Head of Information Technology, Business Engagement in Toronto

Pacific International Recruitment is an established international Executive Search firm with nearly 30 years of proven success in placing senior leadership and critical management positions. Headquartered in London, with strategic offices in Düsseldorf and Philadelphia, we support clients and candidates across EMEA and the United States.

Pacific has been exclusively retained by gategroup, the world’s leading inflight catering and hospitality provider, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. With operations in over 60 countries and more than 40,000 employees, Gategroup combines global scale, operational excellence, innovation, and sustainability to deliver exceptional passenger experiences worldwide.

The Regional Head IT Business Engagement position plays a critical role in advancing the company's IT business strategy. Acting as the primary liaison between IT and the business, responsible for North America region, this role promotes IT services and capabilities while ensuring the delivery of IT solutions that meet business needs. Additionally, the role serves as a bridge between different regions, functions, and executive levels to drive business technology strategy development, solution identification, service management, risk management, and relationship management.

This role requires a well-rounded IT executive who combines strategic thinking, operational leadership, and stakeholder management capabilities, and who can effectively balance growth, transformation, and day-to-day operational excellence in a complex, matrixed environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Managing the Regional IT team, ensuring the deployment of agreed IT roadmaps, overseeing the implementation of IT solutions, and driving successful rollouts across the organization and to customers.
• Ensuring the efficient delivery of all regional IT services, including IT support, infrastructure management, and regional application maintenance, while aligning IT initiatives with corporate objectives across the region.
• Acting as key escalation point between IT and business across all functional IT areas and ensuring all third-party vendors are identified and managed.
• Collaborating with business leadership and stakeholders to identify opportunities, prioritize projects, and oversee regional investment intake processes, as well as in the budget planning.
• Creating a shared vision for solutions, facilitating decision-making, and identifying new opportunities.
• Developing and implementing a process for consolidating business roadmaps, prioritizing demands, and presenting for investment approval.
• Ensuring thorough analysis of business requirements to recommend solutions meeting business needs.
• Identifying, screening, and evaluating new solution opportunities to address internal and external customer needs.
• Negotiating and agreeing on service levels with IT CoE and Operations, monitoring performance, and acting as an escalation point for critical service problems.
• Balancing service costs with business demands when handling new requirements.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or Business Administration, or equivalent experience.
• Preferred: Master’s degree in IT Management, Business Administration, or Digital Transformation.
• 10+ years of experience in IT and business-facing technology roles.
• 10+ years of leadership experience, including managing regional or multi-country IT teams.
• Proven experience defining and executing regional IT strategies and roadmaps aligned with global IT direction.
• Strong background in regional IT service delivery and operations, including infrastructure, applications, and support.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in complex, multinational environments and partner with senior business leadership.
• Experience managing IT budgets, vendor relationships, and service performance.
• Broad understanding of enterprise IT services, including applications, infrastructure, workplace, and operations.
• Solid knowledge of IT service management (ITIL) and service delivery models.
• Understanding of technology roadmapping, portfolio management, and demand prioritization.
• Familiarity with digital transformation topics (including automation and AI) as enablers within business solutions.
• Certifications in ITIL, COBIT, or similar IT governance/service frameworks (preferred).
• Excellent English skills; additional major languages are an advantage.

About Pacific:

Pacific International, a globally recognized retained Executive Search firm, is dedicated to empowering Fortune 500, FTSE 100, and high-growth enterprises in building exceptional C-suite, senior-level, and strategic leadership teams while championing diversity and inclusion.

Diversity Statement:

At Pacific International, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of who we are and what we do. Our commitment to these values is unwavering and we proudly champion diversity on behalf of our clients in every Executive Search mandate we undertake.