Senior Manager, Infrastructure & Operations; Global

Senior Manager, Infrastructure & Operations (Global)

Our manufacturing client is seeking a Senior Manager, Infrastructure & Operations with global experience to join their growing technology team. This person will lead a total team of 8-9 with 4 direct reports, 3 in the US and 1 abroad, and work with globally distributed team members, so previous experience working in a globally distributed team is necessary.

Reporting to the Global VP of Information Technology, the mission of the Senior Manager, Infrastructure & Operations is to provide a secure, reliable, and scalable technology foundation that enables the business to operate effectively and grow with confidence. This role ensures infrastructure, workplace platforms, and IT operations are delivered as high-quality services, grounded in ITIL 4 service management practices and continuous improvement, within a Microsoft 365–centric, hybrid (on-prem and cloud) environment.

Success in this role requires balancing operational stability with modernization, embedding security and resiliency by design in partnership with the Information Security Officer, and building a high-performing Infrastructure & Operations team that the business can consistently rely on. If you have successfully cultivated the talents of your infrastructure team, and served as a true business partner, this may be the best role for you!

• Directly manage infrastructure, network, and operations staff; set clear expectations and accountability.
• Develop team capability through coaching, performance management, training, and career development.
• Foster a culture of ownership, operational discipline, and collaboration across IT towers.
• Identify skill gaps and succession risks and actively build bench strength within Infrastructure & Operations.

• Own the end-to-end infrastructure stack, including on-prem compute and storage, networks, identity services, and cloud platforms.
• Lead the evolution of a hybrid infrastructure model, balancing on-prem and cloud services to meet reliability, performance, scalability, and cost objectives.
• Define and maintain architecture standards, patterns, and guardrails for infrastructure and workplace technologies.
• Ensure backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity capabilities are designed, documented, tested, and aligned with organizational requirements.

• Own the Microsoft 365 tenant and digital workplace experience, including Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, One Drive, and related collaboration services.
• Oversee endpoint management and device lifecycle processes using modern management approaches (e.g., Intune / Endpoint Manager).
• Ensure consistent onboarding/offboarding, device compliance, and configuration baselines across the organization.
• Drive adoption, reliability, and usability of M365 services to support productivity and collaboration.

• Lead IT operations using ITIL 4 practices, including incident management, request fulfillment, change enablement, problem management, knowledge management, and service level management.
• Establish, track, and report operational KPIs and SLAs, using data to drive continual service improvement.
• Standardize operational processes, documentation, and runbooks to reduce risk and dependency on individual contributors.
• Drive automation, monitoring, and proactive operations aligned with ITIL 4 value streams.
• Own relationships with infrastructure, cloud, and managed service providers.
• Manage contracts, licensing, and asset inventories, including Microsoft licensing and M365 services.
• Plan and manage operational budgets, including forecasting, renewals, and cost optimization initiatives.

• Implement infrastructure and operational controls that align with information security policies, standards, and risk decisions.
• Partner closely with the Information Security Officer on the design and rollout of security controls related to infrastructure, cloud platforms, identity, endpoints, and workplace technologies.
• Ensure infrastructure and operations teams adhere to approved security baselines, configurations, and change practices.
• Support security risk assessments, audits, and reviews by providing technical and operational input.
• Act as an escalation point for operational security issues, coordinating response and remediation with the Information Security Officer and third-party providers as appropriate.

• Partner with Applications, Data & Analytics, Security, and PMO to support project delivery, platform changes, and service transitions.
• Ensure infrastructure and operational readiness for go-lives through structured change enablement and release coordination.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex operational, availability, or service‑impacting issues.

• 10-12+ years of progressive…