Vice President IT Operations

Hybrid: Markham, Ontario

Job Description:

About Us

Pet Valu is Canada’s leading pet specialty retailer, dedicated to strengthening the bond between dedicated pet lovers and their pets. With 50 years of animal care expertise, we operate over 800 stores across Canada under several banners, including Pet Valu, Bosley’s, Total Pet, Paulmac's Pet, Tisol & Chico. Guided by our mission to deliver products, care, expertise, and memorable moments, Pet Valu is a place where people build meaningful careers while making a positive impact on pets and communities.

Job Summary

The Vice President, IT Operations is accountable for the reliable, secure, resilient and cost-effective operation of Pet Valu’s production technology environment across stores, distribution centres, corporate locations and cloud services. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, this executive leads the functions responsible for cybersecurity and governance, infrastructure and platform operations, retail technology operations, service management, service desk, store technology readiness, database operations, network and telecommunications, Microsoft 365 operations, technology resilience, observability, and technology asset and licence management.

The role establishes a disciplined operating model that protects store uptime and employee productivity while enabling change at pace. The Vice President works closely with Engineering, Enterprise Applications, Architecture and BI, Retail Operations, Loss Prevention, Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Internal Audit and external service providers. The role distinguishes platform and software ownership from operational ownership: Enterprise Applications owns business-platform roadmaps such as POS software, while IT Operations owns the reliability, support and hardware lifecycle required to run those platforms successfully.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Strategy

·       Develop and execute an IT Operations strategy aligned with Pet Valu’s business priorities, growth plans, store experience, risk appetite and technology roadmap.

·       Establish clear accountability, decision rights, service ownership and operating rhythms across infrastructure, security, retail technology, support and service management.

·       Partner with the CTO and peer technology leaders to translate enterprise priorities into capacity plans, operational roadmaps and measurable service commitments.

Service Reliability, Incident and Change Management

·       Accountable for availability, performance and recoverability of production technology services, with particular attention to store and revenue-critical services.

·       Establish enterprise service levels, operational health dashboards, alerting standards and executive reporting for availability, incidents, capacity, risk and customer experience.

·       Provide executive leadership during major incidents, ensuring clear command, timely communication, business engagement, recovery focus and disciplined post-incident learning.

·       Ensure mature incident, problem, change, service-level, knowledge and service-catalogue practices that reduce repeat failures and improve safe change velocity.

·       Drive permanent corrective action through root-cause analysis, trend analysis, technical debt reduction and accountable remediation plans.

Infrastructure and Platform Operations

·       Oversee cloud, compute, storage, backup, network, telecommunications, database, Microsoft 365, endpoint and platform-engineering operations.

·       Ensure lifecycle plans exist for servers, network equipment, firewalls, wireless access points, store technology, endpoints, databases, operating systems and foundational platforms.

·       Establish patching, vulnerability remediation, backup, recovery, capacity, configuration and observability standards, with evidence-based compliance reporting.

·       Optimize platform cost and performance through capacity management, licence utilization, cloud financial management, vendor rationalization and automation.

·       Clarify the boundary between developer-facing DevOps and release engineering led by Engineering and cloud/platform operations led by IT Operations.

Retail Technology Operations

·       Own the end-to-end operational health of technology used in stores, ensuring that store outcomes are managed beyond individual support tickets.

·       Oversee POS hardware, payment devices, store PCs, handhelds, scanners, printers, peripherals and other in-store technology through defined standards and refresh cycles.

·       Own field-service and TechCare performance, vendor dispatch, repeat-visit reduction, store escalation management and cost per store supported.

·       Ensure technology readiness for new stores, relocations, renovations, banner conversions and closures through integrated checklists, risk management, cutover and hypercare.

·       Partner with Store Systems and Engineering so that POS and store-application releases are operationally ready, supportable and sustainable.

Cybersecurity, Risk and Loss Prevention Technology

·       Provide executive oversight of cybersecurity operations, identity and access management, vulnerability management, security engineering, governance, risk and compliance.

·       Ensure security controls, incident response, privileged access, third-party risk, audit remediation, ICFR and regulatory obligations are integrated into operational practices.

·       Partner with Loss Prevention and Retail Operations on enabling platforms, technical controls, and service performance for CCTV, alarm and physical access-control technology.

·       Ensure material technology risks are identified, communicated, owned and remediated within agreed timelines, with risk acceptance escalated appropriately.

Resilience and Disaster Recovery

·       Own technology resilience and disaster recovery governance for critical services, aligned to business impact, recovery time and recovery point requirements.

·       Ensure recovery plans, dependency maps, crisis procedures and technical runbooks remain current and are tested regularly.

·       Review exercise results and actual incidents, ensure gaps are prioritized, and provide transparent reporting on recovery readiness.

Financial, Asset and Vendor Management

·       Own the IT Operations operating and capital budgets, forecasts, cost controls and investment proposals.

·       Establish sound technology asset, software licence, SaaS and cloud-cost management practices covering inventory accuracy, warranty, refresh, reclamation and secure disposal.

·       Lead operational vendor governance through clear service levels, scorecards, escalation paths, service-improvement plans, concentration-risk management and exit readiness.

·       Negotiate and manage operational contracts in partnership with Finance, Procurement, Legal and the CTO, balancing service quality, flexibility, risk and total cost.

Leadership and Stakeholder Partnership

Build a leadership team with appropriate spans of control, succession depth, technical capability and a culture of ownership, transparency, urgency and continuous improvement.

·       Coach and develop leaders and technical teams, set clear performance expectations and create practical career paths across operations, security, service management and retail technology.

·       Create a service culture that is responsive to stores and business teams, candid about risk and performance, and disciplined about commitments.

·       Build trusted relationships with executive and functional leaders, explain operational risks in business terms, and make trade-offs visible before they become incidents.

·       Partner with Architecture on standards and target-state designs, Engineering on release and production readiness, and Enterprise Applications on platform support models and lifecycle planning.

Success Measures

·       Availability and performance of critical store, corporate and foundational technology services.

·       Number and severity of priority incidents, mean time to detect, mean time to restore, repeat incidents and completion of permanent corrective actions.

·       Change success rate, emergency change rate, rollback frequency and operational readiness of production releases.

·       Store technology availability, POS hardware availability, store satisfaction, field-service SLA attainment, repeat visits and new-store readiness.

·       Patch and vulnerability compliance, backup success, recovery-test achievement, audit findings and risk-remediation aging.

·       Infrastructure, network, database, Microsoft 365 and endpoint service health, capacity and lifecycle compliance.

·       Service Desk first-contact resolution, customer satisfaction, response time, backlog health, knowledge use and escalation quality.

·       Budget performance, forecast accuracy, cloud-cost optimization, license utilization, asset-record accuracy and measurable vendor value.

·       Leadership-team effectiveness, employee engagement, succession readiness, retention of critical skills and delivery of annual operating priorities.

Skills, Experience, Education, Certifications

·       Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Business or a related discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

·       12 or more years of progressive technology leadership experience, including significant accountability for enterprise IT operations in a complex, distributed environment.

·       Demonstrated success leading multi-disciplinary functions such as infrastructure, cloud, networks, database operations, service management, cybersecurity, end-user services or retail technology operations.

·       Experience supporting a multi-site or multi-unit business. Retail experience, including store technology, POS, payment devices, field support and new-store readiness, is strongly preferred.

·       Proven major-incident leadership and experience establishing measurable service management, problem management, change governance and operational reporting.

·       Strong knowledge of hybrid infrastructure, cloud platforms, Microsoft 365, enterprise networking, databases, endpoint management, observability, backup and disaster recovery.

·       Working knowledge of cybersecurity, identity, risk, privacy, audit, PCI-related operating controls and third-party risk management.

·       Experience managing substantial operating and capital budgets, technology assets, software licences, cloud consumption and strategic vendors.

·       Ability to communicate complex operational and technical matters clearly to executives, business leaders, technical teams and external partners.

·       Demonstrated ability to build strong leaders, redesign operating models, manage through ambiguity and deliver measurable improvements without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

·       ITIL, cloud, security, business-continuity or related professional certifications are assets, but practical operating leadership and results are more important.

Ready to join the team?  

We’re looking for passionate people who bring strong skills and live our core values of safety, compassion, expertise, and efficiency every day. If you’re energized by doing meaningful work, taking pride in what you deliver, and making a real impact for pets, people, and communities, you’ll feel right at home here. Join us and build a career where purpose, care, and excellence come together - because love lives here™. 

Why work for us? 

 At Pet Valu, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We’re passionate about creating an environment where you feel supported, included, and empowered to grow - both personally and professionally. Some of the perks of working with us include:  

• Hybrid, Flexible Work Options 

• Comprehensive health and dental benefits 

• Employee Share Purchase Plan with company matching 

• Learning and Development support tailored to you 

• An inclusive, collaborative culture where your voice matters  

• Fun company events that keep us connected 

• Preferred rates for car rentals, hotels, phone plans and gym discounts 

• Generous employee discounts on our products  

Pet Valu is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion and accessibility. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruitment and selection process, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). 

At Pet Valu, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our hiring practices. This posting is for an existing vacancy. Pet Valu may use AI enabled technology to assist in the recruitment process for positions. The use of AI helps us ensure we are providing an equitable and streamlined recruitment experience for all applicants. While AI tools support our recruitment process, all decisions throughout the process are made exclusively by Pet Valu’s hiring team. At no stage does AI determine recruitment outcomes.