Director, Information Technology Operations
Posted Sep 3, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Tell me about an IT operations team you've led. How big was it, what did it cover, and what did you change?
What they are checking: The real scope of their leadership and whether they improved how the team ran rather than just kept it running.
Walk me through how you ran a major incident from first alert to post-incident review.
What they are checking: Whether they can lead calm, structured incident response and then actually fix the root cause.
Tell me about a time you had to cut costs or consolidate tools without hurting service.
What they are checking: Whether they can make hard budget trade-offs in a not-for-profit setting and explain them honestly.
How do you develop managers under you, and give me an example of someone you helped grow?
What they are checking: Whether they invest in people and build a bench, not just manage tasks.
What would you do
This role is hybrid across St. Louis and Madison. How do you lead a team you don't see in person every day?
What they are checking: Whether they can build trust, accountability and clear communication across sites and remote staff.
A clinical leader is angry that a system has been slow for two weeks and your team says it's within spec. What do you do?
What they are checking: Whether they listen to the user experience rather than hiding behind technical thresholds.
How do you work with cybersecurity so that operations and security aren't pulling in opposite directions?
What they are checking: Whether they see security as shared work rather than a blocker, which matters greatly in healthcare.
How do you manage vendors when a critical service provider keeps missing commitments?
What they are checking: Whether they hold vendors accountable with data and contracts instead of just absorbing the failures.
About the work
In a health system, an outage can stop patient care. How do you decide what gets the highest availability targets?
What they are checking: Whether they tie uptime and recovery goals to clinical impact instead of treating every system the same.
How do you measure whether IT operations is doing a good job? What metrics do you report to leadership?
What they are checking: Whether they use meaningful service measures that leaders understand, not just ticket counts.
How have you handled change management so that updates don't break things clinicians rely on?
What they are checking: Whether they balance speed of change with the risk of disrupting care, using real controls.
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by SSM Health.