What Are the Ideal Qualities of a Director of Corporate IT?

Whether your director has stepped down or your company has grown in size enough to warrant developing such a position, hiring a director of information technology (IT) is an enormous undertaking. Obviously you will want someone trustworthy, knowledgeable, responsible, experienced and who can lead your IT department efficiently and effectively.

When creating a job description, where do you begin? With so many attributes to include, where does one start the list?

Of course, a lot of what human resources and the hiring manager include on the list will be established by what the enterprise needs. Some information technology departments are driven by compliance directives that regulate the business’ data governance. Others rely on specific types of hardware and software based on the business’ processes.

To help you get started on creating a detailed job posting for a director of corporate IT, our downloads area offers a sample job description. The .pdf file includes an introduction and a list of responsibilities that can be used as is or added to as needed.

The introduction includes a description of the company and why it is seeking a new director of IT. Early in the job posting, it’s wise to explain attributes the company values in its leaders and any important career experience the applicant should have. The responsibilities for the job may include such items as:

• Creating and maintaining security policies for the company
• Establishing a strategy and vision to ensure efficient workflows
• Managing various IT teams including sys admins and help desk
• Leading teams in providing corporate services

For industries that require strict compliance with regulations and governance of data, you will want to specify this within the responsibilities. It will be important to hire a director with experience dealing with such issues as they can be tedious and require a detail-oriented team. If your corporation relies on Mac desktops or Unix servers, it will also be wise to include those details in your job description. You should also include sections on educational requirements and/or certifications that the ideal candidate should have obtained.

Kim Mays has been editing and writing about IT since 1999. She currently tackles the topics of small to midsize business technology and introducing new tools for IT. Follow Kim on Google+ at google.com/+KimberlyMays6 or Twitter @blumoonky.