Interim Infrastructure Governance & Operations Leader

Title: Interim Infrastructure Governance & Operations Leader

Location: New Haven, CT (4 days onsite)

Client Industry: Higher Education

Compensation: $125 - $150/hr.

We have partnered with a leading higher education institution in the search for an Interim Infrastructure Governance & Operations Leader. This leader will provide executive-level oversight to a large enterprise infrastructure organization of approximately 100 professionals responsible for networking, data center, and server operations.

This is a high-impact interim assignment for a seasoned technology operations leader who can quickly assess a complex environment, strengthen governance, improve operating discipline, and reinforce accountability across an established infrastructure function. The focus of the role is not primarily hands-on architecture or engineering execution. Instead, the mandate is to help the organization operate with greater consistency, control, reliability, and leadership rigor.

The ideal candidate will bring deep experience leading infrastructure or enterprise technology operations in large, complex environments, along with a demonstrated ability to improve policy adherence, process execution, change control, incident discipline, and leadership accountability in mission-critical settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior-level oversight and leadership guidance to a large enterprise infrastructure organization spanning networking, data center, and server operations
• Assess current operating practices, decision-making, governance, and leadership accountability across the infrastructure function
• Strengthen adherence to established policies, processes, approvals, and operational controls
• Improve discipline around change management, incident management, escalation, communication, and execution
• Partner closely with IT and infrastructure leadership to clarify expectations, ownership, decision rights, and follow-through
• Support and, where appropriate, lead post-incident reviews and ensure corrective actions are clearly defined, assigned, and enforced
• Identify high-risk process gaps, control weaknesses, and operational vulnerabilities, and prioritize practical remediation steps
• Reinforce leadership rigor around planning, review, accountability, and service continuity
• Serve as a visible, stabilizing, and high-accountability presence within the broader IT leadership team
• Coach leaders where appropriate and escalate issues when needed to protect operational integrity
• Help create a more disciplined, repeatable, and sustainable operating model across the infrastructure organization

Skills Required

• Significant senior leadership experience in IT infrastructure, infrastructure operations, enterprise technology operations, or a closely related function
• Experience overseeing complex infrastructure environments with responsibility for reliability, service continuity, operational governance, and risk reduction
• Demonstrated success improving process discipline, policy adherence, governance, and accountability within established technical organizations
• Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure operations, including networking, data center, server, and related operational domains
• Proven ability to strengthen change control, incident management, escalation processes, and execution discipline
• Strong executive presence, sound judgment, and the ability to operate credibly with both senior leadership and deeply technical teams
• Ability to enter a complex environment quickly, assess gaps, establish priorities, and drive action
• Comfortable working onsite in a collaborative, leadership-facing environment

Education & Work Experience

• Experience in large, complex, highly matrixed organizations
• Experience in regulated, compliance-oriented, or otherwise high-control environments
• Prior interim, turnaround, stabilization, or transformation leadership assignments
• Experience serving as part of a senior leadership team while guiding established infrastructure leaders through operational change
• Background in enterprise environments where uptime, governance, and execution discipline are especially critical
• Higher education experience is welcome, but not required

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About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry unleashes potential in people, teams, and organizations. We work with our clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers. To learn more, please visit Korn Ferry at www.Kornferry.com