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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Services Manager

💰 $90,000 - $140,000

ITService DeliveryManagementITSM

🎯 Role Definition

The IT Services Manager is accountable for end-to-end IT service delivery, driving operational excellence, managing service desk and infrastructure teams, enforcing ITIL-aligned processes (incident, problem, change, service request), and partnering with business stakeholders to ensure secure, reliable, and cost-effective IT services. This role balances tactical service operations with strategic planning, vendor and budget management, and continuous improvement to meet and exceed SLAs and user experience targets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Systems Administrator
  • IT Service Desk Lead / Team Lead
  • Technical Support Manager

Advancement To:

  • Head of IT Operations / Director of IT Services
  • IT Operations Manager
  • Chief Information Officer (CIO) / VP of IT

Lateral Moves:

  • IT Program Manager
  • ITSM Process Manager
  • Cloud Operations Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own and manage the day-to-day delivery of IT services across incident, problem, change, request fulfillment, and release management; ensure incidents are resolved within SLA targets and maintain a consistent incident lifecycle workflow to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR).
  • Design, implement and continuously improve ITSM processes (ITIL v3/v4 aligned) including incident, problem, change, service request, and knowledge management; document workflows, KPIs and runbooks to scale consistent operations.
  • Lead, mentor and develop a service delivery team (service desk, desktop support, on-site engineers, shift leads), including recruitment, onboarding, performance management, career development, and workforce planning to maintain a high-performing support organization.
  • Manage and optimize Service Desk and ITSM tools (e.g., ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, Jira Service Management) — configure workflows, automate routine tasks, maintain the CMDB, and drive automation to reduce ticket volumes and improve first-contact resolution rates.
  • Define, monitor and report on SLA/OLA metrics, service-level objectives, operational KPIs (MTTR, MTBF, FCR, CSAT), and executive dashboards; drive regular service review meetings with stakeholders to maintain transparency and accountability.
  • Own change and release governance for infrastructure and end-user services; chair CAB (Change Advisory Board) or coordinate with governance bodies to ensure risk assessments, backout plans, and communication plans are in place.
  • Oversee vendor and third-party service relationships (managed services, telecom, cloud providers, hardware/software vendors); manage contracts, SLAs, performance reviews, and escalation paths while optimizing cost and service quality.
  • Develop and manage the IT services budget including forecasting, cost allocation, vendor spend, and CAPEX/OPEX trade-offs; identify and implement cost-savings while ensuring service continuity.
  • Lead incident command and major incident response, coordinate cross-functional teams, lead root cause analysis (RCA) postmortems and remediation plans to prevent recurrence and improve resiliency.
  • Build and maintain the service catalog and service portfolio; define service descriptions, entitlement levels, pricing (if applicable), and support tiers to align IT services with business needs.
  • Drive endpoint management and lifecycle services (provisioning, imaging, patch management, device encryption, retirement) for desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and peripheral hardware to ensure security and compliance.
  • Own identity and access request workflows and collaborate with security teams to enforce least privilege, onboarding/offboarding processes, and privileged access controls (Active Directory, Azure AD).
  • Coordinate backup and disaster recovery operations for critical systems and data; ensure documented recovery plans, runbooks, failover testing, and RTO/RPO objectives are met.
  • Ensure operational security and compliance with internal policies and external regulations (e.g., ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR), working closely with InfoSec to implement required controls and audits.
  • Lead continuous improvement programs including IT process automation, service orchestration, scripting (PowerShell/Python), and adoption of monitoring/observability tools to proactively detect and resolve service degradations.
  • Manage infrastructure service operations spanning networking, virtualization (VMware/Hyper-V), cloud platforms (Azure, AWS), and core server/storage environments to maintain availability and performance targets.
  • Drive end-user experience initiatives including support center UX, employee onboarding technology, knowledge base improvement, and regular satisfaction surveys with action plans to improve CSAT/NPS.
  • Create and maintain comprehensive operational documentation, SOPs, runbooks, configuration items in the CMDB, and training materials to enable rapid incident handling and improved coverage across shifts.
  • Plan and execute migrations, upgrades and technology refresh projects with minimal disruption to business operations; coordinate cross-functional teams, change windows, testing and communications.
  • Execute vendor contract negotiations, SLAs and service credits; hold vendors accountable for deliverables, escalate performance issues, and manage supplier scorecards and remediation plans.
  • Provide leadership and subject matter expertise for IT audits, compliance assessments and change impact reviews; remediate findings and close audit issues in collaboration with security and finance.
  • Partner with IT architecture and application teams to ensure operational readiness of new services and integrations, performing capacity planning and scalability reviews prior to production launch.
  • Drive budget-aligned operational improvements and transformation initiatives (cloud migrations, automation, tool consolidations) with clear ROI and implementation roadmaps.
  • Maintain service continuity for remote and hybrid workforces by managing VPN, remote access, endpoint security, collaboration tools (Microsoft 365, Teams), and home-office support programs.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc service analytics requests, root cause analysis and exploratory operational data analysis to guide decision-making.
  • Contribute to the organization's IT service strategy and roadmap, aligning service improvements with business priorities and digital transformation initiatives.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate user needs into service requirements, SLAs and feature requests, and to prioritize projects that deliver measurable business value.
  • Participate in sprint planning, agile ceremonies and operational planning with cross-functional teams to support delivery cadence and incident remediation efforts.
  • Coach and support team members on customer-facing communication, escalation handling, and professional development opportunities.
  • Represent IT services in cross-functional leadership meetings and business reviews; prepare and present regular reports on operational health, risk and improvement plans.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • ITIL v3/v4 process design and IT service management (incident, problem, change, request fulfillment, service catalog).
  • ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, Jira Service Management, or comparable ITSM platform administration and customization.
  • Incident / Major Incident Management and RCA facilitation methodologies.
  • SLA/OLA development, KPI definition, and dashboarding (Power BI, Tableau, Splunk).
  • Active Directory, Azure AD, Microsoft 365 administration and user lifecycle management.
  • Endpoint management tools (SCCM/ConfigMgr, Intune, JAMF) and patch management processes.
  • Cloud platform operations (Azure or AWS): service monitoring, cost optimization, and hybrid infrastructure management.
  • Networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VLANs, firewalls) and vendor-managed networks.
  • Virtualization and compute platforms (VMware, Hyper-V) and storage fundamentals.
  • Backup and disaster recovery tools (Veeam, NetBackup) and DR planning/test execution.
  • CMDB and IT asset lifecycle management (ITAM) best practices and tooling.
  • Security fundamentals: vulnerability management, patching, access controls, and compliance requirements (ISO, SOC2, GDPR).
  • Scripting and automation (PowerShell, Python, Ansible) to automate repeatable operational tasks.
  • Monitoring and observability tools (SolarWinds, Nagios, Datadog, New Relic) for proactive incident detection.
  • Contract and vendor management, including SLA negotiation and performance management.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management: coaching, performance reviews, and team building.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication: stakeholder updates, incident communications, and executive reporting.
  • Customer-oriented mindset with high empathy and service-first approach to end-user support.
  • Strategic thinking and business acumen to align IT services with organizational goals.
  • Problem-solving and analytical skills with a data-driven approach to continuous improvement.
  • Prioritization and time management under pressure, including handling multiple concurrent incidents and projects.
  • Conflict resolution and negotiation skills for vendor and cross-team escalations.
  • Change leadership and influence to drive process adoption and cultural shifts.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related technical field (or equivalent professional experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in IT Management, MBA, or related advanced degree is a plus.
  • Professional certifications (see below) preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Information Technology
  • Business Administration / IT Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–10+ years in IT operations, service delivery, or systems administration with at least 2–4 years in a people or team leadership role.

Preferred:

  • 7+ years of progressive IT experience and 3+ years managing service delivery teams or ITSM programs.
  • Proven track record managing enterprise ITSM tools, vendor relationships, and SLAs in medium to large organizations.
  • Experience with cloud services (Azure/AWS), cybersecurity basics, and hybrid infrastructure operations.

Recommended certifications (preferred but not always required): ITIL v4 Foundation or higher, PMP or PRINCE2, Microsoft Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator, AWS/Azure certifications, CISSP/CISM (for security focus), CompTIA Network+ / Security+.

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