IT Operations Manager

About the Role

We’re a private company with multiple offices across the Southeastern U.S. and a workforce of several hundred employees. We’ve grown significantly over the past few years — and our IT infrastructure needs to grow with us.

This role leads IT operations for the entire organization. You’ll own the infrastructure function end to end — servers, networking, security, endpoints, vendor relationships, and licensing across all locations. You’ll walk into an environment that has been maintained by a small team for years and bring the structure, documentation, and operational maturity a growing company requires.

This is not a help desk role with a better title. This is a leadership position for someone who has built IT operations functions before — someone who can assess what exists, document what’s undocumented, build systems where there are gaps, and manage a team that keeps the infrastructure running while the business continues to grow.

You’ll manage a small IT support team directly. The expectation is that you operate with real autonomy — bringing recommendations and a weekly rollup, not a daily stream of questions.

What You’ll Own

• Full ownership of IT infrastructure across multiple offices — servers, firewalls, network configurations, endpoint management, backup and disaster recovery, and security posture.
• Building and maintaining the IT documentation and knowledge base — systems inventory, vendor and license calendar, routine procedure runbooks, and break-fix playbooks. If it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist.
• Vendor and contract management — renewals, SLAs, escalations, and evaluating whether current vendor relationships still make sense for a company at our size and growth trajectory.
• Endpoint and mobile device management — laptops, phones, tablets, MDM platforms, and the onboarding/offboarding lifecycle.
• Managing IT support staff directly — setting priorities, reviewing work, developing skills, and ensuring issues are tracked and resolved through a ticketing system.
• Owning the relationship between IT operations and the rest of the business — making infrastructure invisible and reliable, not a source of friction.
• Providing a weekly operational rollup to leadership — clear, concise, no surprises. Bringing infrastructure decisions and vendor strategy as formed recommendations, not open questions.

What We’re Looking For

Required:

• 8–15 years of IT operations experience, with at least 3 years in a role where you owned the function — not just executed tasks within it.
• Multi-site experience. You’ve supported infrastructure across multiple physical locations and understand the challenges of distributed environments — inconsistent configurations, remote troubleshooting, and keeping standards consistent across offices.
• Proven documentation builder. You’ve walked into environments with limited or no documentation and created the systems inventory, runbooks, and playbooks that made the operation transferable and auditable.
• Direct management experience — you’ve supervised IT support staff, set expectations, and held people accountable.
• Strong working knowledge of: firewalls and network security, endpoint management platforms (e.g., NinjaOne, SCCM, Intune), MDM solutions, Microsoft 365 administration, Active Directory, backup and disaster recovery, and remote support tools.
• You communicate clearly and concisely — in writing and in person. You can explain an infrastructure risk to a non-technical executive without jargon and without underselling the impact.

Preferred:

• Experience in a company that grew significantly during your tenure — you understand what happens when infrastructure that worked for a smaller operation doesn’t scale.
• Familiarity with IT audit processes and working with third-party assessors.
• Experience managing or evaluating managed service providers (MSPs).
• Industry certifications (CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco, or similar) are a plus but not a substitute for demonstrated operational leadership.

Why This Role Matters

We’re building the IT operations department for the company’s next phase of growth. The infrastructure has been maintained, but it hasn’t been built to scale. You’ll have the opportunity to shape how IT operations works at this company — not inherit someone else’s playbook, but build your own.

If you’re the kind of person who gets energy from walking into a room, figuring out what’s there, documenting it, and making it better — this is built for you.

Pay: $85,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person

Salary : $85,000 - $110,000