Director, IT Operations

About Ascent Ascent Developer Solutions is a leading private lending platform, serving real estate developers nationwide in the acquisition, renovation, and construction of residential real estate. Founded by a leadership team with a deep understanding and personal experience in virtually every facet of real estate development, Ascent is uniquely positioned to create custom, innovative lending solutions for a variety of real estate development business strategies. The Role Ascent Developer Solutions is seeking an experienced Director of IT Operations to lead and mature our cloud-first, Microsoft-based technology environment. Reporting to the SVP, Technology, this role owns the reliability, security, and performance of all IT systems and services across the organization — infrastructure, endpoints, identity, collaboration, and end-user support. The Director leads a small internal IT operations team and directs our Managed Service Provider (MSP), owns the IT operations budget a nd roadmap, and partners with information security, HR, and business leaders to keep systems available, compliant, and cost-effective as the company scales. The Work Own the reliability, performance, and security of the company’s technology environment — network, endpoints, servers, cloud and hybrid workloads, and collaboration systems. Lead planned network infrastructure modernization, including a firewall and switch refresh. Administer the Microsoft 365 environment, including tenant configuration, licensing, mail flow, and security baselines. Direct endpoint management and device lifecycle — provisioning, Microsoft Intune (MDM), patching, imaging, and refresh — across an on-site and hybrid workforce. Own the IT service desk and end-user experience, defining and meeting service-level agreements (SLAs) for response and resolution. Operate identity and access management within Microsoft Entra ID, including SSO, MFA, conditional access, and least-privilege/role-based access. Own the technology portion of user onboarding, offboarding, and role changes in close coordination with HR — account and license provisioning, equipment, role-based access, and timely deprovisioning (same-day for involuntary separations). Serve as the primary owner of the MSP relationship, directing scope and priorities, managing performance against SLAs, and defining the split between internal and MSP-delivered work. Direct IT hardware and software procurement, standardization, and asset and license inventory; manage carriers and technology vendors, including contracts, SLAs, performance reviews, and renewals. Continuously monitor IT systems for performance and reliability, proactively addressing issues to minimize downtime and maintain operational efficiency. Operate core security controls in partnership with information security leadership — vulnerability and patch management, endpoint protection, logging, and email security. Own business continuity and…