Manager IT Operations

Are you looking to make an impactful difference in your work, yourself, and your community? Why settle for just a job when you can land a career? At ICW Group, we are hiring team members who are ready to use their skills, curiosity, and drive to be part of our  journey as we strive to transform the insurance  carrier space. We're proud to be in business for over 50 years, and its change agents like yourself that will help us continue to deliver our mission to create the best insurance experience possible.

Headquartered in San Diego with regional offices located throughout the United States, ICW Group has been named for ten consecutive years as a Top 50 performing P&C organization offering the stability of a large, profitable and growing company combined with a focus on all things people. It's our team members who make us an employer of choice and the vibrant company we are today. We strive to make both our  internal and external communities better everyday! Learn more about why you want to be here!

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

The purpose of the Manager of IT Operations is to direct a team of IT professionals in the planning, design, development and operation of data networks, communication services, and systems required to deliver necessary features, performance, and availability to support business activities.  This position will provide operational and technical leadership and management of application and systems. This role exists to collaborate closely with IT applications program teams and business partners to align team goals with overall company strategy while ensuring systems, services, and infrastructure work reliably and securely.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manages information technology and computer systems resources and maximizes the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency.

• Provides daily technical and operational direction to IT teams. Communicates Mission, Values, and other organization operating principles, priorities and strategy to direct and indirect reports.

• Establishes and maintains the overall work cadence and, in partnership with IT Leadership, ensures performance and outcomes strive for excellence in delivery and customer experience. Ensures that the entire assigned IT team is engaged and that leadership practices for the department encourage development, recognition, and retention. · Champions adoption of AI initiatives and AI-enabled operations (AIOps), translating AI capabilities into measurable operational improvements.

• Acts as Incident Commander for major incidents and critical outages, coordinating cross‑functional response, executive communications, and post‑incident root cause analysis.

• Establishes and enforces major incident playbooks, escalation models, and on‑call readiness.

• Analyzes incident and request trends to identify opportunities for automation and operational improvement.

• Owns OS patching, vulnerability remediation, and security findings in partnership with Information Security.

• Defines and reports operational KPIs including availability, MTTR, incident trends, patch compliance, and service health.

• Evaluates overall IT operations to ensure optimum service delivery for both on-premise and cloud-hosted platforms (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).

• Participates with Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) team to recommend suitable technology infrastructure solutions and updates to IT teams to develop long-term and short-term planning.

• Collaborates with the ITSM team for change, incident, release and CMDB ongoing efforts.

• At regular intervals, tests and validates disaster recovery and back-up procedures and information security and control structures.

• Provides vendor management oversight to ensure contract requirements are met.

• Oversees all planning and organizing for multiple projects. Partners with business and IT team members to ensure that project delivery aligns with business strategic objectives and priorities.

• Develops and manages an annual budget and operating plan to support the team and department.

• Develops evaluation framework to assess the strengths of the team and to identify areas for improvement.

• Establishes and holds team accountable to and adheres to hiring criteria, on-boarding, and training requirements for incoming staff.

• Oversees the performance management and development process for the assigned IT team members and performs performance management duties, development planning and coaching for direct reports.

• Acts as a resource for assigned IT team members to answer questions and solve complex problems.

• Manages assigned IT budget, technology and other resources, workload, and customer requests for IT services. Ensures adherence to all Company policies and procedures and Compliance responsibilities.

• Ensures data quality, retention, availability and adherence to IT security, compliance and corporate guidelines.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Directly supervises employees within the IT team and carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with company policies and applicable laws. These responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; conducting performance and salary reviews; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems; coaching, mentoring, and developing team members to further their skills and knowledge; creating and monitoring development plans; setting performance expectations/goals; forecasting staffing needs and planning for peak times and absences; enforcing department policies and procedures.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, MIS or similar field required. 

• Minimum 10 years of  experience in managing and leading IT Engineering, Administration, Operations and/or IT Support teams. 

• Minimum 10 years of general IT-related job experience required.

• Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

None required.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• Professional experience in IT operations leadership, including people management, budgeting, and operational planning.

• Proven ability to lead IT operations strategy, project and vendor management, and policy development.

• Strong working knowledge of enterprise infrastructure technologies, including networking, Windows Server, Linux, SQL, and cloud platforms.

• Experience supporting automation and operational improvement initiatives, with the ability to lead and support adoption of AI-enabled operational capabilities (AIOps) in partnership with engineering, security, and platform teams.

• Demonstrated understanding of SaaS, cloud, and DevSecOps practices.

• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Effective verbal/written communication skills.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently will sit, stand, walk, and bend during working hours. Requires manual and finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination. Required to lift and carry relatively light materials.  Requires normal or corrected vision and hearing corrected to a normal range.

WORK ENVIRONMENT 

This position operates in an office environment and requires the frequent use of a computer, telephone, copier, and other standard office equipment.

The current range for this position is

This range is exclusive of fringe benefits and potential bonuses.  If hired at ICW Group, your final base salary compensation will be determined by factors unique to each candidate, including experience, education and the location of the role and considers employees performing substantially similar work.

WHY JOIN ICW GROUP? 

• Challenging work and the ability to make a difference 

• You will have a voice and feel a sense of belonging 

• We offer a competitive benefits package, with generous medical, dental, and vision plans as well as 401K retirement plans and company match 

• Bonus potential for all positions 

• Paid Time Off

• Paid holidays throughout the calendar year 

• Want to continue learning? We’ll support you 100% 

ICW Group is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. ICW Group will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex/gender, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

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