IT Operations Manager

The Role

We are seeking a hands-on, strategic IT Manager to lead the technical backbone of our organization. We need a leader who can ensure our infrastructure is robust, secure, and scalable. We need someone who can not only manage our current footprint but also drive the technical integration of future acquisitions.

In this role, you will report directly to the CIO and oversee the integrity of our network, server infrastructure, and service delivery. You will lead a technical team including the Systems Administrator, Help Desk and Systems Analysts, balancing high-level architectural decisions with the technical mentorship required to drive operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

M&A Integration & Strategic Growth

- Integration Strategy: Lead the technical roadmap for Mergers & Acquisitions, defining timelines and budgets for integrating acquired sites into the corporate network.

- Migration Oversight: Plan and manage complex Tenant-to-Tenant migrations (O365/Azure), ensuring the seamless consolidation of identities, email, and data with minimal business disruption.

- Standardization: Rapidly assess acquired infrastructure and drive the standardization of hardware, security stacks, and connectivity to match corporate standards.

Infrastructure & Network Strategy

- Architecture & Maintenance: Manage the lifecycle of the company’s physical and virtual infrastructure, including LAN/WAN, VMware environments, and Storage Area Networks (SAN).

- Cloud & Modernization: Lead migration strategies for legacy systems and manage the Microsoft O365 ecosystem and Azure AD hybrid environments.

- Network Reliability: Oversee the configuration and uptime of enterprise networking gear, specifically Palo Alto firewalls and Aruba switching/routing.

Security Oversight & Vendor Partnership

- MSSP Liaison: act as the primary bridge between the organization and our Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). You will hold the MSSP accountable for monitoring, threat detection, and response.

- Internal Compliance: Collaborate with the MSSP to enforce security policies, ensuring the internal environment (Active Directory, email filtering, endpoints) remains compliant with security standards.

- Disaster Recovery: Own the backup and disaster recovery strategy (utilizing Cohesity and our DRaaS Expedient), ensuring data integrity and validating recovery time objectives (RTO).

Team Leadership & Service Delivery

- Team Management: Manage and mentor a diverse technical team (Systems Admin, Help Desk, Systems Analysts), fostering a culture of rapid resolution and high-quality end-user support.

- Process Improvement: Analyze support workflows and implement ITIL-based best practices to improve efficiency and reduce ticket volume.

- Automation: Champion the use of PowerShell and automation tools to reduce manual administrative tasks.

Application Reliability

- System Ownership: Act as the primary infrastructure owner for critical business applications, ensuring high availability and performance optimization.

- Vendor Management: Manage relationships with software and hardware vendors, including licensing compliance, procurement, and support escalation.

Qualifications

Required Experience:

- Leadership: 5+ years of experience managing IT infrastructure or systems engineering teams.

- Core Infrastructure: Deep expertise in Windows Server environments (2016/2019/2022), Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and Group Policy.

- Virtualization & Storage: Proven experience with VMware (Enterprise Plus features) and iSCSI SAN technologies (Dell EqualLogic or similar).

- Networking: Hands-on experience with enterprise networking, specifically Palo Alto firewalls and Aruba architecture.

Preferred Skills:

- Experience supporting Prophet 21 or similar distribution ERP systems.

- Proficiency in PowerShell scripting for task automation.

- Experience with Cohesity for enterprise backups.

- Bachelor’s degree in an IT discipline (preferred but experience is prioritized).