About the role

Aplyr's Quick Take

This role is about leading the reliability operations for Gap Inc.'s technology systems, focusing on ensuring their performance and availability. It's a senior leadership position that involves strategic oversight of IT service management, Site Reliability Engineering, and collaboration with various tech teams to enhance system resilience.

Good fit

Ideal candidates have extensive experience in IT operations and service management, particularly in a leadership role. They should be strategic thinkers with a strong background in engineering and a collaborative working style.

Worth noting

The role emphasizes a shift towards agile, data-driven service management, which may appeal to those interested in modernizing traditional IT practices. However, the spec is vague on day-to-day responsibilities, which could be a concern for potential applicants.

About the Role

The Senior Director - Reliability Operations, is a strategic leader accountable for ensuring the reliability, availability, and performance of the enterprise technology ecosystem. This role oversees all ITIL-based service management functions, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), the ServiceNow Platform, Mission Control, and Live Sight Insights.

This leader drives operational excellence through a proactive reliability strategy that combines process discipline, automation, observability, and real-time insights. They will partner closely with engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and product teams to build and sustain resilient systems that power Gap Inc.’s digital and in-store experiences.

As a thought leader, the Sr. Director will shape the long-term vision for operational reliability and service management—defining modern capabilities, optimizing service performance, and establishing an innovation-driven reliability culture.

What You'll Do

Strategic Leadership & Vision

Define and execute the enterprise Reliability Operations strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives and technology roadmaps.
Lead transformation of ITIL functions into agile, data-driven service management capabilities across incident, problem, change, and configuration management.
Partner with senior technology and business leaders to embed reliability and performance metrics into product development and operational planning.

Operational Excellence & Reliability Engineering

Lead Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices across platforms and services—driving automation, self-healing capabilities, and proactive monitoring to achieve measurable service resiliency improvements.
Establish standards for availability, latency, scalability, and operational efficiency through engineering-driven reliability principles.
Champion reliability by design—ensuring observability, capacity planning, and chaos testing are core to delivery processes.

Mission Control & LiveSight Insights

Oversee the Mission Control organization responsible for real-time system monitoring, incident command, and critical event management.
Drive adoption of Live Sight Insights to create predictive and actionable intelligence on service health and performance trends.
Enable enterprise visibility of key metrics through intuitive dashboards and business-impact-based alerting models.

ServiceNow Governance Ownership

Own the ServiceNow Platform governance strategy and roadmap, ensuring it enables ITIL process excellence, automation, and collaboration on cross-enterprise workflow integration.
Collaborate with product and engineering teams to provide industry best practices for ServiceNow’s capabilities including IT, HR, Security, and Enterprise Operations.
Lead a platform governance mindset—focusing on reliability, scalability, and ease of use.

People Leadership & Culture

Build, inspire, and develop a high-performing global Reliability Operations team that embodies accountability, collaboration, and innovation.
Foster a culture of data-driven decision making, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
Serve as a mentor and coach to emerging leaders—raising the organizational bar for reliability engineering and service leadership.

Cross-Functional Partnership

Work closely with Software Engineering, Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and Business Technology teams to ensure reliability objectives are integrated end-to-end.
Partner with Enterprise Architecture and Program Management to align technology investments with reliability outcomes.
Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on reliability strategy, risk posture, and performance health of the enterprise environment.

Who You Are

Proven strategic leader with success driving operational transformation at scale in global, complex environments for more than 10 years.
Deep expertise in ITIL frameworks, SRE principles, ServiceNow platform administration and architecture, and modern observability practices.
Strong technical understanding across infrastructure, cloud operations, automation, and service management ecosystems.
Exceptional ability to influence at all levels—translating technical reliability concepts into business impact and strategic value.
Passionate about developing people and creating a culture of ownership, reliability, and continuous improvement.
Demonstrated track record of leading large, diverse teams and delivering measurable improvements in service reliability, performance, and user satisfaction.
A high performing leader—operating with strategic agility, executive presence, and the ability to build organizational alignment through clarity, accountability, and purpose.

Aplyr's read

Gap Inc. is a leading global retailer known for its diverse brand portfolio, attracting individuals passionate about fashion and retail innovation.
Synthesized from recent postings & public sources

What's promising

•Gap Inc. offers diverse career opportunities across its well-known brands like Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy.
•The company is investing in data and digital transformation, hiring roles like Sr Manager - Data Engineer.
•Gap Inc. has a strong presence in major retail locations, providing stability and growth opportunities.

What to watch

•The retail sector faces challenges from e-commerce competitors, impacting traditional brick-and-mortar sales.
•Frequent hiring for seasonal roles may indicate high turnover or reliance on temporary staff.
•Economic downturns can significantly affect consumer spending on non-essential items like fashion.

Why Gap Inc.

•Gap Inc. operates multiple distinct brands, catering to a wide range of consumer demographics.
•The company emphasizes sustainability and ethical sourcing in its supply chain initiatives.
•Gap Inc. has a notable commitment to diversity and inclusion within its workforce.

Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?

About Gap Inc.

Gap Inc.

gapinc.com

View company

Gap Inc. is a global retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products under various brands including Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta.