Director, IT Operations

Company Description: Pathstone is a growing wealth management firm serving ultra-high net worth families, single family offices, foundations, and endowments. We are united by a clear purpose: to help clients pursue their Preferred Life — with clarity, confidence, and long-term support across the full landscape of wealth and well-being.

Our services include investment advisory, as well as integrated planning and coordination across key areas such as tax strategy, risk management guidance, wealth and estate planning support, philanthropic planning, and family governance — helping clients navigate complexity and make informed decisions aligned with their goals.

With more than 20 office locations and over $185 billion in client assets under management, advisory, administration, and related services, Pathstone has expanded significantly over the past five years, reflecting sustained momentum and continued investment in our team and platform.

Pathstone is committed to making a meaningful difference for clients and their families, while fostering a supportive, purpose-driven environment for our professionals. Team members are encouraged to pursue their interests and contribute to the firm’s culture through committees and initiatives that help shape our shared mission.

Our people are our greatest asset, and we offer a competitive, flexible benefits program designed to support life both inside and outside of work. Benefits include comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, flexible spending options, flexible PTO, life insurance, education support, a 401(k) plan, parental leave, and more.

Job Description : We are seeking an experienced Director of Information Technology to lead and transform our IT operations as we separate the IT function from Security. This senior role serves as the primary IT architect and operations leader, responsible for designing and delivering technology solutions that support current and future business initiatives while ensuring the availability, performance, and security of the enterprise technology environment. This hands-on leadership position requires the ability to review technical designs, troubleshoot escalated issues, mentor engineers, and make architectural decisions across Azure, Microsoft 365, identity, endpoint management, networking, and SaaS platforms.

The Director will own full IT operations, from cloud platforms and SaaS applications to networks, infrastructure, and end-user services, and will be accountable for reliable service delivery, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Reporting to executive leadership, this role will directly manage a distributed team of IT engineers and administrators and collaborate closely with Security, Finance, and business stakeholders to align technology with strategic objectives.

Key Responsibilities:

IT Strategy & Architecture

Develop and drive the firm’s robust IT architecture and infrastructure strategy, aligning technology investments with growth priorities and digital transformation goals.

Design end-to-end technical solutions for new projects, while overseeing firm-wide technology enhancements or integrations to support evolving business needs.

Ensure all solutions are secure, scalable, and compliant, following industry standards and best practices.

Operations Leadership & Service Reliability

Lead IT operations, ensuring stability, performance, and availability of all IT systems and services.

Oversee cloud infrastructure (Microsoft Azure, IaaS/PaaS), on-premises data center resources, and enterprise networks.

Implement highly resilient systems to support uptime goals, disaster recovery objectives, and capacity planning for future growth.

Cloud & SaaS Platform Management

Lead the management of all IT-owned cloud and SaaS platforms across the firm, including Azure, Microsoft 365, Okta Identity, Zoom, and other collaboration and enterprise applications.

Drive seamless integration across systems, establishing effective identity and access management across Azure Entra ID/AD and SaaS SSO platforms.

Guide the adoption and governance of AI usage in IT, ensuring tools are implemented thoughtfully, with a focus on security, cost efficiency, and compliance with organizational policies.

IT Operations Service Management

Establish and continuously improve IT service management practices (incident, problem, change, and configuration management) to ensure reliable and efficient service delivery.

Own the reliability and performance of IT systems, proactively monitoring critical services and leading timely incident response efforts to minimize disruption and address root cause analysis for major outages.

Drive continuous improvement by leveraging data, metrics, and post-incident insights to enhance system performance and reduce recurring issues.

Champion automation and process optimization to improve efficiency, reduce operational risk, and streamline day-to-day operations.

Plan for scale and resilience by ensuring systems can support future growth and maintain robust disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.

Leadership & Team Management

Lead and mentor a distributed IT operations team, including system engineers, cloud administrators, system administrators, and service desk staff, ensuring seamless support for critical systems and fostering a customer-focused, high-performance culture.

Clearly define team roles, goals, and development plans, ensuring team members have the training and resources to succeed.

Foster a culture of accountability and knowledge sharing by maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures.

Provide leadership in recruiting and onboarding new IT team members, ensuring effective cross-training and succession planning.

Project & Program Management

Oversee IT projects and programs from concept through delivery, including major technology upgrades, migrations, and rollouts (Office 365/Azure cloud migrations, identity consolidation projects, network or infrastructure upgrades).

Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure solutions align with business needs and compliance requirements, delivering projects on time and within scope.

Work closely with Security and DevOps/Engineering to align on security standards, infrastructure needs, and environment readiness, ensuring solutions are secure and scalable.

Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand priorities, gather requirements, and communicate IT roadmaps and service expectations.

Manage project portfolios and prioritize initiatives aligned with company strategy.

Vendor & Partner Management

Serve as the primary point of contact for IT vendors, ensuring strong strategic partnerships and cost-effective contracts.

Oversee timely and favorable renewals and negotiations for major technology vendors and cloud services (Okta, Zoom, Box, telephony, LogicMonitor, Cloudflare).

Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and drive improvements or changes as needed.

Evaluate and onboard new vendors and service providers to support evolving technological needs.

Financial & Resource Management

Manage IT budget and technology spend across cloud services, software licenses, hardware, and other services.

Work closely with Finance on annual budgeting and forecasting, providing clear insights into IT investments and identifying opportunities for cost savings.

Monitor cloud usage and SaaS licensing, optimizing costs where appropriate by right-sizing resources, eliminating waste, and negotiating volume discounts.

Ensure capacity planning for systems and storage, balancing performance and cost efficiency.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Ensure IT operations comply with industry regulations and internal policies, including financial services requirements and data privacy and security standards.

Collaborate with Information Security