Interim Executive Director

Job Title: Interim Executive Director – Network Infrastructure Services

Location: Columbia, SC

Employment Type: Contract / Interim Leadership Assignment

Duration: 9–12 months + potential ext

Work Setup: On-site

We are seeking an experienced technology executive to provide immediate leadership, organizational stabilization, and transformation for a Network Infrastructure Services department within a university environment.

This is a high-impact interim leadership opportunity for someone who has successfully led large, complex technology organizations through periods of operational, organizational, and cultural change.

The Opportunity

The Interim Executive Director will be responsible for stabilizing departmental operations, strengthening accountability, rebuilding organizational culture, improving service delivery, and preparing the department for permanent executive leadership.

The selected leader will have the authority to assess the organization, address performance and operational challenges, restructure teams and responsibilities where necessary, and implement sustainable governance and management practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership for all departmental operations
• Lead organizational transformation and culture-improvement initiatives
• Evaluate organizational structure, staffing, leadership effectiveness, operational processes, and service delivery
• Restructure reporting relationships, staffing models, and operational responsibilities when needed
• Establish performance expectations and monitor organizational outcomes
• Address employee performance and employee-relations matters in partnership with Human Resources
• Coach, mentor, and develop managers, supervisors, and professional staff
• Restore accountability, professionalism, customer-service standards, and operational discipline
• Stabilize operations while maintaining continuity of critical IT services
• Develop and monitor departmental priorities, performance metrics, and strategic initiatives
• Manage departmental budgets and allocate resources based on institutional priorities
• Establish governance, communication, and decision-making processes
• Improve collaboration with division leadership, university administration, and campus stakeholders
• Ensure compliance with university policies, security standards, audit requirements, and regulatory obligations
• Support succession planning and prepare transition documentation for permanent leadership
• Provide executive-level reports, recommendations, and organizational improvement plans to senior leadership

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and at least eight years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education, certification, training, and experience
• At least three years of executive-level organizational transformation and change-management experience
• At least three years of experience leading organizational restructuring and culture change
• At least three years of executive leadership experience within a large, complex technology organization
• At least three years of experience in personnel management, leadership coaching, and performance accountability
• Demonstrated ability to make difficult personnel, operational, and resource-allocation decisions
• Strong executive communication, stakeholder-management, and organizational leadership skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading organizational turnaround initiatives
• Experience rebuilding organizational culture following periods of instability
• Experience implementing governance and operational-maturity frameworks
• Higher-education or university IT leadership experience
• Enterprise IT strategy-development experience
• Experience working with executive leadership, governing boards, or cabinet-level administration
• Knowledge of network operations, enterprise network architecture and engineering, project management, and change management
• Experience supporting audit remediation and risk-management initiatives

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a decisive and objective technology executive who can quickly assess a complex organization, build trust with key stakeholders, address difficult organizational issues, and create measurable improvements in culture, accountability, governance, customer service, and operational performance.

This position is best suited for an experienced Interim CIO, Deputy CIO, Associate CIO, Executive IT Director, Infrastructure Executive, or technology transformation leader with experience managing large infrastructure or network-services organizations.