Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The IT Manager is responsible for planning, implementing, and managing the organization's IT infrastructure, services, security, and support functions. This role owns IT strategy execution, operational stability, vendor relationships, budget management, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure technology enables business outcomes. Common titles include IT Manager, Infrastructure Manager, IT Operations Manager, and Head of IT Services.

Key SEO / LLM phrases: IT Manager, IT operations, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, cloud migration, service desk, ITIL, vendor management, disaster recovery, Windows Server, Azure/AWS.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Systems Administrator / Systems Engineer with 3–5 years of advanced infrastructure experience
Network Engineer or Infrastructure Engineer with hands-on routing, switching, and data center experience
IT Project Manager or Technical Lead who has owned cross-functional initiatives and vendor delivery

Advancement To:

IT Director / Director of IT Operations
Head of IT / Senior Manager, Infrastructure & Security
Vice President of Information Technology / Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Lateral Moves:

Program or Project Manager (Technical)
Information Security Manager / Cybersecurity Lead
DevOps or Cloud Engineering Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Develop, document and execute the IT strategy and roadmap aligned to business goals, prioritizing initiatives for cost efficiency, security, scalability, and user experience.
Lead and manage day-to-day IT operations including servers, storage, virtualization, networking, endpoints, collaboration tools, and enterprise applications to maintain 24/7 availability and performance.
Own IT budgets, forecasting and cost controls — prepare and present budget proposals, manage vendor contracts, negotiate pricing, and deliver measurable ROI on technology investments.
Design and implement security policies, controls and practices (patch management, endpoint protection, firewall rules, encryption) in collaboration with security teams to reduce risk and ensure regulatory compliance.
Drive cloud adoption and hybrid infrastructure operations (Azure, AWS, GCP) including cloud migrations, cost optimization, security baselines, and operational runbooks.
Manage disaster recovery, business continuity planning and regular testing (DR runbooks, backups, failover simulations) to ensure recovery time and point objectives are achievable.
Oversee service desk and support operations (SLA design, ticket triage, escalation paths) to deliver high-quality end-user support and continuous service improvement.
Implement and govern ITSM processes (incident, problem, change, release management) using tools such as ServiceNow, Jira Service Management or Freshservice to improve reliability and reduce mean time to resolution.
Lead cross-functional IT projects from planning through delivery (requirements, scope, resource allocation, risk management, status reporting) and ensure projects meet milestones and business objectives.
Establish and maintain configuration, asset and inventory management practices to track hardware, software licenses, warranties and lifecycle replacements.
Create and enforce change management and release procedures to minimize production impact while ensuring timely delivery of upgrades and patches.
Monitor system performance, capacity planning and proactive maintenance to prevent outages; implement observability and alerting using monitoring platforms.
Manage vendor relationships and third-party service providers (MSPs, cloud providers, telecoms) including SLAs, escalations, contract renewals and vendor performance reviews.
Lead hiring, mentoring, performance management and career development for IT staff; define team roles, KPIs and training plans to build high-performing teams.
Ensure compliance with regulatory and industry standards (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, GDPR, ISO 27001) including audits, remediation plans, and evidence collection.
Drive architecture reviews and technology selection decisions — evaluate RFPs, pilot new tools, and recommend scalable enterprise solutions.
Implement robust backup and retention strategies, validate backups, and manage data restoration processes across on-prem and cloud environments.
Maintain directory services, identity and access management (Active Directory, Azure AD), single sign-on, MFA rollout and role-based access controls to secure resources.
Develop and maintain IT policies, SOPs, runbooks and documentation to standardize operations and facilitate knowledge transfer.
Coordinate network design and security — routing, switching, wireless, SD-WAN, VPNs and firewall configuration to support remote and distributed workforces.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives to automate repetitive tasks, improve operational efficiency and reduce manual toil using scripting (PowerShell, Bash) and orchestration tools.
Serve as primary escalation for major incidents, lead incident response, post-incident reviews and implement lessons learned to prevent recurrence.
Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions, influence roadmap decisions and measure the business impact of IT initiatives.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Provide end-user training, documentation and onboarding for common tools and platforms to increase adoption and reduce support volume.
Assist with vendor evaluations and proof-of-concepts for analytics, collaboration, and security platforms when requested.
Participate in cross-functional governance forums to align compliance, privacy and risk requirements with IT initiatives.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Infrastructure management: Windows Server, Linux administration, VMware/Hyper-V virtualization
Cloud platforms: Microsoft Azure and/or AWS (IaaS/PaaS) — migrations, governance and cost control
Networking: TCP/IP, routing, switching, VLANs, VPN, SD-WAN and wireless network design
Identity & Access Management: Active Directory, Azure AD, SSO, MFA, RBAC and privileged access management
Security & Compliance: Firewalls (Palo Alto, Cisco ASA), endpoint protection, vulnerability management, encryption, and familiarity with NIST/CIS frameworks
Backup & DR: enterprise backup solutions, snapshot strategies, replication and DR testing
ITSM & Service Desk: ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, BMC or comparable platforms and ITIL-aligned processes
Scripting & Automation: PowerShell, Python or Bash for automation, configuration management, and operational tasks
Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Nagios, Datadog, Splunk, or SolarWinds for system and application monitoring
Database & Application Ops: basic understanding of SQL databases, application deployment, and integration with SaaS tools (Office 365, Salesforce)
Project & Program Management: Agile and waterfall delivery experience, ability to manage cross-functional technical projects
Vendor & Contract Management: negotiating SLAs, managing third-party integrations and managing MSPs
Identity of preference: certifications such as CISSP, CCNP, Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, ITIL Foundation, PMP

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership: ability to translate business goals into pragmatic IT roadmaps and measurable outcomes
Excellent communication: able to convey technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and present to executive leadership
Problem solving and analytical thinking: diagnose complex technical problems quickly and lead root cause analysis
Stakeholder management: build strong relationships with business partners, vendors and internal teams
Team building and coaching: hiring, developing and retaining technical talent while fostering accountability and growth
Prioritization and decision-making: balance competing requests, risk and cost to make timely informed choices
Customer service orientation: maintain a user-first mindset while enforcing standards and governance
Change management: lead organizational change, drive adoption and minimize disruption
Adaptability: comfortable working in dynamic environments and managing ambiguity
Ethical judgment and discretion: manage sensitive data and incidents with confidentiality and professionalism

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Information Technology, Business Administration (MBA), or related discipline is a plus.
Relevant professional certifications: CISSP, CISM, CCNP/CCNA, Microsoft Certified (Azure), AWS Certified, ITIL Foundation, PMP.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Information Systems / Technology
Network Engineering
Cybersecurity
Business Administration (with technology focus)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–10 years of progressive IT experience with at least 2–4 years in a supervisory or managerial role.

Preferred:

7–12 years of combined infrastructure, cloud and security experience with proven people leadership.
Demonstrated success managing multi-site environments, complex IT projects (cloud migrations, ERP/CRM rollouts), vendor ecosystems, and compliance programs.
Experience with budget ownership, security incident response, and building high-performing operational teams.