Director of IT and Campus Services
Jumeira University
Total years of experience :24 years, 8 Months
Information Technology
• Provide overall planning, installation and administration of the University IT solutions including, Infrastructure and hardware configuration, System standard development and maintenance, Server Administration, IT solutions project management, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.
• Oversees the application development and Support including, Administration and Maintenance of Application Software for Learning, Students, Library and Business Services, Applications development, upgrades and business development to maximize efficiency and productivity of IT users, Maintenance of the University portal and website.
• Ensure that network services, security and desk support are optimized and operational including, Email/directory, database administration, Systems security administration, Telecommunication systems, End user support and help desk support.
• Provide leadership and serve as the focal point for achieving a shared vision throughout JU to leverage information technology to achieve our mission and goals.
• Responsible for the management and operations of JU’s Technology and Data Center including systems, networking, telecommunications, moves/adds/changes, identity management, and IT architecture.
• Manage, coordinate and facilitate the daily operations and long-range planning of JU’s enterprise applications. These systems include ERP systems, databases, websites, portals and other applications essential to the business of the university.
• Oversee projects, services and support functions required by faculty, staff and students.
• Keep current on new advances in technology-related hardware and software. Coordinate with JU’s faculty for their latest IT requirements.
• Participate in strategic planning initiatives and other duties as assigned by the CEO.
Campus Services
• Provide operational management to the campus technical services including: General Maintenance Services, Preventative Maintenance and Special System Maintenance and general handy man works.
• Provide operational management to the campus logistics and facility services including: security, cleaning, and other facility services including office support services and store management.
• Demonstrate effective authentic leadership and commitment to JU’s moral, ethical and behavioral codes.
• Ensure the effective team leadership - setting individual objectives and managing team performance and productivity.
• Oversee the administration and management of Technology and Campus Services Offices to ensure optimization of the efficiency, quality, service, and cost-effective management of resources.
• Promote effective relationships and open communication across the University team members.
• Ensure the development of business knowledge across the unit offices, and information sharing and accessibility across teams to enhance unit's performance.
• Ensure the development of risk framework to assess the risks existing in the unit operations in order to provide management with an informed view of the risks involved and propose risk mitigation measures to enable the unit to proceed with acceptable level of risk.
• Ensure systems and measures in place to collect, monitor, evaluate & report information at unit and team levels for compliance with established goals, objectives and policies.
• Responsible for keeping the CEO informed on all matters that is of importance to the University, including its current performance and progress.
• Present operation and progress reports to the CEO and make inputs into the operating budget of the unit in line with the JU business plan.
• Lead the establishment of the IT architecture and application requirements, vendor selection and implementation of DIDI CRM, Student Information System, Learning Management System, Library Management System and all other applications required for the successful running of DIDI.
• Provide leadership and serve as the focal point for achieving a shared vision throughout DIDI to leverage information technology to achieve our mission and goals.
• Responsible for the management and operations of DIDI’s Technology and Data Center including systems, networking, telecommunications, moves/adds/changes, identity management, and IT architecture.
• Manage, coordinate and facilitate the daily operations and long-range planning of DIDIs enterprise applications. These systems include ERP systems, databases, websites, portals and other applications essential to the business of the university.
• Coordinate with TECOM Group IT on the required support and managed co existing SLAs.
• Oversee projects, services and support functions required by faculty, staff and students.
• Keep current on new advances in technology-related hardware and software. Coordinate with DIDI faculty for their latest IT requirements.
• Collaborate with faculty, staff and students and reviews trends to ensure the highest level of support is available.
• Participate in strategic planning initiatives and other duties as assigned by the Executive Committee.
• Provide technical support for university hardware, software and peripherals
• Develop hardware and software standards.
• Direct the functions of business analysis, project management, and customer care of the central Information Technology function of DIDI.
• Represent the central IT function on DIDI committees and councils.
• Prepare and disseminate information related to IT budget requirements, resources, issues, choices and impact of budget decisions.
• Produce data to show progress and challenges for the team.
Key responsibilities
• Defining IT strategy & execution roadmap and short, mid & long-term business goals, objectives, and operating procedures; providing technological direction and proposing budgets for programs, purchases and upgrades.
• Deploying skills in leading projects for implementation of ERP System for the plants by using SAP system.
• Diligently led Project for establishing IT center of Gulf Fluor, encompassing designing and implementing of Infrastructure comprising installation and configuration of servers, firewall, switches, telephone system, access control, CCTV and Law current system.
• Spearheading execution and installation of the Servers which include Domain controller, Antivirus, Asset Management, Telephone System; driving the vision for the business unit while maintaining 'big picture' focus; balancing business needs with technology assessments & recommending alternatives
• Defining service standards and guidelines that serve as benchmark for excellent service delivery; driving continuous improvement and implementation of changes at process level, to ensure excellence in delivery
• Establishing systems for the successful installation of Firewall, Core Switches and edge switches distributed over 8 building in addition to pulling the fiber optic and UTP.
• Distinguished efforts in leading the installation of Server, Software, Controllers, and workstation in Distributed Control System Room (DCS) which control all the operations of the Plants.
• Played a stellar role in installing Processors and Software of AC800M in DCS room.
• Devised & implemented strategies for executing installation of Access Control, Turnstile, CCTV and other Low Current Component in different building in the plants.
• Recruiting and training the IT team in addition to providing effective leadership and direction to the department, building a climate of performance and excellence
Key responsibilities
• Conceptualized, implemented, monitored and supported IT infrastructure required to allow smooth functioning of the University Network in two campuses in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
• Strategized long term and short term goals, objectives and programs for the IT department and collaborated with other key leadership team members on vision, mission and overall guidelines provided by the Board of trustees while directly sending periodic reports on progress to the president of the university
• Planned and designed network infrastructure across the university. Ensured availability and security of LAN & WAN. Spearheaded the installation, monitoring, maintenance, support and optimization of all network hardware and communication links.
• Utilized expertise in handling BCM 400 from Nortel and G350 and G450 from AVAYA to optimize, manage and develop upgrade of telephone extension system.
• Steered the administration of corporate help desk activities placing sound exposure of “Advnet” software into action that assisted in streamlining client complain, IT assets, purchasing in addition to diagnosed some hardware problem.
• Monitored the effectiveness of network team and making recommendations by monitoring, analyzing and evaluating performance for improvement in SLA and providing round the clock information transfer, storage, and processing in a time bound manner.
• Provided strategic direction to the management, yearly list of ICT department, technology Budget for the ICT department, prepared and proposed cost effective solutions to be presented to the board of trustees of the University.
• Key accountability of creating & reviewing security policies, procedures & guidelines in alignment with IT usage, security standards & best practices.
• Security encompassed logical (passwords, authentication, firewalls, VPNs, IDP, etc.) and physical (physical locations, physical access, air conditioning, firefighting, separation of duties, etc.)
• Guided team members by positioning self as team leader and supervise troubleshooting, systems backups, archiving, and disaster recovery done by junior technician and perform complex troubleshooting, backup, archiving, and disaster recovery.
• Demonstrated business acumen and accurately assess technical challenges and transform them into workable solutions without effecting the operations.
• Identified training needs and planned career development programs leading, recruiting, training & monitoring the performance of project team members to ensure efficiency in operations and meeting of targets in line with each Innovator's career interests.
• Distinguished efforts in preparing and following up the maintenance contracts for servers, network equipment, ERP and others.
Key responsibilities
• Tasked to invigilate and oversee the accounts of more than 4000 students at alain campus, , inspecting for any errors in the accounts. Skillfully carried out installation and maintenance of Nortel Switches and Router and executed troubleshooting on the Network Devices.
• Proactively involved in installation and maintenance of all servers available in the university like (Primary Domain Controller, Backup Domain Controller ), File Server and later we immigrate to Windows 2000 servers and Professional 2000 as a workstation for clients then to Windows 2003 server & Windows XP for Client.
• Effectively provision for the installation and maintenance of Proxy2 and ISA and eventually to the newly immigrated Juniper SSG140 for prompt connection to clients
• Outstanding efforts in development, installation and maintenance (The Courses Online Web Site TLM) by using IIS5, then publish it over the Internet.
• Delivered expertise on successfully installing and maintaining Exchange and Merk server to maintain the emails for Staff & Students.
• Familiarized and trained students, academic and administration staff on using the Online Courses and handling all the operation related to this application, like Maintain, Update, Immigrate, Backup and administration.
• Led teams in proactively maintaining, updated and performing daily backup of the ERP System which contain of Registration, Finance, HR and Store modules running under oracle 10g.
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Trainings CCNA & CCNP 642-901 Building Scalable Cisco Internetworks Bottom of Form. 642-825 ISCW 642-845 ONT 642-812 BCMSN 640-801 Cisco Certified Network Associate. Training course on Cisco wireless equipment. MCP, MCSA & MCSE 298 Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network. Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure. 294 Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure. 227 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000, Enterprise Edition. 290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment. 291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure. 270 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft® Windows® XP. Nortel Training Course & Certification of Configuring Nortel’s Ethernet & Business Policy Switches. Training Course & Certification of Ethernet Routing Switch 8000 Series – Configuration & Management. Training Course & Certification of VPN Switch – Configuration & Management. Training Course of Business Communication Manager – Configuration & Management. ( its an integrated telephone systems IP phone & Digital from Nortel). Juniper • Installing, maintaining and configuring different switches, router and firewall from juniper like J2320,J6350, SSG140, SSG350 and SRX 220. Oracle • Attend Training Course of SQL/PLSQL for Oracle. • Attend Training Course of Developer 2000. Avaya • Very Good experience in avaya Telephone system G350, G320 and G450 • Installing, configuring and maintaining Call Center, PRI, trunk and ISDN in addition to programming of vector. RedHat Very Good experience, installing, maintain, troubleshooting and administrate Redhat 4,5 and 6. Extreme Network Configuring, upgrade, maintain and install extreme switches like Summit X250e, X440,X460-480,X670 in addition to Black diamond switch 8800 series.