Field notes from 30 years in the room
Direct takes on IT operations, AI, and careers — from someone who's run the program, not just presented about it. No frameworks for their own sake. No consultant-speak.
The record
Julie Brock spent three decades inside IT operations, service management, and AIOps — most recently as Director of IT Service Operations at Caterpillar, where she led the implementation that pulled the noise out of a global incident pipeline.
That work wasn't a pilot or a proof of concept. It ran in production, against real volume, and the numbers held up under scrutiny — which is the only kind of result worth writing about.
The Pragmatic Director exists because most leadership writing is aspirational. This isn't. It's what actually worked, what didn't, and what it costs to find out the difference.
What's here
01 — Brand
A straight account of the work — what was built, what it produced, and the judgment behind the calls.
02 — Hiring
If you're evaluating Julie for a director-level role, this is the fastest way to see how she thinks and what she's actually delivered.
03 — Templates
The trackers, playbooks, and frameworks behind the posts — built for reuse, not just for reading.
Weekly, no padding
The Pragmatic Director publishes weekly on Substack — leadership, AI, and career notes written the way a director actually talks, not the way a deck reads.
Subscribe on Substack →Coming soon
Every framework that shows up in an article — trackers, playbooks, scorecards — will eventually live here, ready to use. Free for subscribers, with a paid tier for the deeper toolkits.