Description Location: Cedar Rapids, IA or Madison, WI Work Arrangement; In Office or Hybrid
Do you love building resilient infrastructure just as much as you love developing people?
Role Overview/Summary:
The Manager, Network & Systems is responsible for the leadership, technical direction, and operational delivery of the Network, Systems, and Security operations team - carrying full personnel leadership responsibilities including hiring, performance management, professional development, and compensation planning. This role maintains active hands-on technical contributions across enterprise infrastructure, automation, and platform engineering while serving as the primary escalation point for complex incidents and architectural decisions. Reporting to the Director of IT Infrastructure, this role contributes to and assists with departmental strategic planning and is accountable for operational excellence, enterprise standards, regulatory compliance, and organizational alignment, driving a culture where automation and repeatable engineering practices are the foundation of how the team operates.
Essential Responsibilities:
The following responsibilities are representative of the work performed in this role and may be extended based on team and organizational needs.
- Team leadership & personnel management – Provide direct oversight and day-to-day leadership for a team of network, systems, and security operations specialists; manage hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, compensation planning, disciplinary actions, and professional development for all direct reports; distribute workload to ensure balanced capacity and responsive coverage; coordinate with HR on recruiting and staffing strategy to ensure open positions are filled with high quality candidates.
- Workload planning & delivery accountability – Own team workload planning, prioritization, and delivery accountability; manage work distribution across operational and project responsibilities; set clear goals, deadlines, and deliverables and hold the team accountable to outcomes.
- Technical escalation & architectural guidance – Serve as the primary escalation point for complex infrastructure incidents and architectural decisions; lead post-incident root cause analysis driving to systemic causes and preventive controls.
- Project scoping & management – Define, scope, and manage infrastructure projects from initiation through completion; enforce formal scoping standards and communicate status, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to product owners and leadership.
- Operational excellence & standards enforcement – Oversee daily operations across network, systems, and security infrastructure; develop and continuously improve standard operating procedures for routine tasks, incident response, and change management; promote disciplined engineering practices including change control adherence, documentation standards, and proactive technical debt reduction; identify process improvement opportunities utilizing data-driven decision making.
- Business continuity & incident response – Own and maintain technical business continuity plans, incident response procedures, and disaster recovery documentation; ensure clear escalation pathways and consistent operational coverage across the team.
- Security operations ownership – Own the security operations function including SIEM platform management, alert response, email security review, and compliance-related ticket handling; ensure timely identification, escalation, and remediation of security incidents; contribute to HIPAA and SOC2 compliance initiatives and compliance reviews in alignment with NIST standards.
- Maintain vendor and product ownership responsibilities -- manage contractual terms, service delivery expectations, and vendor performance; evaluate partnerships regularly to identify gaps, risks, and opportunities; coordinate with executive and legal teams on contract alignment; maintain product owner responsibilities for identified infrastructure-critical applications.
- Cross-functional collaboration & communication – Lead regular operational review meetings to coordinate changes, address recurring issues, and maintain alignment; establish service ownership boundaries between infrastructure, security, and application teams; communicate effectively with IT leadership and product owners across the organization.
Essential Responsibilities - Continued
- Strategic planning contribution – Contribute to and assist with departmental strategic planning activities; execute action plans aligned with departmental objectives; track individual and team KPIs, identify areas of opportunity, and coach team members on improvements and process changes.
- Budget & vendor contribution – Contribute to budget planning, vendor evaluation, and procurement decisions in partnership with the Director of IT Infrastructure; manage vendor relationships and assist with contract and renewal activities; maintain product owner responsibilities for infrastructure-critical applications.
- Training & knowledge development – Facilitate collaboration across the team to ensure training initiatives are consistently implemented and knowledge is effectively shared; identify skill gaps and coordinate development activities to elevate team capabilities.
- Infrastructure as code & automation architecture – Design and maintain infrastructure automation using Ansible, Python, and related tooling; own configuration management and drift remediation across production environments; establish and enforce automation standards across system provisioning and operational workflows.
- CI/CD pipeline development & management – Build, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines; drive adoption of DevOps practices and pipeline-driven workflows across the team.
- Container platform management – Deploy, manage, and troubleshoot container environments for development and production workloads; maintain configurations, resource efficiency, and platform stability.
- Identity & access management – Administer enterprise IAM platforms; manage authentication, authorization, and directory services; enforce least-privilege access principles and support compliance requirements.
- Secrets management & certificate automation – Oversee the design of automated certificate enrollment, renewal, and PKI lifecycle management processes; manage enterprise secrets management platforms across infrastructure and application environments.
- Database infrastructure & high availability – Ensure database infrastructure reliability and high availability standards across MySQL and MSSQL environments including connection pooling and proxy configuration; contribute to performance analysis, maintenance planning, and administrative query execution as needed.
- Monitoring & observability – Maintain and extend enterprise monitoring and alerting infrastructure; define thresholds, dashboards, and escalation workflows; maintain capacity reporting and replication latency alerting.
- Scripting & automation development – Design and maintain production-grade automation solutions using PowerShell, Python, and Ansible; ensure all scripts are documented, version-controlled, and maintained.
- Network & systems infrastructure – Ensure team coverage and operational accountability across network infrastructure including layer 2/3 switches, VLANs, firewalls, SD-WAN, and VPN solutions across corporate offices, remote data center, and cloud environments; contribute to configuration, management, and troubleshooting as needed; ensure coverage for voice gateway and call routing infrastructure as organizational needs require.
- Microsoft Active Directory & server infrastructure – Ensure enterprise Active Directory standards and governance across domain controllers, group policy, and account management; contribute to administration activities and support Windows Server environments and associated services including DNS, DHCP, LDAP, SMTP, TLS, and NTP as needed.
- Linux systems administration – Ensure Linux system standards and operational consistency in Ubuntu-based environments; contribute to administration including user permissions, file systems, logging, and network configuration as needed.
- Patch management & lifecycle automation – Lead patch automation efforts for Linux, Microsoft, and applicable network and infrastructure systems; contribute to broader patch lifecycle coordination and deployment activities.
- Backup, recovery & documentation – Support configuration and troubleshooting of backup systems; assist with issue remediation and restore activities; create and maintain comprehensive documentation for infrastructure, automation workflows, and operational procedures.
- On-call & after-hours duties – Oversee the after-hours on-call rotation and act as a senior escalation point for complex infrastructure problems; participate in scheduled after-hours maintenance as required.
- Other duties as assigned – Additional duties will be assigned based on team and organizational needs and the individual's ability to take on expanded responsibilities.
Education/Qualifications/Special requirements:
- A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field is preferred. An Associate's degree combined with substantial hands-on experience, or equivalent self-directed learning and demonstrated technical proficiency, will be considered in lieu of a Bachelor's degree.
- 7 to 10 years of progressive experience in infrastructure, systems administration, or a related technical discipline with demonstrated advancement into DevOps, platform engineering, and security operations responsibilities.
- 2 to 3 years of demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, or managing a technical team with direct accountability for team performance, workload delivery, and personnel development.
Required skills and experience
- Demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, or managing a technical team including performance management, coaching, workload planning, and personnel development.
- Proven ability to manage team delivery accountability, balance competing priorities, and maintain consistent operational coverage.
- Demonstrated proficiency in Linux systems administration; Ubuntu environment experience strongly preferred. CompTIA Linux+ or equivalent knowledge validated through hands-on experience is acceptable.
- Demonstrated experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and deploying and managing container environments in a team or production setting.
- Proven experience designing and maintaining Ansible playbooks and automation scripts for infrastructure configuration and management at a production scale.
- Proficiency in scripting using Python and/or PowerShell for automation, operational tooling, and workflow integration.
- Working knowledge of networking fundamentals including switching, routing, VLANs, firewall concepts, and SD-WAN; CompTIA Network+ or equivalent demonstrated experience.
- Demonstrated experience with incident response, business continuity planning, and change management practices in an enterprise environment.
- Familiarity with HIPAA and SOC2 compliance requirements and experience contributing to compliance reviews or related remediation activities in alignment with NIST standards.
- Security operations experience including SIEM platform interaction, alert triage, and security incident handling.
Preferred skills and experience
- A current CISSP certification is strongly preferred given the security operations responsibilities of this role. Additional certifications are recognized and valued including CompTIA Network+, Security+, Linux+, and Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator; formal credentials may be substituted with demonstrated equivalent experience.
- Experience with enterprise IAM platform administration, secrets management, and certificate lifecycle automation.
- Exposure to public cloud environments, particularly Azure and AWS familiarity preferred.
- Understanding of database administration fundamentals including MySQL, MSSQL, and high availability concepts.
- Experience with vendor management including vendor relationship management, contract coordination, and product ownership responsibilities.
Expectations:
- Strong sense of urgency with a results-driven approach to both operational and project-based responsibilities.
- Highly self-motivated with keen attention to detail and a commitment to quality and accuracy in all work products.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, motivate, and develop a technical team while maintaining active hands-on technical contributions across all team disciplines; serves as a role model and fosters a collaborative, high-performance culture aligned with organizational values.
- Effective written and oral communication skills with the ability to clearly convey technical concepts to technical peers, non-technical colleagues, and leadership.
- Proven ability to make sound decisions under pressure, balance competing priorities, and escalate appropriately when situations require leadership visibility.
- Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities with a methodical approach to troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and independent research into complex technical issues.
- Ability to effectively prioritize team and individual workloads and remain flexible when adapting to shifting operational priorities.
- Demonstrated experience fostering a team-oriented, collaborative environment while delivering strong independent technical contributions.
- Models professional and respectful interaction with direct reports, technical teammates, leadership, and internal colleagues across the organization.
Working Conditions:
- Primary work environment is a professional office setting with stable indoor temperatures and standard office conditions.
- Must be able to remain in a stationary position for extended periods, up to 8 hours per day; regularly moves about the office to access equipment and workspace areas.
- Must be capable of occasionally moving or transporting equipment weighing up to 50 lbs; consistently operates a computer and standard office equipment including telephones, printers, and scanners.
- Occasional work in data center or server room environments which may include varying temperatures, elevated noise levels, and physical cable management activities.
- After-hours and on-call work is required on a rotating basis and may include evenings, weekends, or holidays; occasional travel between corporate offices and the remote data center may be required.
- Work may periodically be performed remotely as operationally appropriate and as approved by leadership.
