IT Infrastructure Service Operations Manager

Overall Objective:

• You will join an international IT Infrastructure organisation supporting two of Eurofins largest business lines: Food & Feed Testing Europe and Environment Testing Europe. Reporting directly to the IT Infrastructure Director, you will lead three operational teams: a 24/7 Monitoring Team, a 24/7 Major Incident Management Team, and a Workspace Team.
• This role demands strong leadership skills. You will be responsible for inspiring and guiding your teams to deliver high-quality services on time, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and collaboration across a multicultural environment.
• The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to take initiative, think independently, and actively seek opportunities to enhance processes and add value beyond the defined scope of responsibilities. You will not shy away from speaking up, challenging the status quo, and driving improvements that benefit the organisation.
• During major outages or critical incidents, you must be able to command and take control, rally your and dependent teams, and ensure swift, effective resolution. Your ability to lead under pressure and maintain operational excellence is key.
• Technical knowledge of platforms and tools such as Microsoft Azure, Site24x7, ManageEngine, Intune, M365, SCCM, Windows Server OS, and Active Directory is essential, along with proficiency in IT Service Management and ITIL practices.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership and operational oversight for three critical teams: 24/7 Monitoring, 24/7 Major Incident Management, and Workspace Operations, ensuring seamless, high-quality service delivery across a global environment.
• Act as the ultimate escalation point for monitoring, incident response, and workspace operations, driving swift, effective resolution of complex issues.
• Command and coordinate resolution efforts during major outages, ensuring engagement of all relevant IT teams and issuing clear, timely, and transparent communications to stakeholders throughout the incident lifecycle.
• Drive operational excellence by ensuring high availability, performance, and reliability of IT infrastructure services through proactive monitoring, robust incident/problem management, and preventive measures.
• Oversee implementation, governance, and continuous enhancement of ITIL-aligned processes for incident, problem, and change management; ensure adherence, audit readiness, and measurable process performance.
• Lead root cause analysis and post-incident reviews; ensure timely, thorough PIRs and governance of problem tasks to prevent recurrence and strengthen service resilience.
• Analyse infrastructure and operations metrics to identify opportunities for optimisation, automation, and cost efficiency; champion initiatives that add value beyond the immediate scope.
• Mentor and develop team leads and engineers, building leadership capability, technical excellence, and a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and innovation.
• Ensure effective workforce and capacity planning to support 24x7x365 operations, balancing service demand, on-call coverage, and peak periods.
• Represent the domain in cross-functional forums; advocate for operational needs, influence architectural decisions, and contribute to strategic IT initiatives.
• Maintain crisis readiness through playbooks, simulations, and continuous improvement of incident communications and command-and-control practices.
• Define and govern clear SLAs and KPIS for all three crews implement telemetry, dashboards, and reviews to track performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Oversee the software packaging factory for PCs, laptops, and servers (e.g., Intune, SCCM), including standards, QA, dependency management, and deployment readiness.
• Establish and maintain evergreen upgrade practices: systematically update images and software packages to current, supported versions with clear roadmaps, release calendars, and deprecation policies.
• Drive tooling strategy and continuous improvement for imaging, packaging, and deployment (e.g., Intune/MEM, SCCM/MECM, Autopilot, Azure AD Join/Hybrid Join, WinRE/WinPE workflows), evaluating and adopting better tools where they add measurable value.
• Lead user experience and stability improvements using telemetry (e.g., Intune analytics, endpoint analytics, crash/hang data, sign-in performance, device health), driving targeted fixes and optimisations.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• Proven track record of leading and inspiring cross-functional IT operations teams, including mentoring, performance management, and workforce planning in a 24x7 environment.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to take command during major incidents, rally teams under pressure, and maintain clear, decisive communication.
• Deep understanding of ITIL-based processes for incident, problem, and change management, including governance, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement practices.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise-grade monitoring and management tools (e.g., Site24x7, ManageEngine, Azure Monitor) and proactive infrastructure health management.
• Technical knowledge of Windows Server OS, Active Directory, SCCM/MECM, Intune, and M365 administration, with a grasp of endpoint and server lifecycle management.
• Experience implementing and managing configuration management databases (CMDB) and ensuring accurate asset and relationship tracking.
• Ability to define, track, and report on KPIs, SLAs, and operational metrics for infrastructure services and team performance; strong data-driven decision-making skills.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the confidence to speak up, challenge assumptions, and drive improvements across teams and processes.
• Ability to create and maintain high-quality technical documentation, SOPs, and knowledge base articles to support operational efficiency and knowledge sharing.
• Proactive mindset with a passion for continuous improvement, innovation, and adding value beyond the immediate scope of responsibilities.

Preferred Skills & Knowledge:

• Practical experience or strong understanding of Microsoft Azure services and cloud infrastructure concepts.
• Experience designing and implementing Disaster Recovery (DR) strategies, including regular failover testing and resilience validation
• Hands-on experience with IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms such as ServiceNow or BMC Helix for managing incident, problem, and change processes.
• Knowledge of modern endpoint management practices, automation frameworks, and secure configuration baselines.
• Awareness of emerging technologies and trends in infrastructure operations, with the ability to evaluate and recommend tools that improve efficiency and reliability.

Education & Languages:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, as you will work in a highly international environment.