Vice President of IT Operations

The Vice President of IT Operations will lead Extreme Networks' global infrastructure, network engineering, and end-user support functions, ensuring stable, secure, and scalable technology operations. This role involves aligning IT strategies with organizational goals, driving operational excellence, service reliability, and innovation. A key responsibility is leading the Customer One program, fostering early adoption of Extreme's products, and collaborating with product, engineering, and sales teams to influence product roadmaps and provide critical feedback.

Must Have

• Lead global infrastructure, network engineering, and end-user support.
• Ensure 24x7 service availability and performance.
• Drive platform observability, resilience, and standardization.
• Build and mature ITIL-aligned practices.
• Lead service desk transformation and champion AI/Automation.
• Partner with security for solid security posture.
• Be an early adopter of Extreme’s products and provide feedback.
• Proactively engage with product teams on roadmap discussions.
• Lead and develop high-performing teams.
• Own OpEx and CapEx budgets for infrastructure and operations.
• 10+ years in IT infrastructure, service delivery, or enterprise operations.
• 5+ years in senior leadership roles.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Strong understanding of hybrid cloud operations (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Strong command of budgeting, forecasting, and multi-year investment planning.
• Strong track record in ITIL-based service management, network reliability engineering, and enterprise system performance optimization.

Good to Have

• Experience with running a Dog fooding program.
• Strong networking background/experience.
• Experience in Agile or hybrid delivery models.
• Experience with internal deployments of proprietary solutions.

The Vice President of IT Operations will lead the company’s global infrastructure, network engineering, and end-user support functions to ensure stable, secure, and scalable technology operations. This leader will partner with business leaders to align IT strategies with organizational goals, driving operational excellence, service reliability, and innovation across all systems and platforms.

This leader with also be responsible for the Customer One program inside of Extreme IT, to drive the early adoption of our own products and collaborate with product, engineering, and sales teams to provide feedback on products and influence product roadmaps.

Key Responsibilities:

Core Infrastructure & Technology Operations

• Lead enterprise-wide infrastructure services, including cloud, data center, network, end-user computing.
• Ensure 24 × 7 service availability and performance for all production environments,
• Drive platform observability, resilience, and standardization across enterprise technologies

Service Management & Operational Excellence

• Build and mature ITIL-aligned practices (incident, change, problem, configuration)
• Lead service desk transformation, knowledge management, and champion adoption of AI/Automation to drive ticket deflection, resolution automation, and improve CSAT.
• Partner with security team to ensure we maintain solid security posture through proactive vulnerability management/patch management etc.
• Establish and monitor operational KPIs including MTTR, SLA compliance, and customer satisfaction

Extreme Customer ONE

• Be an early adopter of Extreme’s products: Deploy solutions in the real world and partner with product and engineering teams to provide feedback on performance, features, issues etc.
• Proactively engage with product teams on roadmap discussions
• Partner with Sales/Marketing to build referenceable use cases and architectures that showcase Extreme on Extreme

People Leadership

• Lead and develop a high-performing team across infrastructure, networking, and End User Computing
• Build skills in cloud operations, automation, SRE, and field support

Financial & Portfolio Management

• Own OpEx and CapEx budgets for infrastructure and operations; ensure alignment with business value
• Drive efficiency through consolidation, automation, and vendor optimization

Qualifications

• 10+ years in IT infrastructure, service delivery, or enterprise operations
• 5+ years in senior leadership roles with strategic and operational accountability
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of experience and education.
• Hands-on, outcomes-oriented operations leader with deep infrastructure knowledge and a passion for delivering reliable, customer-focused services.
• You thrive in complex, fast-paced environments, and you bring discipline, structure, and strategy to everything you touch.
• You lead with empathy, think at enterprise scale, and deliver technology that just works.
• Strategic and operational thinker who drives alignment across people, process, and technology
• Skilled communicator with the ability to translate technical issues into business impact
• Proven team builder and mentor; fosters a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning
• Effective in vendor negotiations, contract management, and partner collaboration
• High integrity, strong business judgment, and customer-centric mindset
• Strong understanding of hybrid cloud operations (AWS/Azure/GCP)
• Strong command of budgeting, forecasting, and multi-year investment planning
• Strong track record in ITIL-based service management, network reliability engineering, and enterprise system performance optimization.
• Experience with running a Dog fooding program and collaborate cross-functionally is highly desired.
• Having a strong networking background/experience is highly desired.

The Vice President of IT Operations will lead the company’s global infrastructure, network engineering, and end-user support functions to ensure stable, secure, and scalable technology operations. This leader will partner with business leaders to align IT strategies with organizational goals, driving operational excellence, service reliability, and innovation across all systems and platforms.

Of equal importance, this role will own the implementation and success of Extreme’s Customer ONE program - translating functional needs into actionable product roadmaps.

Customer ONE ensures Extreme’s products are put through the paces in a real-world environment, our own. Acting as the primary liaison between Engineering, Product and Sales, this role will influence adoption, design and enhancement implementations that effectively support the evolving needs of the organization. This role should act as a trusted business partner in defining and prioritizing the product backlog, translating business requirements into clear user stories, and driving the delivery of solutions that improve operational efficiency, user experience, and business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Core Infrastructure & Technology Operations

• Lead enterprise-wide infrastructure services, including cloud, data center, network, end-user computing.
• Ensure 24 × 7 service availability and performance for all production environments,
• Drive platform observability, resilience, and standardization across enterprise technologies

Service Management & Operational Excellence

• Build and mature ITIL-aligned practices (incident, change, problem, configuration)
• Lead service desk transformation, knowledge management, and champion adoption of AI/Automation to drive ticket deflection, resolution automation, and improve CSAT.
• Partner with security team to ensure we maintain solid security posture through proactive vulnerability management/patch management etc.
• Establish and monitor operational KPIs including MTTR, SLA compliance, and customer satisfaction

Extreme Customer ONE

• Be an early adopter of Extreme’s products: Deploy solutions in the real world and partner with product and engineering teams to provide feedback on performance, features, issues etc.
• Proactively engage with product teams on roadmap discussions
• Partner with Sales/Marketing to build referenceable use cases and architectures that showcase Extreme on Extreme
• Serve as the voice of business and end users, ensuring technology solutions deliver real, measurable value.
• Create transparency through reporting, communication, and proactive risk management.

People Leadership

• Lead and develop a high-performing team across infrastructure, networking, and End User Computing
• Build skills in cloud operations, automation, SRE, and field support

Financial & Portfolio Management

• Own OpEx and CapEx budgets for infrastructure and operations; ensure alignment with business value
• Drive efficiency through consolidation, automation, and vendor optimization

Qualifications

• 10+ years in IT infrastructure, service delivery, or enterprise operations
• 5+ years in senior leadership roles with strategic and operational accountability
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of experience and education.
• Hands-on, outcomes-oriented operations leader with deep infrastructure knowledge and a passion for delivering reliable, customer-focused services.
• You thrive in complex, fast-paced environments, and you bring discipline, structure, and strategy to everything you touch.
• You lead with empathy, think at enterprise scale, and deliver technology that just works.
• Strategic and operational thinker who drives alignment across people, process, and technology
• Skilled communicator with the ability to translate technical issues into business impact
• Experience in Agile or hybrid delivery models, ideally in environments where IT, Product, and Engineering intersect.
• Experience with internal deployments of proprietary solutions that create a continuous loop environment where defects, enhancements and use cases are quickly identified and moved into Product and Sales engines.
• Proven team builder and mentor; fosters a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning
• Effective in vendor negotiations, contract management, and partner collaboration
• High integrity, strong business judgment, and customer-centric mindset
• Strong understanding of hybrid cloud operations (AWS/Azure/GCP)
• Strong command of budgeting, forecasting, and multi-year investment planning
• Strong track record in ITIL-based service management, network reliability engineering, and enterprise system performance optimization.
• Experience with running a Dog fooding program and collaborate cross-functionally is highly desired.
• Having a strong networking background/experience is highly desired.