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Job Type:

Employee

Job Family:

IT Infrastructure and Systems

Faculty/Service - Department:

Information Technology

Campus:

Main Campus

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/08/29

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/09/22About Information Technology:

Information Technology is a dynamic and collaborative environment. We are focused on prioritizing and optimizing technological investments that facilitate the best student experience, as well as the activities of faculty, researchers and staff. Our greatest strength are the people working with us. People like you, professionals eager to flex their intellectual muscle and achieve new heights in their career. Working here gives you access to a great IT environment, rich with a diverse range of platforms, products, and services. This is a place where innovative ideas are welcome.

In a nutshell: working here is challenging and rewarding. It’ll bring out the best of you. We want people that have the drive to advance IT in higher education. We have the technologies to keep your inner fires burning, and benefits that can help you sustain a better lifestyle. And all this minutes away from gyms, the Byward Market, downtown, and the Rideau Canal at lunch time for runners and skaters.

Position Purpose

Reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the incumbent is accountable for the overall experience the campus community has when interacting with IT. Reporting to the Chief Information Officer, the role leads to the strategy, delivery, and continuous improvement of all frontline and faculty-facing IT services, ensuring a consistent, high-quality, and user-centric approach across the institution.

This position oversees major portfolios such as the IT Service Desk, Audio-Visual (AV)/Classroom Support, IT Client Care, Research Support & Enablement, and Faculty Enablement & Support. It leads to the development and coordination of several Centres of Excellence that anchor service quality and innovation across these domains, fostering collaboration across the entire IT community. The Senior Director plays a key role in unifying IT support practices across campus, promoting shared standards, and reducing service fragmentation.

As a senior leader, the incumbent fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and service excellence across a diverse team of IT professionals. The role plays a critical part in transforming the culture of IT service delivery, empowering staff, setting clear performance expectations, and aligning service values with the university’s academic and research mission. Working closely with Vice-Deans, Chief Administrative Officers, IT Leaders, Senior Directors, and other leaders, the Senior Director ensures services are responsive, standardized, and continuously improving based on clear key performance indicators (KPIs) and user feedback and provides executive-level visibility into service quality through data-driven reporting and institutional dashboards.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• User Experience Leadership: Leads the institutional strategy for how the campus community experiences IT. Accountable for delivering a consistent, high-quality, and user-focused support model across all touchpoints, ensuring services meet the evolving needs of students, faculty, and staff. Drives service innovation to anticipate user expectations and introduce new ways of engaging with IT.

• Strategic Oversight of User-Facing IT Services: Provides executive direction across five major portfolios: Service Desk, AV/Classroom Support, IT Client Care, Research Support & Enablement, and Faculty Enablement & Support. Ensures integration and alignment of services with institutional priorities and end-user expectations.

• Centres of Excellence and Campus Coordination: Oversees multiple Centres of Excellence supporting end-user technologies and support services. Fosters collaborate across central and faculty-based teams to drive standardization, reduce silos, and promote shared service ownership across campus.

• Performance and Service Accountability: Establishes and enforces institutional KPIs, performance standards, and service benchmarks. Leads performance measurement and reporting for all client-facing IT services, using metrics to drive transparency, continuous improvement, and executive decision-making. Ensure executive stakeholders have the visibility needed to make informed institutional decisions.

• IT Service Management (ITSM) and Governance: Establishes the institutional vision and governance framework for IT Service Management, aligning practices with internationally recognized standards such as ITIL. Leads the development and enforcement of university-wide service definitions, workflows, escalation models, and accountability structures to ensure consistent, efficient, and transparent service delivery across all IT units.

What you will bring:

• University degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field; a graduate degree is considered an asset.

• Minimum of 15 years of management and leadership experience in Information Technology, including at least 8 years in senior leadership roles overseeing user-facing or service delivery functions in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.

• Proven track record in developing and leading user-centric IT strategies, service models, and organizational transformations that improve the end-user experience.

• Extensive knowledge of IT Service Management (ITSM) and project management frameworks (e.g.: ITIL, PMBOK, etc.), with demonstrated experience implementing and governing ITSM practices at an organizational level.

• Deep understanding of end-user technologies, support delivery models, and device lifecycle management in a large-scale institutional setting.

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong relationships with senior leadership in an organization.

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience leading multi-level teams and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and service excellence.

• Experience supporting the research enterprise through responsive, scalable, and well-aligned IT services that enable innovation, collaboration, and compliance. Familiarity with Canadian research funding environments and bodies (e.g.: Tri-Council), is considered an asset.

• Excellent analytical, strategic planning, and performance measurement skills, including the development and use of KPIs and metrics to drive operational decision-making.

• Experience managing large operational budgets (e.g., $5–10M), with a demonstrated ability to optimize resources and align spending with institutional priorities.

• Demonstrated experience leading process re-engineering initiatives to improve service efficiency, quality, and consistency across complex environments. Knowledge of continuous improvement methodologies; certification or experience in Lean Six Sigma is considered an asset.

• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and change leadership skills, with the ability to influence across organizational boundaries and drive adoption of standardized practices.

• Fluently bilingual in English and French (written and spoken).

#LI-Hybrid

The University of Ottawa is committed to ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion in the scholarly and leadership environments of our students, staff, and faculty. Accordingly, we strongly encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples in Canada, visible minorities members (racialized persons), persons with disabilities, women, as well as from all qualified candidates with the skills and knowledge to productively engage with equitable, diverse, and inclusive communities. Candidates who wish to be considered as a member of one or more designated groups are asked to complete the confidential Self-Identification Questionnaire, to be completed at the time of application.

All qualified candidates are invited to apply; however, preference will be given to Canadians and permanent residents. When submitting your application, please indicate if you are legally entitled to work in Canada

The University of Ottawa provides accommodations for applicants with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. If you are invited to proceed in the selection process, please notify us of any accommodations that you require by contacting the Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty Relations by email at vra.affairesprofessorales@uottawa.ca. Any information you send us will be handled respectfully and in complete confidence.

The University of Ottawa is proud of its 160-year tradition of bilingualism. Through its Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute, the University provides training to staff members and to their spouses in their second official language.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.