The Senior Manager (IT Operations and Data Centre) is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the IT Operations Centre (ITOC), ensuring 24/7 availability, resilience, and performance of critical IT services. The role encompasses oversight of incident management, IT systems support, automation enablement, advanced observability, and data centre operations.
The incumbent ensures operational excellence through streamlined incident response, continuous improvement, and intelligent automation, while maintaining robust data centre environments that support enterprise digital operations and mission-critical infrastructure.
Responsibilities
1. IT Operations Leadership
· Lead and manage integrated ITOC functions covering Incident Management & Response, and IT Systems Support.
· Ensure seamless 24/7 shift operations with adherence to service level targets and operational KPIs.
· Drive cross-functional collaboration between operations, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and application teams to ensure service continuity.
2. Incident Management
· Oversee end-to-end incident lifecycle: detection, categorisation, escalation, resolution and communication.
· Ensure service recovery and restoration efforts are well-coordinated and timely, with post-incident reviews to drive continual improvement.
· Champion compliance, risk, and governance best practices in incident handling.
3. IT Systems Support & Automation
· Provide strategic oversight of Level 1.5 to 2 IT systems infrastructure support, ensuring timely and effective resolution of user/system issues.
· Drive automation of support processes (e.g., SOPs, workflows) to reduce manual workload and accelerate response times.
· Implement AI/ML-driven initiatives (e.g., AIOps, predictive analytics) to enhance observability and proactive system health monitoring.
· Lead enhancements of ITOC AI chatbot, service desk tools, and ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow).
4. Data Centre Management
· Manage the operations, availability, and resilience of on-premise and hybrid data centre environments.
· Oversee capacity planning, asset lifecycle, power and cooling, physical security, and infrastructure modernisation initiatives.
· Ensure data centre operations support sustainable practices and future scalability.
5. Vendor and Budget Management
· Collaborate with vendors and contractors for timely procurement of equipment, services, and renewals.
· Negotiate vendor contracts to secure favourable terms and optimise operational costs.
· Prepare, manage, and forecast the data centre and IT operations budget, ensuring cost-effectiveness and financial discipline.
6. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
· Develop, maintain, and regularly test disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BCP) plans to ensure operational resilience.
· Continuously enhance backup and recovery solutions to protect critical data and IT services.
· Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure DR/BCP aligns with enterprise risk and compliance strategies.
7. Risk Management & Safety
· Identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with IT operations and data centre environments.
· Establish and enforce safety standards and protocols to protect staff, equipment, and infrastructure.
· Maintain compliance with environmental, regulatory, and operational risk requirements.
8. People & Stakeholder Engagement
· Lead, mentor, and upskill team members, fostering a collaborative, high-performance work culture.
· Engage internal and external stakeholders to align operations with broader IT strategy and business needs.
· Facilitate knowledge sharing, cross-functional collaboration, and process improvement initiatives.
Qualifications & Requirements
Education & Certification
· Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field
· Professional certifications (e.g. ITIL, PMP, CDCP/CDCS) are highly desirable.
Experience
· 10–12 years of relevant experience in IT operations or infrastructure, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
· Proven experience managing data centre environments, service operations teams, and vendor relationships.
· Demonstrated ability to lead automation and monitoring transformations in mission-critical environments.
Skills
· Strong leadership and people management capabilities.
· Excellent planning, budgeting, vendor negotiation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
· Deep understanding of ITIL-based operations, incident/problem/change management, and disaster recovery practices.
· Familiarity with observability tools, ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow), and infrastructure management systems.