Position Overview

The Director of Development Operations is a critical top leader in the organization reporting to the Chief Technology Officer. This position is entrusted and accountable for leading Development Operation managers and coordinating resources and processes to deliver the high quality cPanel products that keep us leading the world in hosting. This roles makes a difference by being a strong quality product development leader who is passionate about technical challenges within a fast-paced environment, and by developing and executing on business strategy with leadership team peers and the VP of Product Development. This role requires business acumen, pragmatic decision-making skills and focus on strategy, execution and delivery for the highest level of quality. Strong leadership skills and demand for the highest standards of delivery and quality translate to measurable success for the company.

Essential Functions:

• Ownership of cPanel Product Development team staffing ensuring we have the people, skills, and organization necessary to accomplish product and company objectives.
• Leads, manages and mentors a team of Development Operations managers, who in turn, oversee and manage cross-functional teams to maintain a product pipeline that successfully addresses quarterly releases,short term, long term objectives and emerging opportunities
• Provides and drives forward strategic vision to direct report managers, and teams as applicable, for cPanel products and systems related to those products:
• cPanel/WHM
  • build and distribution systems
  • other related products and systems
  • internal development infrastructure
• Creates a strong product management culture that incorporates design best practices, data, testing, and agile development with the ultimate goal of best quality
• Ensures that cPanel products are developed and perform to quality expectations, in part by creating standards that are reviewed and approved by product owners, direct report managers, and the leadership team
• Monitors product development sprints and evaluates results for quality
• Co-owns the product roadmap with the VP of Product Development and communicates with the Leadership Team, C-Level members, board members, as necessary, and other stakeholders
• Minimize schedule and technical risk by foreseeing and addressing impediments to quality proactively and aggressively.
• Hiring process responsibilities including deciding which roles and skills are needed, makes hiring recommendations with direct report manager team; delegates recruiting to DevOps managers and Technical Recruiter; not necessarily involved in hiring interviews
• Responsible for planning and administration of the department budget/s, with an overall plan vs actual spending variance of less than 5%
• Adheres to the policies and procedures of the company
• Exemplifies the Core Values of Integrity, Respect, Collaboration, and Follow-Through

Leadership and Management Responsibilities:

• Performance management including coaching, counseling, mentoring, tracking of performance and providing performance evaluations
• Assists direct reports in developing new skills and enhancing current skill sets
• Proactively seeks to improve departments under supervision, including provides employees specific goals and objectives, and provides guidance on how to achieve them
• Responsible for developing department budgets, forecasting financial needs, and meeting company financial objectives
• Timely follow-through on communications internally and externally including email, tickets, and one on one meetings
• Displays ongoing empathy and appreciation to employees and earns the confidence of the department by understanding the needs of the employee and department, while providing a safe place for employees to express themselves
• Maintains the ability to autonomously handle employee issues while regularly collaborating with EXD and other managers / leadership team peers

Required Skills and Abilities:

• Business Acumen and Financial Stewardship; solid understanding and application of business principles, goals management and follow-through
• Leadership and Management by Power With not Power Over, leading with integrity, inspiring confidence,creating trust relationships, coaching, counseling, mentoring, tracking of performance and providing effective performance reviews
• Large Project Management and follow-through
• Transparency and Communication: Does not hide the ball from employees
• Interpersonal Skills: Self-motivated, team player, builds trust, action and results oriented; open and collaborative style; must be comfortable working in an environment where ideas are shared and challenged
• Communication Skills: Strong, professional written, oral, interpersonal and presentation skills and the ability to effectively interface with all ranges of employees, direct reports, executive management, and customers
• Leadership Skills: Strong mentoring and coaching with team/reporting departments of diverse levels of expertise, including smart interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; goal setting, appraising performance; coaching and counseling employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems; entrepreneurial team player
• Management Skills - Able to supervise multiple managers and direct reports, and carry out management responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws
• Project Management Skills: Able to prioritize work activities, use time efficiently and work through large projects in a self-motivated manner; able to supervise the progression of multiple projects simultaneously
• Attention to Detail: Thoroughness in accomplishing a task for all essential functions, double- checking the accuracy and quality of own work product to provide accurate, precise, and consistent work
• Math skills - able to perform basic Algebra and work with percentages
• Adaptability: Able to adapt to changes in the work environment, manage competing demands and able to deal with frequent change, delays or unexpected events
• Business Acumen: Demonstrates good judgment and strong skills in achieving maximum organizational performance and efficiencies
• Problem Solving Skills: Ability to operate as effective tactical as well as strategic thinker; excellent and creative problem solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution skills; able to apply independent judgment when needed as well as consult with ESD and provide insightful analysis in a team setting

Travel - frequent local and/or overnight travel, some by interstate air, is required, Road Warrior status (35+ trips or nights annually)

Availability - frequently able to be on call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week (by cell)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent in development/ operations experience
• 15+ years overall IT industry experience in the software development domain
• 10+ years of Linux/BSD/*nix system troubleshooting or a related certification (RHCE, LPIC, etc)
• 10+ years of development experience
• 10+ years of successful software project management experience or related experience
• Expert understanding of Scrum methodologies and Agile practices
• 5+ years of experience in policy definition and leadership team advisement
• 5+ years in a management role reporting to executive level
• Proven track record of building and leading collaborative teams to produce significant, measurable results

Technical Skills

• Advanced knowledge of Linux based operating systems, their underlying components and services as related to web hosting: Web Servers, SQL Servers, DNS Servers, Mail Servers, Application Hosting,File systems and Industry Standards of things like these.
• Advanced knowledge of system design, application architecture, development practices and industry standards related to these
• Advanced knowledge of Development practices: Regular Expressions, MVC, OO or other organized programming practices
• Expert understanding of Scrum methodologies and Agile practices
• Proven track record of building and leading collaborative teams to produce significant, measurable results