Operations Shift Lead

JOB TITLE: Operations Shift Lead

DEPARTMENT: TKO IT Infrastructure

MAIN PURPOSE

The Infrastructure Operations Team Lead is responsible for the day-to-day operational execution of TKO’s global infrastructure services. This role ensures stability, performance, and continuous improvement of core enterprise platforms supporting business operations across sports, media production, and corporate environments.

The Team Lead will coordinate operational activities across endpoint, identity, network, and core infrastructure services while driving disciplined incident management, operational maturity, and service reliability. Acting as the frontline leader for infrastructure operations, this role bridges engineering, service delivery, cybersecurity, and business stakeholders to ensure enterprise technology services remain resilient, secure, and responsive to business needs.

WHY JOIN TKO?

TKO unites three of the most recognizable brands in global sports , UFC, WWE, and PBR, with the premier hospitality brand, OLE, and the world-class broadcast, sports, and events company, IMG, to form a next-generation technology, sports, and entertainment powerhouse. As TKO prepares to separate from Endeavor and build a fresh infrastructure, this is a rare opportunity to engineer core systems at scale in a greenfield environment.

You’ll work with cutting-edge identity, cloud, and infrastructure technologies from Okta and Entra ID and enterprise automation using Workato, Service Now, Workday, and Okta Workflows. The challenges are complex, the expectations are high, and the impact is real. Your work will support everything from corporate operations to global broadcasts and live events.

If you want to build something that lasts and do it with autonomy and purpose, then TKO is where you want to be.

REPORTING & ROLE DETAILS

LINE MANAGER: Director, Workplace Technology

DIRECT REPORTS: —

WORKING HOURS: Dynamic

EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Permanent

LOCATION: Stamford, CT or Remote

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead global 24 ×7 infrastructure operations encompassing endpoint management (Intune/JAMF/Endpoint Central), and messaging collaboration (M365/Slack/Box/Zoom) service reliability.

• Drive root cause analysis (RCA) and problem management activities following significant incidents.

• Implement corrective actions and operational improvements to prevent recurrence.

• Maintain clear operational documentation and post-incident reporting standards.

• Partner with Service Delivery leadership and ServiceNow operators to mature Infrastructure ITSM processes (Incident, Problem, Change Request, CMDB, Knowledgebase) and drive service-level accountability across all teams.

• Oversee infrastructure changes to ensure they are properly reviewed, documented, and executed according to change management processes.

• Coordinate maintenance activities across infrastructure teams and external vendors.

• Ensure production environments remain stable during infrastructure upgrades and deployments.

• Identify operational inefficiencies and drive process improvements across infrastructure support models.

• Support automation initiatives to improve service delivery and reduce manual operational overhead.

• Contribute to operational readiness for new infrastructure deployments, ensuring services are supportable in production.

• Establish a weekly Operations Review with key performance, change, and risk metrics for executive visibility.

• Partner closely with enterprise project teams to ensure seamless transitions from build to run.

• Drive operational readiness for all infrastructure projects and platform changes.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Operational Leadership: Proven ability to run mission-critical, global IT Infrastructure operations and serve as executive escalation point during major incidents.

• Reliability Engineering: Strong grasp of SRE principles, automation, observability, and resilience engineering.

• Service Management: Deep understanding of ITIL and ITSM tools, with focus on metrics-driven improvement.

• Technical Breadth: Familiar with enterprise-grade systems including Okta, Entra ID, M365, Box, Zoom, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto SASE/NGFW, SD-WAN, Wi-Fi, and endpoint management.

• Financial Acumen: Skilled at managing OPEX budgets, vendor contracts, and FinOps initiatives.

• Crisis Management: Composure under pressure with the ability to lead coordinated incident response efforts.

• People Leadership: Builds strong teams through clarity, mentorship, and accountability.

• Strategic Communication: Effectively interfaces with executives, translating technical risk and operational performance into business terms.

• Execution Focus: Balances long-term vision with tactical delivery, driving measurable uptime and performance outcomes.

• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Uses data and metrics to improve stability, reduce MTTR, and optimize cost-to-serve.

• Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to influence stakeholders and explain complex concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

• Comfort with Ambiguity: Thrives in environments where direction is still forming and able to bring structure and clarity to grey areas.

• Resilience: Maintains focus and composure under pressure in fast-moving, high-visibility environments.

• Customer Orientation: Keeps business impact front of mind; balances technical excellence with pragmatic execution

QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent professional experience).

• 5+ years of experience supporting enterprise IT infrastructure environments.

• 2+ years of experience leading technical operations teams or acting in a senior operational role.

• Hands-on familiarity with operational platforms such as ServiceNow, Datadog, or Splunk for monitoring and observability.

• Excellent executive communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Preferred

• Exposure to M&A or carve-out transformations.

• Certifications such as ITIL Expert, PMP, or equivalent leadership credentials.