Senior Manager (IT Operations and Data Centre)

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

Bachelors Degree in relevant field

Professional certifications (e.g. ITIL PMP CDCP/CDCS) are highly desirable.

Experience

1012 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.