Director - IT

DAHLIN is an award-winning architecture, planning, and interiors design firm with 190+ multi-cultural professionals located throughout the Western United States. We offer more than 45 years of experience building communities where we live and work, driven by the vision of creating places that promote human fulfillment and well-being. This same Passion for Place® starts with our own working environment—a positive community where people thrive. Please visit our website (www.dahlingroup.com) to learn more.

We are currently seeking a Director – Information Technology who will provide strategic direction and focus for the technology needs of DAHLIN, manage IT operations to maximize service and reliability, and actively partner with internal stakeholders to align technology with DAHLIN’s business needs. This individual manages IT staff and maintains overall responsibility for customer service, system performance, project management, service quality, information security, operating budgets, and appropriate risk management. This is a highly collaborative role that involves working closely with other business leaders to support, facilitate, and drive the ongoing pursuit of improvement and innovation.

This is a hybrid position, requiring a minimum of 3 days per week onsite at our Pleasanton, CA office.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:          
Leadership

• Oversees the day-to-day operations of the IT department ensuring that technology aligns with business strategies and core values.
• Understands the business goals and translates strategy to specific functional needs and challenges of using technology to push DAHLIN forward.
• Manages IT staffing, including recruitment, supervision, scheduling, career development, evaluation and disciplinary actions.
• Oversees the deployment, monitoring, maintenance, development, upgrade, and support of all IT systems and platforms.
• Ensures the provision of end-user services, including help desk and technical support services.
• Manages financial aspects of the IT department, including purchasing, budget review and management.
• Develops, implements and ensures policies and procedures are followed, including those for system architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing, and service provision.
• Proactively identifies mission-critical IT issues and informs Managing Director in a timely manner, including but not limited to system failures and recovery processes, needs for timely IT investments and rollouts of specific IT projects and initiatives.
• Exhibits leadership in contributing to a positive atmosphere, within the IT Team and across DAHLIN.

Operations Management/Functional Duties

• Ensures the safety, reliability, availability and security of DAHLIN’s information systems across all offices.
• Checks systems to optimize performance and to initiate recovery action after system failures.
• Develops, maintains and tests disaster recovery plans.
• Establishes and controls systems access and security.
• Manages computer operation scheduling, backup, storage and retrieval functions.
• Negotiates and administers vendor, outsourcer, and consultant contracts and service agreements.
• Develops and executes annual action plan and supporting budgets, managing expenses and resources carefully to achieve maximum efficiency and minimize costs; monitors the overall performance of the department.
• Oversees all IT operating and capital expenditures and manages fixed assets, licenses and other departmental resources.
• Prepares and maintains documentation of network configurations and cabling layouts.
• Coordinates and communicates with other departments/teams to understand and meet their requirements.

Company-wide Strategy

• Assesses current technology and engages in continuous process of evaluating the efficacy of DAHLIN’s technology infrastructure and services across all offices; benchmarks, analyzes, reports on, and makes recommendations for the improvement and growth of the IT environment.
• Performs analysis of network needs and contributes to design of network architecture, integration and installation.
• Defines controls, policies and standards for our company’s technology performance and usage and measures department and system success accordingly.
• Ensures organization’s enterprise architecture is flexible enough to adapt to changing program and business needs.
• Stays abreast of industry trends, best practices, and evolution of technologies and leverages relevant emerging technologies to further DAHLIN’s mission.
• Identifies areas of weakness and contracts with outside experts as directed by Managing Director to ensure the smooth running of DAHLIN’s IT infrastructure.
• Travels to other DAHLIN offices as needed.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:

• This role requires a strategic thinker with excellent leadership skills, a passion for driving digital transformation and a deep understanding of IT infrastructure in the AEC industry.
• Strong project management skills combined with self-motivation to anticipate and develop solutions combined with the ambition and patience to execute at a fast pace.
• Knowledge and experience in software selection, implementation, integration, and testing is required, as is a history of delivering successful, on-time, on-budget technology projects.
• Strong understanding of, and experience with, the evaluation of database and other application tools.
• Demonstrated understanding of all elements of IT architecture (including, but not limited to infrastructure, applications, data management, redundancy, and disaster recovery).
• Ability to act as “change agent” for driving process and continuous improvements within DAHLIN, helping teams scale.
• Demonstrated knowledge of IT risk management and security and compliance issues.
• Demonstrated experience establishing IT metrics of success and conducting ongoing evaluations of performance.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and build a strong team of IT professionals.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills, including tact & diplomacy, ability to comfortably relate with technical and non-technical staff, and to persuade and concede appropriately.
• Demonstrated leadership qualities, an ability to lead and motivate others to action, and a commitment to fostering a culture of learning and professional development.
• Highest level of integrity and management of confidential information.
• A positive attitude about the work to be done, co-workers, clients, leadership, and company policies.

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, CERTIFICATIONS: 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent.
• 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including project and staff management.
• Broad technology experience with emphasis in Design Technology within the AEC industry. (Required)
• Consulting firm experience or other demonstrated customer/stakeholder relationship management is a plus.
• Must be legally authorized to work for any employer in the United States without any restrictions or visa sponsorship.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
This position requires visual acuity and manual dexterity sufficient to operate standard office equipment.  The employee must be able to sit or stand at a desk for a full shift and lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. 

We offer a competitive compensation package based on experience and qualifications. Excellent benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage. We also offer the opportunity to participate in a pre-tax Flexible Spending plan, Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and 401k.

Salary range:  $150,000 to $155,000 depending on qualifications. Placement within this pay range will be determined by factors such as education, qualifications, project complexity and/or experience. The maximum is reserved for candidates who currently meet all job requirements. We believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer.

How to Apply:  Please include a cover letter with your resume (PDF or Word/5MB max) that tells us why you are our ideal candidate and why you want to our work for our firm. Inquiries that do not follow these instructions may not be considered. Background checks are conducted on all final candidates for this position in accordance with applicable federal and state law and may include obtaining a Consumer Credit Report from a Consumer Reporting Agency.

One last note. . .
Real people review every application, so we regret that due to the large volume of inquiries, we are unable to accept phone calls regarding the status of applications. We'll be sure to contact you if we need more information. Apply now!

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are committed to welcoming and supporting a diverse community of professionals. As such, women and people of color are especially encouraged to apply. Our firm participates in E-Verify.

We do not accept resumes from recruiters, placement agencies, or other staffing vendors who have not signed an agreement with us. Unsolicited resumes will be ineligible for referral fees.

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