Director of Enterprise Applications-Information Technology

The ancestors of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation existed many centuries ago as a community of people…a Tribe living together, farming, hunting and fishing to survive.

Much has changed since that time.  Today the Sycuan Tribe governs its Reservation, owns and operates a Casino and a Golf Resort, and owns a number of other business ventures in the San Diego Region.   

One attribute that remains unchanged, however, is Sycuan's sense of community.  Sycuan is more than just a business.  Sycuan is a community of people working together toward a common goal.  Whether you work in our state-of-the-art  Casino, our beautiful Resort, or become a staff member in our Tribal Government division, you will be part of the Sycuan family.

Job Purpose:

This is the most senior role in strategic application delivery, accountable for aligning applications and business needs throughout the organization. The Director of Enterprise Applications is responsible for the delivery of all critical business applications, DevSecOps, and data services used to enable business capabilities and services across the enterprise.

The Director of Enterprise Applications brings experience, knowledge, and future vision for transforming the IT function including its strategy, operating model, product and service offerings and workforce. The role holder is a senior stakeholder in all relationships with externally sourced application and development capabilities.

As a key member of the senior IT leadership team this role contributes to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring technology strategy is fully aligned, positioning IT to deliver compelling business value.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

(Note: Duties and responsibilities may be added, deleted, or changed at the sole discretion of Sycuan Management at any time)

• Works with business stakeholders to strategically select and deploys applications, software and services to the organization to maximize the success of business and IT enterprise initiatives.
• Introduces innovative, differentiating operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance employee productivity.
• Ensures that departments can operate efficiently by creating new solutions or modifying existing applications to support business needs.
• Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritize resources, including budget. Works with key stakeholders to measure and prioritize new application solutions and resulting ROI/ROO.
• Builds successful stakeholder relationships with other IT and business key stakeholders by developing a clear understanding of business needs, acting as a trusted advisor, and ensuring cost-effective delivery of technology solutions to meet those needs.
• Collaborates with the IT Security Operations to ensure technology contributes to, embraces, and applies security strategy.
• Operates a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by IT teams. Supports periodic reviews by audit teams, compliance teams and other risk-related functions as required.
• Drives the adoption of (and commitment towards) service improvements through a programmatic approach to continuous improvement which also measures impact and shares results.
• Serves on IT planning and policymaking committees; drives the development and adoption of enterprise technology standards, governance processes and performance metrics.
• Continuously evaluates the business value technology solutions, including the use of metrics such as Key Performance Indicators, Outcome Driven Metrics and Objectives and Key Results.
• Collaborates with peer IT Leaders to ensure knowledge and insight can be freely shared.

Job Specifications:

Education and Experience:

Essential:

• Bachelor’s or master's degree in computer science, information systems, business administration, related field, or equivalent work experience
• Six or more years of experience in IT or supporting a technology organization
• Three or more years of leadership responsibilities, including strategy, budgeting, and staffing

Desirable:

• Four years managing software development teams.
• Five years working for a gaming or hospitality company
• Experience working for a Native American tribe or tribal enterprise

Skills and Knowledge:

Essential:

• Exceptional leadership skills, with the ability to develop and communicate a technology vision that inspires and motivates staff and aligns with the IT and business strategy
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills in complex environments where resources required for success may not be in direct control of this role
• Evangelizing and implementing transformational initiatives where the target state included agile, DevOps, SRE, cloud adoption at scale.
• Consolidating operations capabilities in large, complex enterprise organizations to deliver improved efficiency, while balancing customer preferences for agility. 
• Excellent analytical, strategic conceptual thinking, strategic planning, and execution skills
• Ability to build consensus, make decisions based on many variables, and gain support for major initiatives. 
• Self-starter who self-assesses and solicits feedback from others to improve their performance.
• Strong business acumen, including industry, domain-specific knowledge of the enterprise and its business units
• Delivery of hybrid working excellence to improve customer and user experiences 
• Developing staff including coaching, mentoring and performance management.
• Building cloud management solutions, including software development, integration, and ongoing engineering aspects. 
• Applying AI / ML to solve large data challenges and / or to enhance the customer experience
• Budget planning and financial management.
• Deep understanding of current and emerging application architectures and practices, and how other enterprises are employing them
• Applying technology capabilities to achieve regulatory or statutory compliance requirements.
• Establishing and improving DevOps, as well as other working practices (e.g., ITIL).
• Developing governance practices to track and measure the quality of services and maintain service improvement plans.

Desirable:

• Working knowledge of Aristocrat Oasis, Everi Compliance, Casino Insights, SSI point of sale, Bravo, FourWinds, Infor HMS, and Red Rocks Procurement systems.

• Strong background in DevSecOps
• Proficiency with mobile and distributed application development
• Experience supporting Azure cloud solutions and a hybrid could environment
• Experience with integration service platforms such as RabbitMQ or MuleSoft
• Experience with reporting and analytics platforms such as SSRS, Tableau, PowerBI

Supervisory/Managerial Accountability:

Direct: Application developers, Data engineers

Indirect: None

If you enjoy being part of a community dedicated to creating a memorable guest experience, we invite you to explore career opportunities with Sycuan and join our winning team!