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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Information Technology Manager

💰 $90,000 - $150,000

Information TechnologyManagementInfrastructureSecurity

🎯 Role Definition

The Information Technology Manager (IT Manager) leads the planning, implementation, operation and continual improvement of the company's IT environment. This role balances strategic planning and hands-on technical leadership to deliver secure, reliable, and cost-effective IT services that enable business objectives. The IT Manager oversees infrastructure, cloud services, cybersecurity, IT service management (ITSM), projects, vendor relationships and cross-functional stakeholder engagement.

Key SEO keywords: Information Technology Manager, IT Manager, IT strategy, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, cloud operations, ITIL, service desk, vendor management, project management.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Systems Administrator / Systems Engineer (Windows/Linux)
  • Network Engineer / Network Administrator
  • IT Project Manager or Technical Project Lead
  • Application Support Manager or Database Administrator

Advancement To:

  • Director of IT / Infrastructure Director
  • Head of IT / Head of Technology Operations
  • VP of Information Technology
  • Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Lateral Moves:

  • Security Manager / Information Security Officer
  • Cloud Operations Manager / Cloud Architect
  • Program Manager (Technology Programs)
  • Product Manager (Technical Products/Platforms)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, document and execute the enterprise IT strategy and roadmap aligned with business goals, ensuring technology investments deliver measurable ROI, operational efficiency, and scalability.
  • Lead, coach and develop a team of IT professionals across infrastructure, operations, service desk, cloud, and security disciplines; create performance plans, run regular 1:1s, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Own the design, deployment and ongoing optimization of on-premises and cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP), including compute, networking, storage, virtualization (VMware/Hyper-V), and container platforms (Kubernetes/Docker).
  • Architect and enforce cybersecurity controls and program governance—identify risks, implement security frameworks (NIST, CIS), manage vulnerability remediation, and ensure endpoint, network and identity protection (MFA, SSO).
  • Manage IT service delivery and support functions (ITSM/Helpdesk), set and monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs), implement ITIL best practices for incident, problem and change management to maximize availability and user productivity.
  • Plan and administer enterprise backup, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans; perform periodic DR tests, RTO/RPO assessments and maintain failover procedures to minimize downtime and data loss.
  • Own infrastructure capacity planning and performance monitoring; implement observability tooling, telemetry, logging and alerting (Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, ELK) to proactively address performance and availability issues.
  • Lead cross-functional IT and digital transformation projects from initiation through delivery—define scope, create project plans, manage budgets, allocate resources, mitigate risks and report status to stakeholders and executives.
  • Manage IT budget, procurement and vendor relationships—negotiate contracts, monitor licensing compliance, and optimize TCO across hardware, software, cloud services and managed service providers (MSPs).
  • Define and enforce standards for systems architecture, configuration management, automation (Ansible, Terraform), infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and CI/CD pipelines to improve reliability and deployment cadence.
  • Oversee identity and access management (IAM) and privileged access controls; implement least-privilege principles, perform regular access reviews and manage onboarding/offboarding workflows.
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and data privacy frameworks (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2), coordinate audits, and implement remediation plans for control gaps.
  • Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics (MTTR, MTBF, ticket SLA attainment, uptime) and present monthly/quarterly reports to leadership.
  • Drive endpoint and mobile device management policies, including patch management, antivirus/EDR rollout, configuration baselines, and encryption for corporate devices.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders—partner with functional leaders to prioritize technology initiatives, define SLAs and translate business needs into technical requirements.
  • Oversee database administration best practices, ensure backup and maintenance of critical RDBMS/NoSQL systems, and coordinate schema changes and performance tuning in collaboration with DBAs and developers.
  • Implement and manage collaboration and productivity platforms (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack) to increase team collaboration while maintaining security posture and compliance.
  • Design and implement network architecture, segmentation, firewalls, VPNs and remote access solutions to ensure robust, secure connectivity across offices, cloud and remote workers.
  • Drive automation of repetitive operational tasks (scripting in PowerShell, Python, Bash) to reduce mean time to repair (MTTR) and free team capacity for strategic initiatives.
  • Coordinate vendor and third-party security assessments, SLAs and escalation procedures; manage managed service engagements and ensure delivery against contractual commitments.
  • Oversee IT asset management lifecycle—procurement, inventory, warranty, licensing renewals and secure disposal of end-of-life equipment to control costs and reduce security risk.
  • Champion user training and adoption programs for new technologies, create documentation and run workshops to reduce support load and increase business productivity.
  • Lead change management and communications for system upgrades, migrations and major incidents—create rollout plans, user communications, and cutover/backout strategies to minimize business disruption.
  • Manage complex migrations and platform consolidations (data center exits, cloud-first transitions, Office 365 migrations), including technical planning, stakeholder coordination and post-migration stabilization.
  • Investigate major incidents and root cause analysis (RCA); implement corrective and preventive actions and update runbooks, playbooks and SOPs based on learnings.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc reporting and analytics requests by collaborating with BI teams to ensure data accessibility and infrastructure support.
  • Contribute to the organization's IT strategy and roadmap by providing capacity, risk and cost forecasts and recommending technology investments.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate operational requirements into technical specifications and project deliverables.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies for cross-functional IT projects and support technical product owners with backlog prioritization.
  • Mentor junior IT staff and interns; participate in recruitment, interviewing and candidate assessment to build a high-performing team.
  • Maintain and update IT documentation, runbooks, network diagrams, and architecture artifacts for continuity and knowledge transfer.
  • Evaluate emerging technologies and pilot PoCs to assess feasibility, cost and business value for adoption across the organization.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Cloud platforms: hands-on experience designing, deploying and managing workloads in AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP); migration experience preferred.
  • Network engineering: enterprise LAN/WAN design, routing/switching, VLANs, SD-WAN, load balancers and firewall configuration (Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto).
  • Server and virtualization: administration of Windows Server, Linux, VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, hyperconverged systems and firmware lifecycle management.
  • Cybersecurity and compliance: incident response, vulnerability management, endpoint protection (EDR), MFA/SSO, encryption and knowledge of GDPR/HIPAA/SOC 2.
  • Identity & Access Management (IAM): Active Directory/Azure AD, LDAP, SSO/SAML, Okta or other identity providers and role-based access control.
  • Backup and DR technologies: Veeam, Commvault, native cloud backup solutions and documented DR strategy experience.
  • Scripting & automation: PowerShell, Python, Bash, Terraform, Ansible, ARM templates or CloudFormation for IaC and automation.
  • Databases: basic administration and performance tuning for SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL or NoSQL databases; understanding of replication and backup strategies.
  • Monitoring & observability: experience with Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk or similar APM/logging solutions to maintain SLA targets.
  • ITSM & project management: ITIL foundations, ticketing systems (ServiceNow, Jira Service Desk), project planning tools and experience managing technology projects.
  • Virtual desktop and remote access: experience with VDI (Citrix, VMware Horizon), VPN solutions and endpoint management tools (Intune, SCCM).
  • DevOps / CI-CD fundamentals: familiarity with pipeline automation, container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) and collaboration with development teams.
  • Vendor & contract management: negotiating software/hardware agreements, SLA governance and vendor performance monitoring.
  • Asset & license management: procurement processes, lifecycle tracking, software asset management and cost optimization techniques.
  • Security frameworks and auditing: NIST, ISO 27001, CIS, and experience preparing for security audits and remediation tracking.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic leadership: ability to translate business strategy into IT initiatives and prioritize investments for maximum impact.
  • Communication: articulate technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership; produce concise status reports.
  • Stakeholder management: influence and negotiate with vendors, cross-functional leaders, and external partners to deliver outcomes.
  • Problem-solving and analytical thinking: diagnose complex systems issues, perform root cause analysis and implement robust corrective actions.
  • Team building and mentoring: recruit, develop and retain high-performing technical teams and foster a collaborative culture.
  • Project and time management: manage multiple concurrent initiatives, set realistic timelines and meet delivery commitments.
  • Change management: lead organizational adoption of new tools and processes with empathy, training and clear communications.
  • Customer service orientation: prioritize user experience, maintain service quality and optimize support workflows to improve satisfaction.
  • Adaptability: stay current with fast-evolving technologies and guide the organization through transitions and migrations.
  • Decision-making under pressure: lead incident response and make timely, data-informed decisions during outages and security incidents.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field; or equivalent technical experience combined with demonstrated leadership.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Information Technology, MBA with technology focus, or advanced technical certifications in cloud, security or IT management.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Cybersecurity
  • Network Engineering
  • Software Engineering
  • Business Administration (technology focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–12+ years of progressive IT experience with at least 3–5 years in a supervisory or people-management role.

Preferred:

  • Proven track record leading enterprise infrastructure, cloud migrations, ITSM operations or cybersecurity programs.
  • Experience managing multi-site or global IT operations, cross-functional programs and vendor ecosystems.
  • Certifications such as CISSP, CISM, PMP, ITIL Foundation, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator, or equivalent are highly desirable.
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