Manager of Infrastructure

Job Description

The Manager of Infrastructure is responsible for the availability, performance, security, and operational maturity of internal and client-facing infrastructure services, including systems, network, cloud, virtualization, backup, and monitoring platforms. The role ensures that contractual SLAs are met, escalations are handled effectively, operational risks are controlled, and teams follow disciplined processes for incident, change, problem, capacity, vulnerability, and service management.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring strong infrastructure operations experience, practical knowledge of security and compliance practices, and the ability to lead technical teams, vendors, and client-facing delivery activities.

Key Responsibilities:

Infrastructure Operations and Service Delivery

• Lead day-to-day operations for client and internal infrastructure services across Windows, Linux, networking, AWS cloud, VMware/private cloud, storage, backup, and monitoring environments.
• Own infrastructure availability, uptime, service quality, and SLA compliance for assigned client and internal environments.
• Ensure client contractual expectations are delivered within agreed SLA, scope, and operational governance standards.
• Review infrastructure health, alerts, incidents, recurring issues, capacity trends, backup status, patch compliance, and service risks on a regular basis.
• Maintain operational readiness for 24x7 support, on-call coverage, escalation handling, and client communication during critical incidents.

Incident, Problem, and Change Management

• Lead major incidents and infrastructure escalations, ensuring timely coordination, technical ownership, and communication with stakeholders.
• Ensure Root Cause Analysis is completed for critical incidents, including corrective actions, preventive actions, and follow-up tracking.
• Drive problem management for recurring infrastructure issues and reduce repeat incidents through permanent fixes and process improvements.
• Enforce change management discipline, including impact analysis, risk assessment, rollback planning, maintenance windows, approvals, and post-change validation.
• Ensure escalated issues are addressed by the appropriate skill level and that established service levels are consistently achieved.

Security, Risk, and Compliance Support

• Coordinate with security teams to support vulnerability remediation, patching, hardening, access reviews, incident response, and audit requirements.
• Ensure infrastructure teams follow secure operational practices for privileged access, service accounts, backups, firewall/network changes, and system configuration.
• Support risk identification and mitigation activities related to infrastructure availability, performance, security, and compliance.
• Promote a strong operational risk management mindset while maintaining client satisfaction and service reliability.

Automation, Process Improvement, and Documentation

• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency through automation, standardization, monitoring improvements, and repeatable workflows.
• Develop, maintain, and improve policies, procedures, SOPs, runbooks, checklists, and internal training materials.
• Design, monitor, and refine work processes so issues are resolved efficiently and at the correct support level.
• Ensure operational knowledge is documented and shared across teams to reduce dependency on individuals.

Vendor, Partner, and Client Coordination

• Manage and coordinate with OculusIT partners, vendors, and OEM support teams for service delivery, escalations, renewals, and new service implementation.
• Review vendor performance, support cases, service quality, and payment approvals related to infrastructure services.
• Provide technical input to client discussions, solution reviews, pre-sales, and service improvement conversations when required.
• Work with product and service leadership to provide feedback on existing service packages and identify operational improvement opportunities.

Team Leadership and Resource Management

• Plan staffing requirements and work with Talent Acquisition to interview, recruit, retain, and train infrastructure team members.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members to improve technical depth, ownership, accountability, and customer relationship skills.
• Lead performance appraisal activities and align individual goals with team and client service objectives.
• Build a high-performing infrastructure operations culture focused on service quality, accountability, ethical practices, and continuous improvement.

Reporting and Metrics

• Measure, report, and improve operational KPIs, including SLA compliance, uptime, incident response/resolution time, change success rate, patch compliance, backup success rate, capacity utilization, ticket backlog, ticket aging, client satisfaction, and resource utilization.
• Support departmental budgeting, forecasting, cost optimization, and operational reporting without direct P&L ownership unless specifically assigned.
• Use industry-standard metrics to assess service quality, staffing levels, performance trends, and process effectiveness, and adjust resources or processes accordingly.
• Perform other infrastructure operations and management duties as assigned.

Experience:

• 8-10 years of relevant infrastructure operations experience, including hands-on technical experience and team leadership responsibility.
• Experience managing client-facing infrastructure services in an MSP, enterprise IT, data center, cloud, or managed services environment is preferred.
• Experience leading critical incident management, SLA delivery, vendor coordination, and operational reporting.

Qualifications:

• Four-year degree from an accredited institution, equivalent qualification, or relevant work experience.
• One or more IT certifications preferred, such as ITIL, CCNA/CCNP, RHCE/RHCSA, Microsoft, VMware, AWS, Azure, or equivalent.
• Background in infrastructure design, implementation planning, operations management, and service improvement.
• Strong understanding of data analysis, operational reporting, budgeting support, and service management practices.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, problem-solving, organizational, and leadership capabilities.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to communicate clearly with technical teams, clients, vendors, and leadership.
• Hands-on and collaborative working style with the ability to operate under pressure and manage competing priorities.

Technical Skills:

• Hands-on expertise across Windows Server, Red Hat/Linux, virtualization, networking, and cloud platforms, with AWS preferred.
• Working knowledge of VMware/private cloud, storage, backup/recovery, disaster recovery, monitoring, patching, vulnerability remediation, and infrastructure security practices.
• Familiarity with ITSM platforms, monitoring tools, backup platforms, RMM tools, cloud management tools, and automation/scripting technologies.
• Ability to review technical designs, operational risks, change plans, RCA documents, and service improvement plans.

Leadership and Business Skills:

• Proven ability to build strong relationships internally and externally.
• Strong client management and account-support skills to maintain and enhance customer relationships.
• Detail-oriented, goal-oriented, persistent, and able to work with minimal direction.
• High level of initiative and ability to work effectively in a team environment.
• Ability to handle stressful situations, deadlines, escalations, and client expectations professionally.