IT Director

About this role

Position Overview

The IT Director is responsible for global Information System Management across the entire Group (EXO Travel) following our strategic integration with JTB. This executive role leads the definition, implementation, and ongoing execution of the global IT/IS framework. The Director proposes, validates, and implements innovative technical solutions to optimize IT processes and tools across all affiliates and destinations, conducting systematic audits of group IT systems to recommend actionable improvements.

This role shifts the department’s focus from daily operational firefighting to long-term digital transformation, enterprise AI adoption, and strategic governance. The IT Director directly manages and coaches key senior leaders and IT managers in each company of the Group, ensuring technology acts as a competitive advantage while supporting a "One EXO" operational model across 20+ destinations.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership, Roadmaps & JTB Alignment

-Design and implement comprehensive IT system and infrastructure roadmaps aligned with country needs, group strategy, and JTB Group standards.

-Lead Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives and digital transformation projects (upon budget approval).

-Serve as the executive bridge between EXO Management, destination General Managers (GMs), external stakeholders, and JTB HQ IT teams.

2. Enterprise AI Enablement & Google Gemini Adoption

-Google Enterprise AI Integration: Lead the strategy to drive widespread adoption and familiarity of Google Gemini AI across all EXO staff, departments, and destination offices.

-AI Upskilling & Adoption Roadmaps: Collaborate with HR and department heads to design structured training programs, prompt engineering workshops, and practical use-case guidelines for Gemini to improve daily productivity in Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Finance.

-AI Governance & Bridge: Act as the bridge between custom AI development (Digital Team) and operational deployment, ensuring tools like EXO Co-pilot and Gemini operate seamlessly within a secure, monitored infrastructure under strict data privacy rules.

3. Cybersecurity, DPO Structure, PCI Compliance & Risk Management

-DPO Oversight: Directly supervise the Data Protection Officer (DPO) function to establish, monitor, and enforce global compliance frameworks (GDPR, PDPA).

-PCI DSS & Standards: Design and implement PCI compliance frameworks covering local data management, IT usage, and web servers, working toward recognized international IT management certifications.

-Security Policies & Training: Define and enforce group security policies, procedures, and guidelines across EXO's hybrid IT environment (Google Workspace + Windows OS). Mandate security awareness assessments, user training, and phishing tests.

-Risk & Disaster Recovery: Design and manage the group risk management framework, disaster recovery plans (upon budget approval), and incident management protocols.

4. IT Governance, Change Management & Operations

-Manage the overall IT Department, auditing existing systems and infrastructure to recommend continuously high-quality, innovative improvements.

-Establish change management frameworks (configuration, incident, and problem management), serving as the final approval authority for major system changes.

-Maintain comprehensive, accurate documentation of all group IT systems and enforce robust succession planning.

5. Hybrid Environment Strategy & User Enablement

-Lead the optimization and secure deployment of EXO's Google Workspace environment operating on Windows OS endpoint infrastructure.

-Develop change-management and upskilling plans to train regional staff on Google ecosystem tools, endpoint security standards, and data handling SOPs.

6. Team Leadership, Coaching & Performance Management

-Manage and coach senior direct reports—including the Head of IT Operations & Cybersecurity (Tian), DPO, and Automation Lead—as well as IT managers across all group companies.

-Align job descriptions, establish KPIs, and design professional development/training plans for all IT staff.

-Empower operational leadership (Tian) to develop local destination IT talent and shift toward a supportive, service-oriented delivery model for local GMs.

7. Global Budgeting, Purchasing & Vendor Management

-Define and control group IT budgets for equipment, cloud services (GCP, Azure, AWS), software licensing, and personnel expenses.

-Lead purchasing, tendering, vendor management, and negotiation with external consultants and global IT suppliers.

Required Skills & Technical Competencies

-AI & Enterprise Automation: Strong understanding of generative AI frameworks, enterprise Google Workspace AI integration (Gemini), and prompt engineering deployment strategy.

-Enterprise Systems: Hands-on experience with ERP, BI, EAI, BPM, and ECM platforms.

-Software & Architecture: Proven record of leading large software development initiatives with modern and legacy development methodologies.

-Cloud & Network Infrastructure: Expertise in cloud-based technology (GCP/Azure/AWS), load balancing, firewalls, networking, web server configuration, email/mail server systems, and database administration.

-Linux Systems: Strong background in Linux system administration and scripting languages.

-Global & Cultural Leadership: Demonstrated experience addressing challenges in global companies, respecting local cultures, and managing cross-functional teams.

-Soft Skills: Exceptional leadership, negotiation, communication, analysis/synthesis, adaptability, and fluent English.