Senior Director, IT Operations & Infrastructure

Lead the operational foundation behind STARK Group’s digital transformation 

Are you an experienced IT Director with a strong background in infrastructure and operations? Do you know how to combine operational stability with transformation, and can you create direction and momentum across international teams and strategic partners?

As Senior Director, IT Operations & Infrastructure, you will be a key leader in STARK Group IT, responsible for ensuring stable, secure and efficient IT operations while developing the infrastructure and operational capabilities needed to support STARK Group’s continued growth and transformation.

You will report to SVP, Torben Fabrin, Group CIO, and be part of the Group IT Leadership Team. As a leader of leaders, you will lead the organisation through four experienced Senior Managers, each heading their own team. In total IT Operations & Infrastructure counts +35 FTE’s. The organisation is further supported by external and outsourced resources, and you will hold significant budget responsibility across the area.

A key part of your role will be to lead through leaders: setting clear direction and expectations, developing strong leadership capabilities and creating an environment where your leaders can take ownership and deliver results through their teams. As a senior Director in STARK Group IT, you will be expected to drive performance, make an impact, build for the future, inspire the will to win and create results through strong teams and collaboration.

What success will look like

Your overall responsibility will be to provide and continuously improve reliable IT infrastructure and operational services aligned with business needs. You will set direction for the area while create the conditions for the organisation to perform in a complex international and multi-vendor environment.

You will be directly responsible for:

• Setting and driving the overall strategy and roadmap for IT Operations & Infrastructure, supporting scale, agility, security and efficiency.

• Leading and developing the IT Operations & Infrastructure leadership team, creating clear direction, strong leadership, accountability and high performance across the organisation.

• Taking responsibility for the overall financial performance of the area, ensuring effective prioritisation of investments, resources and external spend.

• Contributing actively as a member of the STARK Group IT Management Team, taking shared responsibility for the overall direction, priorities and performance of Group IT.

Through your leaders, you will be accountable for:

• Ensuring high availability, operational stability and resilience across STARK Group’s IT infrastructure and services.

• Delivering strong performance across infrastructure, workplace services, operational security, service management, sourcing & vendor management and strategic vendor partnerships.

• Ensuring an operational setup capable of supporting business-critical services and applications in a 24/7 environment.

• Driving operational excellence and continuous improvement, while ensuring that new solutions and major transformation initiatives transition successfully into stable operations.

Why join STARK Group?

This is an opportunity to lead the operational foundation behind STARK Group’s IT landscape at a time of significant transformation. You will play a central role in ensuring operational excellence across business-critical services today while shaping the infrastructure, operational capabilities and service model needed to support the next phase of our digital transformation.

You will have both the mandate and responsibility to influence how we operate, how we work with strategic partners, and how we build a scalable and resilient technology foundation for the future.

You will join an ambitious and down-to-earth organisation where collaboration, accountability and the ability to turn strategy into execution are highly valued.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for a seasoned IT Director who combines strategic thinking with strong operational execution and has the authority and leadership presence to set direction in a complex international organisation.

In other words, you are comfortable setting direction while remaining close enough to operations to understand risks, challenge decisions and act when needed.

You are a visible and pragmatic leader who creates clarity in complexity, builds trust across organisational boundaries and takes accountability for results.

We expect that you have:

• Significant senior leadership experience within IT infrastructure and operations.

• Experience leading complex international or multi-country IT environments.

• A strong track record from high-availability and business-critical 24/7 operations.

• Proven experience as a leader of leaders, with the ability to develop senior managers, create accountability and deliver results through multiple layers of an organisation.

• Experience working with internal teams, outsourced services and strategic technology partners.

• Broad understanding of infrastructure, networks, service continuity, disaster recovery and end-user services.

• Experience driving operational excellence, continuous improvement and organisational change.

• Strong vendor management, stakeholder management and influencing capabilities.

• The ability to operate effectively across strategic, tactical and operational levels.

The primary workplace is in Viby j. Aarhus in STARK Huset and the role includes approximately up to 20 travel days annually.

Welcome to Group IT  

When joining Group IT, you will be joining a digital transformation journey as we replace our legacy monoliths and transition towards a modular and flexible integrated setup. Group IT, a dynamic and rapidly evolving part of STARK Group, is responsible for delivering group-wide business-critical IT solutions. We aim to modernise and reimagine the IT landscape to ensure both scalability and composability to meet existing and future business needs, and we would like your input to rethink the way things are done in our industry to offer our customers an extraordinary experience. 

Want to know more and apply?  

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the position and your options in STARK Group. You are welcome to contact Torben Fabrin, Group CIO at torben.fabrin@stark.dk for any specific questions regarding the role.  

We will conduct interviews on an ongoing basis until the right candidate has been found.  

STARK Group  

STARK Group is a growing private equity-owned company with a solid legacy. STARK Group was established in Denmark in 1896 and has today evolved into a leading European retailer and distributor of heavy building materials with net sales of approx. EUR 9 billion. With a skilled team of more than 20,000 employees and +1,150 branches and distribution centres across the Nordics, Greenland, Germany, Austria and the UK, we live and breathe to equip professional craftsmen with heavy building materials all the way from the Austrian Alps to Tromsø, close to the Arctic circle and everywhere in between. STARK Group is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 across the entire business, is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, and works within fully 2030 validated science-based targets to keep global warming below 1.5°C 

At STARK Group IT, we believe in the richness diversity brings. We invite candidates of all backgrounds to join us in creating an inclusive and welcoming environment. We believe in a workplace where everyone can bring their authenctic selves to work. 

Agency Policy 

STARK Group IT appreciates the interest of all candidates. However, we prefer to directly engage with candidates seeking employment opportunities. Therefore, we kindly request recruitment agencies, headhunters, and third-party staffing services to refrain from contacting us regarding this job posting. All applications should be submitted directly by the candidates through our official application process. We value direct communication and look forward to reviewing your application.