An IT Director oversees the strategic direction and management of an organization’s technology infrastructure and systems. Highlighting leadership experience, successful project management, and budget oversight will strengthen your resume. Include technical expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, and data analytics. Demonstrating your ability to drive innovation and improve operational efficiency will clearly illustrate the impact you can have on the organization.
All Resume Templates JAMES JOHNSON Director of IT Services | Strategic Planning | Project Management +1-541-754-3010 help@enhancv.com Albuquerque, New MexicoEnthusiastic IT leader with over a decade of experience in senior management roles, focusing on strategic planning, project management, and team leadership. Skilled in managing large IT budgets and ensuring compliance with internal standards and legal requirements. Successfully managed major IT infrastructure upgrades and implemented cost-reduction measures leading to significant savings.
Strategic IT Planning Team Leadership Project Management IT Budget Management Enterprise Information Systems IT Service Management Agile Methodologies Risk Management Strategic PlanningInstrumental in designing IT strategies that improved system efficiency by 30% at previous workplaces.
Leadership Led a team of 20 IT professionals, fostering growth, innovation, and efficiency in service delivery. Project Management Managed over 15 large-scale IT projects, delivering on-time and within budget. Experience Stanford University Stanford, CA Senior IT Manager 2019 - 2023 Managed a diverse team of IT professionals in providing efficient IT services across the University Developed IT strategic plans that increased system uptime from 95% to 99.5% over a span of 2 years. Managed an annual budget of $2M, leading to an overall cost reduction of 20% in IT expenditures.Launched a training program for staff, resulting in a 30% increase in technology proficiency among team members.
UCSF Medical Center San Francisco, CA IT Project Manager 2016 - 2019Oversaw large-scale IT projects within the health services sector, ensuring timely and efficient execution
Managed 10+ enterprise information system projects, ensuring adherence to internal and external standards.
Reduced IT project completion time by 25% through implementation of agile methodologies. Successfully oversaw IT human resource activities for a team of 15 professionals. Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN IT Team Lead 2012 - 2016 Provided leadership for a team of IT professionals, ensuring delivery of efficient services Facilitated successful implementation of three major IT infrastructure upgrades.Coordinated effective professional contacts with other healthcare institutions and professional organizations.
Directed the continuous review of current systems, reducing costs by 15%. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Master's Degree in Information Technology 2010 - 2012 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science 2006 - 2010 www.enhancv.com
IT directors are some of the most valuable professionals in the IT world.
They combine the technical skills of an IT professional with business acumen and managerial talents. No wonder the best IT director resumes straddle the business and IT worlds, speaking both languages.
Getting that balance right, however, is extremely hard. You generally first need to impress a recruiter and then convince a CIO that you’re ready for the job. If you haven’t been able to get hired as an IT director, that’s probably why.
An IT director has one of the most challenging management jobs in the business. Your employees have extremely specific skills and tribal knowledge that can make turning them over very, very painful.
A Senior System Admin sharing their experience on Reddit
This IT director resume guide will teach you:
Looking for related resumes?
IT directors are not your usual IT hire. Recruiters often spend weeks and months searching for a perfect candidate.
And there’s a reason for that: an experienced IT manager can forge enterprise into a global network, boost a startup's growth, and even turn an outdated company into a market leader.
To score an interview at a top company, make sure your resume has the following characteristics:
Bad example: set up a secure network Good example: revamped network infrastructure, increasing uptime to 99,9%, and reduced the number of successful cyber attacks down to zero.
Bad example: implemented new data server Good example: implemented enterprise-wide data hub to expand marketing, executive, and support operations over six states and three continents.
Bad example: developed a marketing plugin Good example: led a team of data scientists to build a custom marketing solution that sped up average time to a customer by 50%.
If your IT director’s resume goal is to show you’re up to the challenge, you need to decide how you will make that argument.
As you should have many years of experience and particular areas of expertise you need to emphasize, a hybrid resume layout makes the most sense.
Begin with a section focusing on outlining your skills and providing evidence for them. This could be in the form of examples or certifications. Be sure to include specific metrics to show impact and scale. (more on that in the experience section below).
Here are some ideas for sections that you can use.
Because IT directors are not hired lightly and are expected to have substantial experience, a 2-3 page resume is okay. A recruiter is going to take the time to read your resume far more carefully than for a more junior position, so don’t worry as much about length within reason (a recruiter will not appreciate feeling like you’re wasting their time with fluff).
Showing that you understand both business/management and the IT world starts from the top, literally.
The most fail-safe way of doing that is to provide a link to your LinkedIn account, as 87% of recruiters are regularly using LinkedIn to check out potential candidates.
A well-balanced LinkedIn account gives recruiters a glimpse of your professional history, key IT director skills, and your network of professional connections.
Right from the start you’re sending a message: “I’m well qualified and comfortable in a business strategy session or with your technical team hammering out bugs in the code.”
In case a target job description emphasizes specific certifications, you might include them as part of your title or name.
Alexander Malinov, CISSP, CAPM IT Director 1-408-662-0920 Seattle, WA RIGHT Alexander Malinov IT Director 1-408-662-0920 Seattle, WA WRONGThat second example isn’t terrible but it doesn’t do anything to encourage the hiring manager to keep reading. By missing a vital opportunity to make a strong first impression, this kind of resume header doesn’t do you any favors.
An IT director needs to be able to write and communicate effectively. Show you’re a lousy writer, too wordy, or make grammar mistakes, and the CIO reviewing your resume is going to think “I do not want to spend the next few years reading reports from this person.”
That’s why you need to nail your professional summary. Tell a story about who you are as a professional, mention specific results, obstacles you’ve overcome, and generally what brought you to where you are now.
Here’s a sample of IT director summary section:
Spearheaded an IT branch of a global auto manufacturer for five years. During that time, implemented a company-wide ERP solution that reduced manufacturing costs by 15% and support costs by 40%—reduced the IT department turnover by 20% in the meanwhile.
RIGHTBy framing their experience in terms of the problems which existed when this IT director took over, this professional summary tells a story. “I found a problem, implemented a solution, and got a result.”
This summary shows someone who cares about both the numbers and the human experiences of the employees working under them. They sound like someone you’d want working for you and someone you wouldn’t mind working for.
Working as an IT director for the past 4 years I’ve maintained accountability and performance of the company’s technology investments and managed a $780k IT budget
WRONGThis summary can be boiled down to “I did my job and managed a budget.” That’s not going to cut it for a position as senior as IT manager. The CIO and recruiters in charge of hiring you need to see results.
The challenge here is that an IT director can have various responsibilities depending on the individual role. Your goal is to identify exactly what kind of IT director they’re looking for before framing your previous around it.
In general, though, any IT director needs to demonstrate skills and experience around contract negotiations, IT strategy, and vendor management.
Look at these two examples, both showing experience from the same job, to see how to do this: IT Director Resume Example of Experience Section:
Experience IT Director Hamilton Technologies 06/2015 - 09/2018 Seattle, WAReduced turnover from 24% to 5% by creating a new onboarding process and focusing on reforming team culture and accountability practices.
Re-negotiated supplier contracts, saving the company $55k annually.Found a new IT support vendor which was able to improve customer support satisfaction by 15% while reducing costs by 10%
Developed and implemented a new ATS-based IT strategyEnsured the development and continuous integration of 22 mainframe platforms and critical applications by creating high-level architectural specifications.
RIGHT Experience IT Director Hamilton Technologies 06/2015 - 09/2018 Seattle, WA Improved company culture and reduced turnover. Negotiated supplier contracts. Found new IT Vendors. Transitioned the IT infrastructure to AWS Developed and maintained mainframe platforms. WRONGBy being more specific and focusing on the results from actions, the former example is far more effective. In addition, it balances experience examples which demonstrate people management, negotiation, and technical prowess. This shows the person is comfortable in all three areas.
Try and show that you have had good relationships with your technical staff, as this is one of the biggest challenges IT directors mention when describing their jobs.
An IT director’s job is a perfect mix of technical skills and soft interpersonal skills. For the best results you need to balance both sections without leaning too hard on each.
After all, listing skills somewhere on your resume is easy. Anyone can say they are a talented manager or excellent at managing IT budgets. What makes the difference is including the right skills and showing that you have them instead of just telling.
Add numbers, show what results you got by using your skills. Also include specific examples as much as possible.
While the technical or hard skills required to be an IT director will vary from position to position, the soft skills needed are more universal.
We analyzed the most successful IT director resume examples to determine key skills you can put on your IT Director resume.
Reading a job description and translating the language into a list of skills you should include on a resume is its own skill.
Let’s break down how to do it with this real example from Amtrak:
“…responsible for all [[front-end technology systems]] and services which serve Amtrak’s Train Operations. Train Operations includes [[Mechanical, Engineering, Transportation, Network Support, Stations business functions]] among others. This role owns the transform, grow and run the [[business budget]] associated with their service and ensures optimum [[utilization of investment against company priorities]].”
If you can nail all four of those points, you’ll have a resume that makes it easy for a recruiter to forward you on to the CIO.
In general, IT directors are expected to have at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science (or a similar field). So the short answer is yes, you need to include your education.
The more relevant question is whether you should include details about your education (courses taken, GPA, other achievements).
The answer here is no, by the time you’re applying for a position as senior as IT director, you should have years of work experience that speaks for itself. Don’t waste space talking about what you did in university 5-10+ years ago.
Certifications are a powerful tool for prospective IT directors to show that they’re self-motivated in improving their skillset.
They’re also a great way to show some level of knowledge in an area you haven’t had the opportunity to obtain regular work experience.
So, if you’ve never worked with Scrum but it’s a core part of an IT director position you’d like to apply for, take the time to get certified in it. Though the exact certifications relevant to a position will vary, these 8 are valued across IT director positions:
