IT Director- System z, System i, NonStop Platforms

VTRAC Consulting Corporation

"Solutions for Growth"



Please e-mail your resume as an MS-WORD document in confidence.

Subject: IT Director- System z, System i, NonStop Platforms (JOB # 1603)

Attention: Sohrab Haddadi (sohrabh@vtrac.com)


Position: IT Director- System z, System i, NonStop Platforms

Job Order: 1603

Position Type: Permanent

Location: Toronto, ON

Travel: 0%



JOB DESCRIPTION:

Deliver infrastructure technology, ensuring adherence to operational
standards and business requirements in accordance to the enterprise service
quality objectives. This encompasses strategic planning, budget management,
implementation and ongoing operational efficiency.

MAJOR ACTIVITIES:


a.. Platform Owners will have overall accountability for Platform quality,
availability, optimization, and commoditization. The Platform Owner will act
as a single point of contact for Platform strategy, status reporting,
standards, and policies.
b.. The successful candidate will establish direction and ensure
coordination among key functions such as TI Primes, Solutioning,
Architecture, and Engineering. As well, they will manage vendor service /
support relationships and meet to review monthly vendor plans while managing
the platform lifecycle from inception to decommissioning for any Platform
asset owned by the company
c.. Understand current and future business needs and develop a technology
roadmap and currency plan to address those needs by aligning infrastructure
architecture with application architecture.
d.. Ensure that policies and standards are in place for the following:


a.. Governance (e.g. new technology approvals)
b.. Architecture (e.g. version standards)
c.. Operations (e.g. standards software images)
d.. Business Continuity (e.g. redundancy)
e.. Security


a.. Relationship Management--Ability to establish and build healthy
working relations and partnerships with clients, vendors and peers.
b.. Define the framework for developing quality metrics to analyze data
and implement quality improvements for clients.
c.. Manage platform lifecycle from inception to decommissioning
d.. Report on performance and availability trends and identify
opportunities to improve platform performance
e.. Coordinate annual capacity planning and forecasting linking in to the
overall Enterprise Capacity Planning exercise
f.. Manage, assist and establish financial aspects of the role including
Total cost of ownership, Application Licenses and budget optimization.



REQUIREMENTS:



SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTISE:

a.. Leadership--Knowledge of approaches, tools, and techniques for
gaining the cooperation and support of others.
EXTENSIVE WORK EXPERIENCE:

a.. Team Management and Team Building--Ability to form, build and manage
effective teams.
b.. Relationship Management--Ability to establish and build healthy
working relations and partnerships with clients, vendors and peers.
c.. IT Project Management--Knowledge of and experience with tools and
techniques for planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling IT projects.
d.. Influencing--Ability to impact decisions within and outside own
organization.
e.. Decision Making and Critical Thinking--Knowledge of tools and
techniques for effective use of a broad range of factors, assumptions,
frameworks and perspectives when solving problems.
f.. Coaching --Ability to encourage, motivate and guide individuals and
teams in learning and improving effectiveness.
g.. Business Case Justification--Knowledge of approaches, tools and
techniques for justifying a project, equipment or staffing expenditures by
identifying cost, benefits, opportunities and threats.
h.. Application Delivery Process--Knowledge of major tasks,
deliverables, formal methodologies and disciplines for delivering new or
enhanced applications.
i.. Detailed knowledge of IBM's System z's principles and applications
j.. Detailed knowledge of HP's NonStop's principles and applications
k.. Detailed knowledge of IBM's System i's principles and application

BASIC UNDERSTANDING:

a.. Product and Vendor Evaluation--Knowledge of process for evaluation
and selection of products, tools, services and infrastructure components in
line with organization's business needs and architectural principles.


JOB COMPLEXITIES/CHALLENGES:

a.. Analyzing the project direction, score and forecasts against the
business plan and interpreting any variances for the business
sponsor/management, along with recommendations; analyzing current project
status and forecast information along with new client needs to assess the
options to the program and influences the tactical decisions of clients;
interpreting program status/forecasts, issues and risks, and presenting to
business sponsors; analyzing vendor RFP responses, interprets findings to
assist with selection decision/recommendations to sponsor/management
b.. Analyzing complex business problem and possible alternative
solutions given the technical standards of the company and make
recommendation to sponsor/senior management; analyzing possible risks to
programs and recommend mitigate approach from a number of possible choices,
often creating new options with input from team leads; ensuring analysis of
a number of vendor RFPs to determine the pros/cons and risks involved,
including architectural fit and vendor viability, and make recommendation on
choice and mitigations to contain risks to management
c.. Using knowledge and experience in industry and of technology trends,
ensuring alternatives are evaluated and make recommendations on best fit to
business problem at a program level; evaluating issues/risks and mitigation
alternatives to identify best recommendations for the program success to
senior management.
d.. Planning resource capacity for program to work with
business/technology management to assure feasibility to start and complete
projects as planned from a resource capacity perspective; applying
governance standards to program to ensure all required security,
architectural governance standards are met prior to implementation of any
project; controlling and evaluating project mitigation decisions and change
recommendations to meet program delivery with required quality. Planning and
track portfolio/program operations, maintenance and project finances to
ensure delivery of products and services as per expectations.
e.. Making decisions regarding which project(s) can start and when, or
should be delayed, risks to take and how to address.
f.. Budget allocation across operations, maintenance and
projects/programs.
g.. Assignment of resources, hiring and reducing FTE's.
h.. Programs of up to 75 indirectly supervised, in a matrix environment
but this could be exceeded. This includes highly technical/specialized
including in project management, all levels.
i.. Programs and projects (initially capitalized and moved to DOE when
asset is realized) generally over $ 3 million but could be less dependent on
complexity.
SKILLS:

a.. Accountability
b.. Conceptual Thinking
c.. Forward & Strategic Thinking
d.. Impact & Influence
e.. Relationship Building
f.. Teamwork & Partnering
g.. Leadership/ Leading Others
h.. Building Trust
We thank all the candidates in advance. Only those candidates that are
selected for interview will be contacted. For other exciting opportunities,
please visit us at www.vtrac.com.