Vice President of IT Operations

Boyd Gaming Corporation has been successful in gaming jurisdiction in which we operate in the United States and is one of the premier casino entertainment companies in the United States. Never content to rest upon our successes, we will continue to evolve and retain a position of leadership in our industry. Our past success, our current business philosophies and our sound business planning, combine to position Boyd Gaming Corporation to maximize value for our shareholders, our team members and our communities.

The VP – IT Operations is a senior role within Boyd Gaming’s Information Technology Operations function. The VP – IT Operations is accountable for the delivery of Boyd Gaming’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and related IT operations used to enable business capabilities and services across the enterprise.

Reporting to the SVP, Business Technology, this position oversees the delivery of all IT infrastructure and related operations that support business capabilities and services across the enterprise.

The VP – IT Operations brings leadership, experience, knowledge, and future vision to transforming the IT Operations function including its strategy, operating model, product and service offerings, and workforce. The role holder is a senior stakeholder in all relationships with externally sourced infrastructure and operations capabilities.

As a key member of the senior IT leadership team, this role contributes to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring that the IT Operations strategy is fully aligned, positioning IT to deliver compelling business value.

Key responsibilities for the VP – IT Operations include, but are not limited to the following:

• Sets the mission, vision, and strategy of the IT Operations organization to maximize the success of business and IT enterprise initiatives.
• Introduces innovative, differentiating infrastructure and operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance team member productivity.
• Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritize resources, including budget. Works with key stakeholders to measure and prioritize technical debt remediation.
• Builds successful stakeholder relationships with other IT and business stakeholders by developing a clear understanding of business needs, acting as a trusted advisor, and ensuring cost-effective delivery of IT services to meet those needs.
• Creates and aligns an IT Operations value map by linking targeted business outcomes with the future-state business capabilities required to achieve them.
• Drives alignment of IT Operations strategies to the organization’s environmental, social and governance goals. 
• Develop and control the annual IT Operations budget to ensure that it's consistent with the overall strategic objectives of IT and the enterprise and is within plan. Creates a culture of continuous cost optimization.
• Defines, develops, and manages a comprehensive and integrated IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape, based on best-practice processes, disciplines, and related toolsets. This includes delivery of a comprehensive IT asset management program.
• Collaborate with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to ensure IT Operations contributes to, embraces, and applies security strategy.
• Operates a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by IT Operations teams. Supports periodic reviews by audit teams, compliance teams and other risk-related functions as required.
• Develops and executes a strategy to improve awareness of the business value that the IT Operations function provides and continuously seeks to ensure alignment to customer needs. 
• Designs and develop a strong and diverse IT Operations leadership team, together with a reporting structure for the function.
• Works collaboratively with direct reports to support their career progression, nurture their development and to help them realize their potential.
• Improves IT resilience by executing strategies that improve reliability, tolerability, and disaster recovery readiness.
• Keeps track of trends and provides direction on what emerging technologies should be incorporated into IT Operations products and services to successfully deliver an overall IT strategy.
• Champions IT Operations involvement in the organization's innovation efforts and encourages experimentation with new solutions to avail business opportunities.
• Provides strategic direction and oversight for the full life cycle of IT systems, working in close partnership with peers, and identifies where common approaches, solutions, and shared platforms provided by IT Operations could drive efficiency. 
• Directs the development of an IT Operations sourcing strategy and provides executive oversight for strategic vendor and partner relationship management.
• Works with HR and the IT leadership team to develop and execute workforce plans that ensure IT Operations can supply skilled resources to meet demand.
• Develops the maturity of IT Operations to improve efficiency, deliver new innovations and increase collaboration with other IT and business areas (e.g., through Agile, DevOps, platform, and product approaches).
• Drives the adoption of (and commitment towards) service improvements through a programmatic approach to continuous improvement which also measures impact and shares results.
• Supports the Chief Technology Officer by implementing infrastructure solutions that align to the enterprise architecture framework and roadmap.
• Serves on IT planning and policymaking committees; drives the development and adoption of enterprise technology standards, governance processes and performance metrics.
• Continuously evaluates the business value of IT Operations, including the use of metrics such as Key Performance Indicators, Outcome Driven Metrics and Objectives and Key Results.
• Collaborates with peer IT Leaders to ensure knowledge and insight can be freely shared.

• Exceptional leadership skills, with the ability to develop and communicate an IT Operations vision that inspires and motivates team members and aligns with the IT and business strategy
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills in complex environments where resources required for success may not be in direct control of this role
• Evangelizing and implementing transformational initiatives where the target state included agile, DevOps, SRE, cloud adoption at scale.
• Consolidating operations capabilities in large, complex enterprise organizations to deliver improved efficiency, while balancing customer preferences for agility. 
• Excellent analytical, strategic conceptual thinking, strategic planning, and execution skills
• Ability to build consensus, make decisions based on many variables, and gain support for major initiatives. 
• Self-starter who self-assesses and solicits feedback from others to improve their performance.
• Experience developing strategies to leverage fusion teams that embrace business technologists
• Strong business acumen, including industry, domain-specific knowledge of the enterprise and its business units
• Delivery of hybrid working excellence to improve customer and user experiences 
• Developing staff including coaching, mentoring and performance management.
• Maximizing effectiveness of nearshore / offshore resource models
• Building cloud management solutions, including software development, integration, and ongoing engineering aspects. 
• Creating self-service mechanisms to streamline infrastructure provisioning and ongoing management
• Budget planning and financial management, preferably with showback and/or chargeback models
• Deep understanding of current and emerging IT Operations technologies and practices, and how other enterprises are employing them
• Applying IT Operations capabilities to achieve regulatory or statutory compliance requirements.
• Establishing and improving DevOps, as well as other working practices (e.g., ITIL).
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute a strategic staffing plan that ensures the right people are in the right roles at the right time, and team members are highly engaged and satisfied.
• Developing governance practices to track and measure the quality of services and maintain service improvement plans.
• Third-party management, working closely with sourcing and vendor managers.

Education and Qualifications

• Must be at least 21 years of age.
• High school diploma (or equivalent) required; Bachelor'sbachelor’s degree in a computer science discipline or business strongly preferred. Substantial relevant experience or a combination of education and experience may be substituted.
• Ten (10) years of progressive management experience in IT operations requiredare required.
• Must have aA minimum of five (5) years of experience in the casino gaming industry is preferred.
• Experience must also include substantial exposure to in-house and shared or outsourced systems, multiple hardware platforms, and integrated information and communications systems.
• Prior experience with practice management, financial management, and operating management systems is preferred.
• Must possess an in-depth understanding of the key business issues in the casino industry including but not limited to strategic and operational planning, economics, federal, state and local laws, marketing, financial and cost analysis, and casino industry trends and best practices.
• Must be knowledgeable about systems design and development processes including requirements analysis, feasibility studies, software design, programming, pilot testing, installation, evaluation, and operational management.
• Must be able to successfully negotiate with vendors, contractors and others.
• Must be able to prepare and manage the department’s annual budgets.
• Must have excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Must be able to travel locally (Southern Nevada) and domestically.
• Must be able to obtain/maintain any necessary licenses and/or certifications.

Boyd Gaming is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state, or local protected class.

Boyd Gaming is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state, or local protected class.