capabilities responsibly while partnering with Shared Services Security to ensure appropriate governance, data protection, and risk management.

Responsibilities

Enterprise IT Operations

• Lead day-to-day IT operations across approximately 30 Hearst Television locations, ensuring consistent service delivery and infrastructure reliability.

• Establish and maintain enterprise standards for infrastructure, operational support, system availability, and technology lifecycle management.

Infrastructure & Cloud Strategy

• Direct the design, deployment, and modernization of on-premises and cloud infrastructure, including virtualization, compute, storage, and backup platforms.

• Develop long-term infrastructure roadmaps supporting scalability, resiliency, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

Cybersecurity & Risk Management

• Partner with Shared Services Security to strengthen identity management, endpoint security, vulnerability management, privileged access, and multifactor authentication.

• Guide secure infrastructure architecture, firewall standards, network segmentation, remote access, and incident response practices.

Network & Endpoint Services

• Oversee enterprise networking including switching, routing, wireless infrastructure, connectivity, monitoring, and performance optimization.

• Establish standards for endpoint management, operating system deployment, patch management, software distribution, and device lifecycle planning.

Operational Excellence

• Lead technical incident response, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and executive communications during operational events.

• Develop operational metrics, documentation, runbooks, escalation procedures, and service performance reporting to improve consistency across all locations.

Financial & Vendor Management

• Manage departmental budgets, forecasting, purchasing priorities, licensing, and technology investment planning.

• Build strategic partnerships with technology vendors while overseeing contracts, renewals, service levels, and performance management.

Technology Modernization

• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives including virtualization upgrades, cloud adoption, and enterprise technology transformation projects.

• Evaluate emerging technologies, automation opportunities, and AI-enabled operational tools that improve efficiency while maintaining appropriate governance.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with station leadership, Shared Services, Corporate IT, Finance, Procurement, Engineering, and business stakeholders to align technology investments with organizational priorities.

• Influence local technology teams through collaboration, technical expertise, and enterprise standards without direct management authority.

What We’re Looking For

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive Information Technology experience in enterprise or multi-site environments.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing complex technology operations across geographically distributed organizations.
• Experience leading through collaboration, influence, and cross-functional partnerships.
• Experience managing enterprise technology budgets, vendors, contracts, and service-level agreements.
• Experience leading major incident response and supporting 24/7 operational environments.

Technical Expertise & Skills

• Strong knowledge of enterprise infrastructure including servers, virtualization, networking, storage, cloud services, backup, and disaster recovery.
• Experience administering Microsoft infrastructure and cloud technologies, including Microsoft 365 and Azure.
• Experience with virtualization platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, or VxRail.
• Knowledge of Cisco networking, Palo Alto firewalls, Windows Server, and enterprise endpoint management solutions.
• Strong understanding of identity management, Zero Trust principles, privileged access, vulnerability management, and endpoint security technologies.
• Familiarity with AI governance, automation technologies, and responsible implementation of AI-enabled operational tools.
• Excellent communication and executive presentation skills.
• Strong analytical, planning, and organizational abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic planning with operational execution.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships across technical and business teams.

Education & Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Relevant industry certifications are preferred.
• Related military experience will be considered.