Sr. Manager, Systems Administration & Support

As a leader and innovator in the snack food industry for over 50 years, J&J Snack Foods provides branded snack foods to foodservice and retail supermarket outlets across the U.S. Its products include such icons as SUPERPRETZEL, ICEE, and Dippin’ Dots along with other key brands like LUIGI’S Real Italian Ice, The Funnel Cake Factory Funnel Cakes, and Hola Churros. J&J also has a strong presence in bakery providing cakes, cookies, and pies to some of the largest grocery and convenience retailers in industry. Our company continues to deliver record sales led by a talented team and a commitment to “Fun Served Here”.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Manager – Systems Administration & Support Services is responsible for overseeing the design, implementation, maintenance, and support of the organization’s IT infrastructure and end-user support services. This role ensures optimal performance, security, and reliability of systems and services while leading a team of system administrators, IT support specialists, and engineers.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of systems administrators and IT support staff.
• Establish performance goals, conduct evaluations, and implement professional development plans.
• Manage resource allocation, including staff scheduling, project assignments, and ticket/workload distribution.
• Oversee administration of servers (Windows/Linux), storage, virtualization (VMware/Hyper-V), and cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS).
• Ensure effective configuration, maintenance, and monitoring of critical systems.
• Maintain system documentation, disaster recovery plans, and configuration management processes.
• Oversee IT support operations, ensuring timely resolution of incidents and service requests.
• Implement ITIL-based processes for service management, including incident, problem, and change management.
• Responsible for overseeing and coordinating after-hours support for critical incidents or system issues to minimize downtime and maintain business continuity. This may involve participation in an on-call rotation and the management of after-hours support personnel or escalation procedures to swiftly address and resolve urgent technical problems.
• Develop KPIs and service level agreements (SLAs) for the support team and monitor performance.
• Assist in the development and execution of IT strategy and roadmap aligned with business goals.
• Create and manage budgets for systems and support operations, including hardware/software procurement.
• Prepare reports and presentations for executive leadership and stakeholders.
• Ensuring system and support activities comply with internal policies and external regulations (e.g., HIPAA, SOC 2, NIST).
• Work with security teams on vulnerability management, access control, and auditing.
• Participate in business continuity and risk management planning.
• Work closely with business units to understand and support their technical needs.
• Act as a liaison between infrastructure, security, applications, and user services teams.
• Lead vendor and contract management for systems and support services.

COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge of systems administration, infrastructure, and IT support services.
• Experience managing hybrid on-prem/cloud environments
• Familiarity with ITSM platforms and ITIL framework.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and project management skills.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology
• 8 years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure, systems administration, and support