Acumen (Part of Sannam S4 Group) Looking for Senior Director/Director IT at New Delhi, Delhi, India Full Time

About us

ACUMEN is committed to helping globally-ambitious university and education partners enter, explore and expand in South Asia, South East Asia, and beyond. We offer a dedicated range of services to drive recruitment, student enrolment, develop strategic partnerships, and deliver bespoke consulting projects.

We act as an extension of your brand, by connecting you with the world’s best students, utilising strategic international education opportunities, understanding your ideal market through research and insights, and help mitigate any risks along the way. We operate in over 20 countries, with more than 250 industry practitioners with deep local knowledge and global expertise. We help navigate a competitive education landscape from end to end, while always prioritising your success.

We all need an edge in today’s competitive international education market. What worked for you in the past won’t be enough to succeed today. Let us help you reach your international student recruitment goals, find the right partners, understand your ideal market with insights, and launch new global initiatives.

Our track record speaks for itself – one out of five Indian students studying in the UK is an Acumen student, as is one out of every four Nepalese students. We deliver excellence throughout Asia and beyond. We know what you need to thrive, not only today but in the future. With Acumen as your internationalisation partner, we help you navigate the entire journey from start to finish, we’re there every step of the way.

Our Approach

Bringing innovation to the education market.

From our origins in India to our diverse, global education service across Asia and beyond, our approach has always been to give organisational leaders precisely what they need. Guidance and expertise through their internationalisation journey that they can trust.

Our end-to-end approach empowers universities, educational institutions, Government Departments and organisations to take their first steps onto the global stage. We’re here every step of the way to provide the recommendations and resources needed to achieve positive results.

Since our story began in 2008 under the Sannam S4 Group umbrella, Acumen, the most-trusted name in the education sector, is focused on providing valuable market insight, guidance, and internationalisation for our clients. Our unique understanding, people-first approach and student-focused insights have made us an invaluable partner for education institutions and organisations in every corner of the globe.

We take the globalisation of education institutions and organisations to the next level, never losing sight of what’s important. Our people and partners.

What are we seeking?

As Acumen, Part of Sannam S4 Group continues to grow, we intend to evolve the delivery of our service to the education sector (largely focused on Higher Education clients). A relentless focus on customer service, efficiency, discipline and planning ahead of growth is going to be critical for the business achieving its ambitious plans. We seek talent who are excited by a growth story and enjoy problem solving in an ambiguous and dynamic environment.

The ideal candidate should be having a minimum of 15+ years’ work experience managing IT Infrastructure architecture, security, performance, availability, incident, and capacity, configuration, and change-management processes and for the tools, vendors and resources to support 247 uptime and availability SLAs. This person is also responsible for working with software and IT support-related vendors. The candidate should be very confident communicating with clients at all levels and inspiring a growing team of professionals. The candidate should be open and an active team player who is willing to provide new ideas and suggestions and implement them.

Role & Responsibilities

• Responsible for complete infrastructure design, systems analysis, security, data center operation, network & voice communication.
• Maintains key infrastructure support systems such as CMDB, Monitoring, Cloud services, Backup/Recovery, Identity and Access Management, Patching, Anti-Virus, Printing, Mobility
• Acts as expert for infrastructure teams in the plan, design, and delivery of IT solutions.
• Advises teams of IT technology standard requirements, methodology and processes.
• Participates in proof of concepts to assist in defining technology direction and enabling business strategy.
• Communicates and validates program architecture with infrastructure team, project management team, and technology services management team.
• Provide third level support for incidents and problems in designated areas of expertise.
• Author and exercise the information technology disaster recovery and business continuity plans
• Support and participate in the investigation of security incidents, identifying root, technical, contributing or organizational causes, and implement preventive actions where necessary
• Leading and supporting the design, development, implementation, testing, and maintenance of multiple infrastructure domains (servers, network, virtualization, storage, middleware, security, messaging)
• Lead the development and implementation of technology solutions, ensuring they align with business goals. Develop and execute project plans, ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget. Define project scope, goals, and deliverables that support business objectives. Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation, including project charters, schedules, and budgets. Develop and execute project plans, ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget.
• Lead Cloud Migration and Cloud Managed Services on AWS/ GCP/ Azure as needed
• Provide technical expertise for assigned infrastructure projects, which may include equipment ordering, testing, troubleshooting, installation, and implementation of upgrades or configuration enhancements
• Create and implement framework to meet Data Security requirement.

Reporting Lines

Reports to the Executive Director Finance

Minimum required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology Management, Computer Science, or related discipline and a minimum of 15 years of professional experience in information technology roles.
• 15+ years’ experience in a production IT environment managing enterprise IT infrastructure, hardware, project management, hosting service and network areas.

Work Experience

• Has understanding of Managed Services and hosting on Azure /AWS / GCP including management of application servers and database instances, cost management, security, WAF, Firewall, SIEM, IDS and IPS
• Has a thorough knowledge of the Domains, Active Directory and its concepts, and the interaction between hardware, operating systems, network, data center, and application software, Windows is a must and Linux is a plus.
• Strong working knowledge of VMware, Hypervisor or other virtual software.
• Working Knowledge of Dockers, Containers and Kubernetes, Deep understanding of TCP, IP and other network protocols. Familiarity with DNS, DHCP and other network services, Security monitoring tools and Mobile Device Management
• Has ability to operate in a fast-paced, evolving environment and appropriately prioritize tasks, and keep abreast of the latest technology.
• Thorough knowledge of server and client- based technologies including virtualization, Active Directory, Group Policy, DHCP, SQL, business application software and backup & disaster recovery
• Mastery of network and communications architecture, hardware and networking protocols and configurations including, but not limited to, routers, switches, VPN, Wireless, SAN and NAS.
• Windows 2012/2016 Server installation and configuration (Active directory/DNS etc.)
• Experience in Office 365, Teams, SharePoint Administration
• Experience in Antivirus Software’s like McAfee, Symantec etc.
• Has worked on Infrastructure monitoring products
• Should have good understanding in compliances like ISO27001, PCI DSS, GDPR. etc.

Desired/Preferred Skills

With a strong track record of professionalism and support for our clients, Acumen has built its business on individuals who bring value and experience to the business and its clients and the accountability that a medium sized business requires.

• Knowledge of Internet, security and e-mail protocols, DNS, HTTP, SMTP, IPsec, certificates, NAC
• Thorough understanding of key platform concepts such as performance, redundancy, fail-over, DR, etc.
• Strong technical troubleshooting and analytical skills to assess and recommend technology and technical solutions.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills along with the ability to present effectively to senior managers including CEO and executive leadership team.
• Ability to write architectural design documents or review design documents provided by others.
• Knowledge and understanding of industry trends and new technologies and ability to apply trends to architectural needs.