Director of IT Infrastructure- Health Plans- Santa Clara, CA

Director of IT Infrastructure

Remote!

Position Summary

The Director of IT Infrastructure is responsible for leading the design, implementation, operation, and optimization of enterprise IT infrastructure for a managed Medicaid health plan. This role ensures secure, scalable, and compliant infrastructure services supporting core health plan operations, including claims processing, care management, member services, and regulatory reporting.

The Director will drive cloud strategy, infrastructure modernization, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity alignment while ensuring compliance with CMS, HIPAA, and state Medicaid requirements.

Key Responsibilities 

Infrastructure Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute the enterprise IT infrastructure strategy aligned with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Lead infrastructure modernization initiatives, including cloud migration (Azure/AWS), data center transformation, and hybrid architecture.
• Partner with executive leadership to support organizational growth, scalability, and digital transformation. 

Operations & Service Delivery

• Oversee 24/7 operations of IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, storage, end-user computing, and cloud platforms.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of mission-critical systems such as claims processing, provider systems, and member platforms.
• Establish and monitor SLAs, KPIs, and operational metrics to drive continuous improvement.

 Security & Compliance

• Ensure infrastructure meets HIPAA, CMS, and state Medicaid regulatory compliance requirements.
• Partner with Information Security to enforce cybersecurity standards, vulnerability management, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Support audits (CMS, state regulators, HITRUST, etc.) and ensure remediation of identified gaps.

 Cloud & Platform Engineering

• Lead cloud adoption and governance, including architecture standards, cost optimization, and workload migrations.
• Oversee platform engineering efforts to enable scalable and resilient environments for applications and data services.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation best practices.

 Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

• Design and maintain disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BCP) capabilities aligned with regulatory expectations.
• Conduct periodic DR testing and ensure recovery objectives (RTO/RPO) are met.

 Vendor & Partner Management

• Manage relationships with managed service providers, cloud vendors, and technology partners.
• Negotiate contracts and ensure vendor performance meets business and compliance expectations.
• Oversee outsourced infrastructure services, including offshore/onshore delivery models where applicable.

 Financial Management

• Develop and manage infrastructure budgets, including capital and operational expenditures.
• Drive cost optimization initiatives across infrastructure and cloud environments.

 People Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop high-performing infrastructure and operations teams.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Support workforce planning, including internal teams and external vendors.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of progressive IT experience, including 5+ years in IT infrastructure leadership roles.
• Experience in healthcare payer environments, with strong preference for Medicaid managed care.
• Proven experience leading cloud transformation initiatives (Azure and/or AWS).
• Strong knowledge of enterprise infrastructure technologies (networking, servers, storage, virtualization, and cloud platforms).
• Experience supporting regulatory compliance frameworks (HIPAA, CMS, HITRUST).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with healthcare platforms such as claims systems (Facets, QNXT, etc.), care management systems, and interoperability platforms.
• Familiarity with HL7, FHIR, and healthcare data exchange environments.
• Certifications such as AWS/Azure Solutions Architect, ITIL, CISSP, or equivalent.