Senior Director, User Support

Department

OPS ITS - Chief Technology Office

About the Department

IT Services (ITS) collaborates with campus partners to support the mission of the University of Chicago through the consistent delivery of high-quality solutions and services. We provide secure, stable, and reliable infrastructure and applications that support the mission of the University. ITS supports and enables faculty research and teaching with the effective use of technology, simplifies the technology experience for all users, identifies, manages, and mitigates technology risks for the University.

Job Summary

The Senior Director, User Support provides divisional leadership over the full spectrum of end-user IT services at the University of Chicago, including communication technologies, enterprise service management, IT field support, desktop engineering, and executive support. The Senior Director is accountable for setting and executing an integrated user support strategy that delivers consistent, high-quality service to faculty, students, and staff across the university and its global centers. This role leads through three direct reports and is responsible for aligning service operations, ITSM process governance, voice and collaboration infrastructure, and desktop support capabilities into a coherent, scalable service organization. The Senior Director translates institutional IT priorities into measurable operational outcomes, ensures financial sustainability through cost recovery and recharge models, and represents ITS in senior university and inter-institutional forums.

Responsibilities

• Develops and owns the multi-year strategy for user support services across IT field support, desktop engineering, executive support (4EXEC), communication technologies, and enterprise service management.
• Defines the portfolio scope, performance standards, and service level commitments for each function.
• Ensures strategic alignment with ITS priorities and broader University objectives, and translates institutional goals into measurable operational plans executed through a layered management structure. 
• Provides executive direction over ITSM process governance including incident, problem, change, request, and knowledge management functions, operated through the Director of Service Management.
• Ensures disaster recovery planning and service continuity programs meet institutional risk standards.
• Drives continuous improvement initiatives that produce measurable gains in service quality, resolution time, and customer satisfaction across Tier 1 and Tier 2 support.
• Sets strategic direction for desktop engineering, desktop support, TechBar, and executive support operations.
• Directs capacity modeling and scenario planning to support decisions about service expansion, staffing investment, and recharge rate structures.
• Maintains accountability for endpoint security policy compliance, asset management accuracy, and lifecycle management across all ITS-managed devices.
• Provides strategic oversight for voice services, collaboration technologies, and media services operated through the Director of Communication Technologies.
• Ensures these services are reliable, cost-effective, and aligned with the evolving collaboration needs of the University community.
• Maintains vendor relationships and service roadmaps for key platforms including telephony, web conferencing, and AV/media systems.
• Develops and manages a multi-unit operating budget.
• Designs, maintains, and evolves cost recovery and recharge models for opt-in services across desktop support, desktop engineering, and executive support functions.
• Conducts ongoing financial analysis to ensure recharge rates reflect actual service costs and support informed decisions about service growth or consolidation.
• Serves as the senior ITS representative in relationships with divisional IT units, academic departments, and University administration.
• Participates in inter-institutional forums such as CIC and Ivy Plus.
• Translates service capability and strategic direction into clear, accessible communication for non-technical University stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Builds and sustains a high-performing, inclusive organization through a layered management structure overseeing a 63-person unit.
• Establishes staffing plans, succession pipelines, and professional development programs.
• Provides leadership and ensures that the efforts of IT Field Support Services meet or exceed process, workflow, protocol, procedural, and standardization requirements of IT Services. In conjunction with the other units within ITS, lead the exploration of new and/or replacement desktop support, self-service, problem resolution, knowledge base.
• Establishes the group's operating budget, create and maintain a staffing plan and professional development program, assess staff performance, and monitor productivity to best apply staff talent and experience to problems and projects.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 10+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field.

Experience:

• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in IT service management, user support, or a related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience leading multi-function teams through senior managers in a complex organizational environment.
• Demonstrated experience with ITSM frameworks (ITIL or equivalent), cost recovery and recharge modeling, and service delivery in a decentralized or higher education IT environment.
• Managing large operating budgets including vendor contracts, recharge billing, and capital planning. 
• Prior experience in a research university or similarly decentralized institutional environment.

Preferred Competencies

• Effective communicator across technical and non-technical audiences, including executive leadership. 
• Demonstrated success integrating previously separate functional units, such as service management and communication technologies, into a coherent service organization.
• Strong financial reasoning skills including cost modeling and recharge rate analysis.
• Demonstrated capacity to build high-performing teams through a layered management structure.
• Sound judgment in navigating competing priorities within a shared-services, opt-in service model.

Working Conditions

• Hybrid, onsite and remote as determined by business needs.
• On-call responsibilities for critical service incidents affecting University-wide IT operations.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• References Contact Information (3)(required)

Job Family

Information Technology

Role Impact

People Manager

Scheduled Weekly Hours

37.5

Drug Test Required

No

Health Screen Required

No

Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry Required

No

Pay Rate Type

Salary

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FLSA Status

Exempt

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Pay Range

$189,000.00

The included pay rate or range represents the University’s good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting.

Benefits Eligible

Yes

The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook.

Posting Statement

The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.

 

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.

 

All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history.  A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment.  Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case-by-case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.

 

The University of Chicago's Annual Security & Fire Safety Report (Report) provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at: http://securityreport.uchicago.edu. Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637.