Manager, Systems Operations and Engineering

Description

Position Summary

The Manager of Systems Engineering & Operations is responsible for the reliability, performance, and operational integrity of enterprise systems and platforms. This role leads engineers who operate and harden production environments across on-prem and cloud infrastructure, ensuring systems are observable, secure, resilient, and audit-ready. The manager balances operational excellence ("Run") with continuous engineering improvement, enabling the business to move faster without increasing risk.

Key Responsibilities

Systems Engineering Leadership

• Lead and develop systems engineers responsible for production platforms and services
• Establish engineering standards for system lifecycle management, operational readiness, and reliability
• Provide technical leadership during complex incidents and high-risk changes
• Promote ownership culture for production systems from deployment through decommissioning

Operations & Reliability

• Own day-to-day operational health of enterprise systems, including compute, storage, identity, and platform services
• Ensure systems meet availability, performance, and recoverability objectives
• Lead incident response, problem management, and post-incident root cause analysis
• Drive reduction of repeat incidents through automation and systemic fixes
• Partner with e-Ops during major production events to ensure fast, well-coordinated resolution

Monitoring, Observability & Automation

• Ensure systems are proactively monitored using logs, metrics, and alerts
• Champion infrastructure automation to reduce manual operations and human error
• Improve operational visibility through dashboards and standardized telemetry
• Support adoption of modern operational practices, including Infrastructure as Code and automated remediation (where applicable)

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure production systems are configured securely and aligned with information security standards
• Partner with InfoSec to support detection, response, and containment activities
• Ensure systems engineering practices support auditability and compliance requirements
• Validate patching, access controls, and change records for regulated systems

Architecture & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to platform and systems architecture decisions with an operational lens
• Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning and testing
• Identify and retire technical debt that increases operational risk or toil
• Improve documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures

Vendor & Service Management

• Manage vendors and managed services supporting enterprise systems
• Review service performance, SLAs, and operational risk with providers
• Assist with cost optimization, licensing, and capacity planning

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 7+ years of experience supporting production systems in an enterprise environment
• 2+ years of people leadership or senior technical lead experience
• Strong experience with systems operations, reliability engineering, and incident management
• Experience working in security- or audit-sensitive environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating hybrid (on-prem + cloud) environments
• Familiarity with observability platforms, automation tools, and configuration management
• Background in Systems Operations, SRE, or Platform Engineering
• Relevant certifications (ITIL, cloud platform certifications, or equivalent)

Key Competencies

• Production ownership mindset
• Systems thinking and risk awareness
• Calm, decisive leadership during incidents
• Strong cross-team collaboration
• Continuous improvement and operational discipline

Working Conditions

• Participation in escalation and after-hours support for major incidents and platform changes

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

EEO StatementACA provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. ACA complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.

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