IT role
IT Director · National food brokerage
Oct 2022 to Sep 2026 · Charlotte, NC · Hybrid
I joined as IT Manager to bring the technology of separately operated regional businesses toward a shared standard. After promotion to IT Director, I owned technical direction, budgets, vendors, and acquisition integration while continuing to design systems, write automation, and run migrations. The company had more than 1,000 employees across 80+ locations; I led a team of three including me, directly supporting 850 users across 51 offices. I was also the go-to technical escalation point for IT, data, and BI teams.
The work connected infrastructure, identity, devices, phones, and support into a more consistent environment. Shared standards made new offices easier to integrate and gave automation reliable inputs. I worked with regional teams to plan adoption around their workflows and keep the business operating through each change.
Responsibilities
- Set company-wide technology standards and the roadmap for shared platforms, vendors, and acquisition integration.
- Managed IT budgets, regional cost allocation, vendor selection, and strategy presentations to leadership and the board.
- Designed and operated office networking, site-to-site VPNs, and remote access using Meraki, Aruba, and Remote Desktop Services.
- Personally owned Microsoft 365, including Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive, and the cloud-only Entra ID tenant. Operated a separate, unsynchronized local Active Directory domain for Remote Desktop Services.
- Ran Azure virtual machines and RemoteApp workloads alongside Windows Server, Hyper-V, RDS with RD Gateway, redundant domain controllers, Group Policy, monitoring, patching, and Veeam backup and recovery.
- Designed group- and role-based access across cloud identity, local AD, and infrastructure tools. Used dynamic groups for department-driven access and licensing, administrative units for scoped delegation, and Entra single sign-on with SCIM provisioning where supported. Configured PIM and assessed privileged access across systems.
- Built PowerShell and Python libraries for administration, compliance reviews, device maintenance, and finance data processing.
- Connected HR intake to account provisioning, licensing, and access changes, retaining IT verification and approval.
- Implemented identity and endpoint protections with Conditional Access, Defender, Avanan, Windows LAPS, Intune, and Purview.
- Provided hands-on support, triaged tickets, and served as the technical escalation point for IT, data, and BI teams. Selected and configured Freshservice and maintained the service catalog, change controls, operating procedures, and knowledge base.
- Developed the support team, mentoring a technician into independent project ownership and recruiting and onboarding an offshore helpdesk technician with documented responsibilities, training, and handoffs.
- Consolidated regional telephony on Microsoft Teams Phone with Microsoft Calling Plans, including number ports and office moves.
- Architected and implemented shared Microsoft Fabric capacity; owned the platform, licensing, and access controls while BI owned report content and workspaces. Advised the BI and data teams on reporting design and row-level security.
- Led AI policy, developer guidance, tool rollout, and internal integrations, with configuration changes maintained in version control.
- Planned and carried out acquired-company discovery, migrations, coexistence, cutovers, and handover to shared services.
Skills in practice
Cloud and on-premises systems, office networks, remote access, monitoring, recovery, and the device fleet.
Who can access what, how access changes, and the controls that protect identities, devices, and email.
Internal applications, integrations, and data pipelines that remove repeated work and make business data useful.
Programs and governance
I set shared technology standards across more than a dozen businesses and built the migration tools, acquisition playbooks, and roadmap to carry them out. The work connected infrastructure, identity, devices, phones, support, and vendors, building on the platform I had established across three offices and brands.
I selected and implemented Freshservice for requests, assets, knowledge, and change management. Power BI reports and documented runbooks supported service delivery across a small IT team. I also planned an expansion to other support functions, with shared intake and separate team queues.
I led the company's AI program, writing usage and development policies, building the developer guidance and platform, and rolling out Claude and Copilot tools. The policies applied company-wide; license adoption was still expanding when I left. Configuration changes were version-controlled and reviewed through pull requests.