IWU is seeking a “director level” Senior Infrastructure Consultant (Independent Contractor - 1099 / Contract-to-Hire) to lead the team that designs, builds, and runs IWU's technology foundation for a large-scale technology reorganization project.
Learn more about IWU Technology.
Architecture and Standards
• This is a leader‑of‑leaders role. You set direction, develop the team, hold the standard, and deliver outcomes through your managers and engineers ‑ not by operating systems yourself. You are accountable for establishing and maintaining high‑performance infrastructure.
• You will create infrastructure standards, partner with Enterprise Architecture on the technology roadmap, and manage the colocation, hardware, software, and vendor relationships that span the program.
Site Build and Facilities Operations
• Direct the program to stand up the two new commercial colocation sites in active/active configuration ‑ site evaluation, BICSI / TIA-942 alignment, power sizing, cross-connect and carrier strategy, physical security, and DCIM tooling.
• Manage data center capacity planning, hardware procurement and lifecycle management, and the colocation, OEM, and reseller relationships that support the program.
• Drive the multi‑site disaster recovery posture replication topology, failover and failback runbooks, RPO/RTO targets, and a regular DR exercise cadence.
Compute, Network, and Storage
• Lead the team that operates the compute platform ‑ bare‑metal, VMware, and Kubernetes and the lifecycle of GPU/NPU and accelerator nodes that host AI workloads.
• Lead the team that operates the network fabric ‑ leaf/spine topology, RoCE / InfiniBand / 100G+ Ethernet, intra- and inter-site connectivity, and traffic management for active/active operation.
• Lead the team that operates the storage tier ‑ software‑defined storage, block / object / file services, snapshots, replication, backup, and restore.
• Partner with the Enterprise AI Architect to translate AI platform requirements into deployable, supportable infrastructure designs your team can operate.
Telecom and End-User Services
• Lead the leadership of the End‑User Help Desk and Endpoint Operations teams ‑ laptops and desktops, printing, endpoint identity onboarding, software distribution, and the support experience for faculty, staff, and to a very limited extent ‑ students.
• Lead the leadership of the Telcom team ‑ MS Teams Voice and POTS service
• Define and hold the standard for end-user support - response and resolution targets, ticket quality, knowledge-base discipline, and a feedback loop into infrastructure platform decisions.
Service Operations and Uptime
• Establish ITIL‑aligned service management ‑ change, incident, problem, configuration, capacity, and availability management ‑ appropriate for a 99.99’s 24/7 dual-site footprint.
• Work with Site Reliability Engineering to maintain operational uptime ‑ infrastructure health, hardware faults, environmental status, and service and endpoint availability across sites. Application‑level performance and SLOs are owned by the Site Reliability function in the Software organization; you partner with them on incident response and capacity signals.
• Lead the on-call rotation, escalation paths, and post‑incident review process for infrastructure-owned services.
• Partner with Site Reliability, and InfoSec on infrastructure‑layer controls ‑ patching, hardening, network segmentation, secrets management, and vulnerability management.
Team Leadership
• Build, grow, and mentor the infrastructure organization ‑ managers, engineers, operators, and support staff across data‑center operations, compute, network, telecom, storage, endpoint, and the help desk, while holding leaders accountable for performance goals and outcomes.
• Translate executive priorities into infrastructure roadmaps, budgets, and quarterly milestones the whole organization can commit to.
What We Are Looking For
Required
• According to Indiana Wesleyan University policy, all employees and contract‑to‑hire contractors must possess a strong Christian commitment and adhere to the standards outlined in the IWU Community Lifestyle Statement.
• 15+ years of progressive IT infrastructure experience, with 10+ years leading infrastructure organizations (managers and engineers, not just individual contributors).
• Demonstrated track record of building and operating enterprise data center infrastructure at scale ‑ compute, network, storage, virtualization, and the operational practices behind them ‑ at production scale.
• Credible technical breadth across the layers your team operates: bare‑metal, VMware, Kubernetes, Linux and Windows server estates, leaf/spine networking, and software‑defined storage. You don't need to be the deepest expert in each; you need to challenge designs, set direction, and recognize trouble.
• Experience leading multi‑site active/active operations, including replication, traffic management, and disaster recovery design and exercise.
• Experience establishing and running ITIL‑aligned service management at scale ‑ change, incident, problem, configuration, capacity, and availability.
• Experience leading an end‑user help desk and endpoint operations organization ‑ ticket discipline, response and resolution standards, and the support experience for diverse user populations (faculty, staff, and students).
• Experience with telecom estate management ‑ voice, conferencing, mobile fleet, and the carrier and service‑provider relationships behind them.
• Vendor and contract management ‑ colocation providers, OEM hardware, software licensing, and telecom carriers ‑ including cost negotiation and SLA enforcement.
• Capacity and capital planning ‑ annual capex/opex modeling, hardware refresh cadence, and multi‑year infrastructure roadmaps.
• Bachelor's degree in an IT‑related technical field ‑ or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Strongly Preferred
• Background in a regulated or compliance‑sensitive industry (education/FERPA‑Title‑IV, financial services/GLBA, healthcare/HIPAA, insurance, public sector, defense).
• Familiarity with on‑prem AI / GPU infrastructure operations ‑ the partner side of the work the Enterprise AI Architect is doing.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Entra ID and modern endpoint management (Intune / Autopilot, conditional access, device compliance).
• Experience growing an infrastructure organization through a major program ‑ data center build, M&A integration, or a large platform migration.
• Earlier hands-on career as an engineer, sysadmin, or network admin ‑ you remember what "good" looks like at the work-floor level.
How You Work
• You make decisions with incomplete information, document the reasoning, and revise them as new evidence arrives.
• You optimize for outcomes and operability, not novelty ‑ you choose boring technology when boring is right, and bleeding‑edge when the business case justifies it.
• You collaborate generously across teams and treat every conversation as an opportunity to raise the bar around you.
• You stay curious. The infrastructure and AI landscapes both move quickly, and you have a system for keeping up.
• You believe operational excellence is a daily discipline, not a quarterly initiative. Uptime is a habit you inherit and a habit you build.
• You communicate up and down with equal clarity ‑ translating executive priorities into work the team can execute, and translating engineering reality into decisions executives can act on.
Why This Role
• Greenfield infrastructure. You are not inheriting a sprawling legacy estate ‑ you are leading the build of the multi‑site active/active footprint that will run IWU's enterprise systems and AI workloads for the next decade.
• Real budget, real hardware. The investment is a serious commitment in capacity, dual‑site colocation, telecom, and dedicated infrastructure engineering. You will deploy meaningful hardware, not slide decks.
• Strategic visibility. Infrastructure is a board‑level priority. Your work will be visible to the executive team and material to the business.
• Mission and meaning. IWU is a century‑old Christ‑centered university serving roughly 15,000 learners. The infrastructure you build keeps the systems running that prepare them to change the world.
PROJECT REMUNERATION:
Estimated annual project remuneration is $210,000 ‑ $230,000 for this independent contractor (1099) / Contract‑to‑Hire role.
Contractor Insurance/Bond Requirements
• General Liability: $1m per occurrence / $2m aggregate
• Cyber Liability: $2m per occurrence
• Workers’ Compensation / Employers’ Liability: $500,000; not applicable for approved sole operators
• Professional Liability / Errors & Omissions: $1m per occurrence / $3m aggregate
• Automotive Liability: Not required
• Umbrella/Excess Liability: Not required
• Bonds: None required
Equipment & Travel Expenses
• IWU will provide required equipment and software. Personal devices and software are generally not permitted for assigned work unless approved by IWU.
• IWU will pay for required and approved travel and other expenses.
• Specific policies, rules, and details will be included in the executed contract.
Engagement Process
• Easy‑Apply on LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Survey
• Phone Screen
• Video Interviews
• On-Site Interview/Tour
• Contract Engagement Begins
Compliance & Disclaimers
IWU is an equal opportunity employer committed to compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or other federal, state, or local laws or executive orders except as claimed in a filed religious exemption.