Infrastructure & Operations Manager

IT Infrastructure & Operations ManagerThe IT Infrastructure & Operations Manager is a senior technical and operational leader responsible for the planning, execution, security, governance, business continuity, and continuous improvement of Gemaire Distributors' infrastructure, network, Azure cloud, and technical support environments. This role owns the operational framework for infrastructure and network services, including standards, documentation, auditable change management, support escalation, vendor coordination, disaster recovery readiness, and service reliability. The position partners closely with IT leadership and business stakeholders to ensure a secure, reliable, scalable, resilient, and cost-effective technology environment that supports corporate offices, distribution centers, branch locations, remote employees, and cloud-based services.Duties and ResponsibilitiesProject & Infrastructure LeadershipLead end-to-end planning, execution, and delivery of network and infrastructure projects, ensuring timely delivery, budget discipline, risk management, and clear stakeholder communication.Develop project scopes, implementation plans, timelines, resource plans, rollback plans, and risk mitigation strategies for major infrastructure initiatives.Drive additions, upgrades, lifecycle replacements, migrations, and decommissions of network and infrastructure assets with complete documentation and change communication.Align infrastructure priorities with business needs, IT strategy, security requirements, and operational risk reduction.Standards, Processes & QualityDefine, document, and enforce operational standards, procedures, runbooks, and best practices across network, infrastructure, cloud, and support teams.Build and maintain a change management framework that ensures infrastructure changes are logged, reviewed, approved, implemented, validated, and auditable.Establish repeatable processes for configuration management, patching, capacity planning, backup validation, disaster recovery readiness, monitoring, and documentation.Conduct regular audits of systems, configurations, documentation, and team adherence to approved procedures; report findings and drive corrective actions.Establish and maintain disaster recovery standards, testing schedules, documentation requirements, and operational readiness metrics.Azure Cloud OwnershipOwn and administer the Microsoft Azure environment, including architecture, governance, resource organization, cost management, security alignment, and roadmap planning.Design and enforce Azure policies, role-based access controls, identity standards, resource tagging, monitoring practices, and operational guardrails.Lead cloud migration, optimization, and modernization initiatives to improve scalability, reliability, security, and cost efficiency.Monitor Azure environments for performance, availability, cost, and security; implement automation where practical to improve operational efficiency.Security Tools & ComplianceOwn the lifecycle and operational effectiveness of assigned security tools, including endpoint protection, SIEM, vulnerability management, identity platforms, and privileged access management solutions.Develop and enforce network and infrastructure security policies aligned with company standards and industry best practices.Partner with leadership to define security posture, prioritize improvements, and implement controls that reduce operational and cybersecurity risk.Ensure infrastructure changes and security configurations are documented, reviewed, and auditable for compliance and business continuity purposes.Lead or support incident response efforts related to network, cloud, infrastructure, and security events.Business Continuity & Disaster RecoveryLead the planning, development, maintenance, and testing of infrastructure-related business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.Ensure critical network, server, cloud, security, and operational systems have documented recovery procedures, recovery objectives, dependencies, and escalation plans.Coordinate disaster recovery testing exercises and validate recovery processes, documentation, technical readiness, and lessons learned.Maintain infrastructure resiliency through redundancy, backup validation, replication review, failover testing, and continuous improvement initiatives.Partner with business leaders and IT stakeholders to identify critical systems, operational dependencies, recovery priorities, and acceptable recovery objectives.Ensure disaster recovery documentation, runbooks, contact lists, recovery procedures, architectural diagrams, and technical ownership assignments remain current and auditable.Drive remediation of risks identified through business continuity assessments, disaster recovery testing, infrastructure audits, or operational reviews.Support incident response activities and serve as a key technical leader during business disruption, infrastructure failure, cybersecurity events, or disaster recovery situations.Infrastructure & Network OperationsOversee administration, performance, resiliency, and maintenance of the LAN, WAN, SDWAN, wireless, VPN, firewall, internet, server, and infrastructure environments.Manage routers, switches, firewalls, wireless platforms, servers, and related network devices to ensure high availability, security, and performance.Maintain monitoring, alerting, escalation, and root cause analysis practices for network and infrastructure incidents.Foster a culture of ownership, continuous improvement, operational excellence, and disciplined execution.Helpdesk & All-Tier Technical Support OwnershipOwn the full technical support function across all support tiers, including workflow design, escalation discipline, knowledge management, and service quality.Define and enforce support workflows, escalation paths, service level targets, and response expectations for each support tier.Act as the final escalation point for high-severity or complex technical support issues that cannot be resolved at lower tiers.Partner with business stakeholders to understand support pain points and proactively address recurring issues through root cause analysis and process improvement.Lead, mentor, and develop network, infrastructure, and support personnel by setting clear expectations, measuring performance, and driving accountability.Vendor, Budget & Asset ManagementManage relationships with telecommunications providers, cloud partners, network vendors, managed service providers, and other technology partners.Support contract renewals, licensing reviews, vendor performance management, and service escalation processes.Contribute to budget planning, cost optimization, asset lifecycle management, and infrastructure investment recommendations.In addition to the above responsibilities, this individual is held accountable for all other duties assigned.Required QualificationsBachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience may be considered.Minimum of 7 years of experience in Network Operations, Infrastructure Engineering, Systems Administration, Cloud Operations, or a closely related technical field.Minimum of 3 years of leadership or management experience overseeing technical teams preferred.Hands-on experience owning or administering Microsoft Azure environments.Demonstrated experience building, enforcing, or improving change management processes and operational frameworks.Experience supporting distributed business environments with multiple locations, remote users, and business-critical systems.Experience participating in or leading business continuity and disaster recovery planning, testing, and remediation activities.Technical SkillsDeep expertise in LAN/WAN design, routing protocols, switching, wireless, firewalls, VPN, SD-WAN, and network security.Proficiency with Azure services such as Virtual Networks, Microsoft Entra ID, Defender, Azure Policy, and related governance capabilities.Experience with security tooling such as SIEM platforms, endpoint protection, vulnerability scanners, identity solutions, and privileged access management tools.Strong understanding of change management principles, incident management, root cause analysis, configuration standards, and audit readiness.Scripting or automation experience using PowerShell, Python, or similar tools is strongly preferred.Experience with monitoring, logging, alerting, patching, lifecycle planning, documentation, operational reporting, backup validation, replication