Director, IT Operations

Sporting Life Group is a proudly Canadian family of retail banners, Sporting Life, Golf Town, and Team Town Sports, united by a shared passion for sport and active living.

From individual pursuits to team sports, we offer the best equipment, expert services, and experiences to help Canadians play, move, and live well.

Why Work Here?

• Access to our benefits package, with the choice of different levels of health, dental, and vision coverage to suit you.
• Employee discounts at Golf Town, Sporting Life, and Team Town Sports that are shareable with friends and family.
• Team-first culture that celebrates an active, sports lifestyle.
• Fun, fast-paced 4 days a week hybrid environment where your passion for sport and style belongs.
• Vendor Pro Deals and expert product training to fuel your knowledge and performance.
• A salary range of 140, , dependent on experience), bonus, and opportunities to grow your career in the sports lifestyle.

What You'll Do;

As the Director, IT Operations & Cybersecurity for Sporting Life Group, you will lead the stability, and security of the enterprise IT environment at a group level across Sporting Life, Golf Town & Team Town Sports.

Within this newly created role, you will manage infrastructure, networking, end-user services, and identity lifecycle management, ensuring seamless technology enablement for employees, stores, and corporate operations while maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture.

You will ensure that core IT services, from store connectivity and data centres to onboarding/offboarding of employees, operate reliably, securely, and at enterprise scale.

Infrastructure & Networking

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for enterprise infrastructure, including:
  • Data centres and cloud platforms (hybrid environments)
  • Enterprise and store networking (LAN, WAN, Wi-Fi, SD-WAN, VPN)
  • Servers, storage, backup, and virtualization
• Ensure high availability, performance, and resiliency of all infrastructure supporting stores, distribution centres, e-commerce, and corporate offices
• Own network architecture and standards to support high-volume retail traffic, POS systems, and store operations
• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives including cloud adoption, network segmentation, and automation
• Oversee capacity planning, lifecycle management, patching, and upgrades across infrastructure and network environments

End-User Services, Onboarding & Offboarding

• Own enterprise end-user computing services, including devices, operating systems, software distribution, and collaboration tools
• Ensure efficient, secure onboarding and offboarding processes for all employees, contractors, and third parties
• Lead identity lifecycle management, including account provisioning/deprovisioning, role-based access, and least-privilege controls
• Partner with HR, Payroll, and People Systems teams to integrate onboarding/offboarding workflows
• Ensure consistent IT experiences for store associates, corporate employees, and remote workers
• Drive automation and standardization of onboarding/offboarding to reduce risk and improve employee experience

IT Service Management & Operations

• Own ITSM processes including incident, problem, change, request, and asset management
• Ensure rapid resolution of outages impacting stores, POS, supply chain, and corporate systems
• Define and track SLAs, KPIs, and operational metrics across infrastructure, network, and end-user services
• Lead major incident management and post-incident reviews

Cybersecurity & Identity Protection

• Integrate cybersecurity into infrastructure, networking, and identity services
• Oversee network security controls, firewalls, segmentation, intrusion detection/prevention, and secure remote access
• Ensure secure identity and access management (IAM) across onboarding/offboarding processes
• Partner with security teams on threat detection, vulnerability management, and incident response
• Ensure compliance with PIPEDA, PCI-DSS, and other Canadian regulatory and privacy requirements

Leadership, Vendors & Financial Management

• Lead and develop teams across infrastructure, networking, end-user services, and security operations
• Manage infrastructure and operations budgets, balancing cost optimization with reliability and security
• Oversee managed service providers, telecom carriers, and infrastructure vendors
• Establish operational standards, documentation, and governance

What You'll Bring;

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field
• 10+ years of enterprise IT experience with deep expertise in infrastructure and networking
• 5+ years in senior IT leadership roles managing large, distributed environments
• Proven experience supporting retail store networks and high-availability environments
• Strong experience with:
  • Enterprise networking and connectivity
  • Hybrid cloud and data centre operations
  • End-user computing and identity lifecycle management
• Preferred
  • Experience in a large retail or consumer-facing organization
  • Certifications such as CCNP/CCIE, ITIL, CISSP, Azure/AWS, or equivalent
  • Experience with zero trust networking and modern IAM platforms

AI is used as part of our application review process to assist in screening and assessment. All applications are also reviewed by our recruitment team.

This posting is for an open existing role in our organization.

Sporting Life Group Limited is an equal opportunity employer and committed to providing accommodations for persons with disabilities.

In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, please advise the Sporting Life Group Human Resources team of any accommodations required to ensure fair and equitable access through the recruitment and selection process.