Director, IT Operations

Axsome Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company leading a new era in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) conditions. We deliver scientific breakthroughs by identifying critical gaps in care and develop differentiated products with a focus on novel mechanisms of action that enable meaningful advancements in patient outcomes. Our industry-leading neuroscience portfolio includes FDA-approved treatments for major depressive disorder, agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy and obstructive sleep apnea, and migraine, as well as multiple novel product candidates addressing a broad range of serious neurological and psychiatric conditions that impact over 150 million people in the United States. Together, we are on a mission to solve some of the brain’s biggest problems so patients and their loved ones can flourish. For more information, please visit us at www.axsome.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.

About This Role

Axsome Therapeutics is seeking a Director, IT Operations who will be responsible for leading and supporting a wide scope of IT operations and business technology programs that underpin Axsome’s business objectives. This position will lead a service desk that provides support for hardware, software, infrastructure, communications and information security related activities throughout the organization, while broadly supporting the IT Team’s operational goals and objectives. This person will also be responsible for maintaining high-priority incidents or requests during non-standard hours, including active weekend and evening and, perform additional responsibilities as assigned by IT leadership.

This role is based at Axsome’s HQ in New York City with an on-site requirement of at least three days per week. We are unable to consider candidates who are looking for fully remote roles.

Job Responsibilities and Duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

Leadership & Team Management

• Provide strategic leadership and direction for the IT Service Desk, Desktop Support, and End User Support teams, including staffing, workforce planning, performance management, and professional development.

• Establish and enforce service delivery standards, operational procedures, and support policies, and build a high-performing support organization focused on exceptional customer service.

• Serve as a hands‑on leader when required, providing direct support during complex issues, high‑priority incidents, or resource‑constrained situations.

Service Delivery & Operations

• Oversee the full lifecycle of incidents, service requests, problems, and escalations, including escalation frameworks and major incident management procedures.

• Ensure SLAs and KPIs are consistently achieved or exceeded, driving continuous service quality improvements through trend analysis, root cause investigations, and corrective actions.

• Engage directly in operational troubleshooting and incident response when needed to maintain service continuity and support team effectiveness.

IT Service Management (ITSM)

• Own and optimize ITSM platforms including ServiceNow, Freshservice, Jira Service Management, or similar technologies, including workflows, service catalogs, knowledge management, reporting dashboards, and automation initiatives.

• Lead ITIL-based service management processes and ensure consistent documentation and governance of support operations across the organization.

• Serve as the business-facing owner of the employee IT support experience, monitoring and improving customer satisfaction, service responsiveness, communication quality, and overall support effectiveness.

Customer Experience & Metric Reporting

• Develop self-service, knowledge management, and automation strategies that improve employee productivity and reduce repetitive support demand.

• Collaborate with business leaders to understand evolving support needs and continuously improve service delivery.

• Define, track, and report on operational KPIs including customer satisfaction, service level achievement, mean time to resolution, first contact resolution, ticket volume trends, and support cost effectiveness.

• Deliver regular service reviews and operational reporting to IT leadership and business stakeholders, using data and root cause analysis to identify opportunities for automation and process optimization.

Vendor & Managed Service Oversight

• Manage relationships with outsourced help desk providers, support vendors, and technology partners, establishing service expectations, governance routines, and performance measures that hold vendors accountable.

• Review contracts, statements of work, and support agreements to ensure services align with business requirements and budget expectations.

• Oversee endpoint support for laptops, mobile devices, printers, conferencing technologies, and workplace collaboration platforms.

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