Technical Operations Manager

Job Profile Summary

• The Technical Operations Manager will be responsible for the operational leadership, service delivery, governance, and continual improvement of enterprise networking and observability services. The role manages a team of network, wireless, SD-WAN, and observability engineers responsible for the support, maintenance, monitoring, and optimization of client managed services infrastructure.
• The Technical Operations Manager ensures the availability, performance, security, and service quality of Cisco SD-WAN, Cisco Wireless, NETSCOUT, and observability platform stack. The role provides leadership across operational support functions, incident management, customer engagement, service assurance, automation initiatives, and technical governance while ensuring compliance with service levels and contractual obligations.
• The incumbent will work closely with clients, architects, engineering teams, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure operational excellence and drive continuous service improvement.

Job Description

Operational Leadership

• Lead and manage network operations responsible for Cisco SD-WAN, Cisco Wireless, Observability, and Network Performance Monitoring services.
• Ensure the successful delivery and operational support of managed services in accordance with contractual SLAs and OLAs.
• Oversee the 24x7 monitoring, management, and support of customer environments.
• Provide technical and operational leadership during major incidents and service outages.
• Ensure all operational processes are aligned to ITIL best practices.
• Drive operational excellence through process standardization, automation, and continual improvement initiatives.
• Maintain responsibility for overall service performance, customer satisfaction, and operational stability.

Service Delivery Management

• Ensure effective delivery of managed network and observability services across all supported customer environments.
• Monitor service performance against agreed service levels and contractual commitments.
• Review service metrics, trends, and operational reports to identify areas for improvement.
• Coordinate service transition activities for new customers, technologies, and projects entering operational support.
• Manage service risks, escalations, changes and mitigation plans.
• Participate in customer governance meetings, service reviews, and operational steering committees.
• Develop and maintain data driven service improvement plans.

Technical Governance and Oversight

• Provide operational oversight for:
• Cisco SD-WAN environments
• Cisco Catalyst and enterprise networking infrastructure
• Cisco Wireless LAN environments
• NETSCOUT nGeniusONE solutions
• Observability stack environments
• Dashboards and observability platforms
• Network telemetry and analytics platforms
• IPSEC VPN services
• Routing and switching environments
• Network automation platforms
• Validate operational readiness for new technologies and solutions.
• Ensure platform standards, monitoring standards, and operational procedures are maintained and reviewed regularly.
• Ensure compliance with information security, governance, and risk management requirements.

Observability and Monitoring Leadership

• Own the operational strategy for enterprise observability services.
• Drive enhancements to monitoring coverage, alerting effectiveness, and event correlation capabilities.
• Ensure monitoring systems provide proactive visibility into service health and customer experience.
• Oversee the development of dashboards, analytics, and reporting capabilities using the observability data stack.
• Lead initiatives focused on reducing incident volumes through predictive monitoring and automation.
• Ensure monitoring platforms remain secure, resilient, scalable, and aligned to customer requirements.

Incident, Problem and Change Management

• Act as the escalation point for Priority 1 and Priority 2 incidents.
• Lead major incident management activities and post-incident reviews.
• Oversee root cause analysis investigations and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
• Ensure change management processes are followed and operational risks are effectively managed.
• Review recurring incidents and implement long-term remediation strategies.
• Drive continuous reduction in service-impacting incidents.

Customer Engagement

• Establish and maintain trusted relationships with customer stakeholders.
• Present operational performance, service reviews, and improvement plans to customers.
• Manage customer escalations and ensure timely resolution.
• Work collaboratively with client stake holders to align operational services with business objectives.
• Act as an operational advisor for network and observability services.

Reporting and Governance

• Prepare and present:
• Monthly Service Reports
• SLA Achievement Reports
• Incident Trend Analysis
• Problem Management Reports
• Capacity and Availability Reports
• Risk Registers
• Lifecycle, Patch, SLA Cert management reporting
• Access management
• Service Improvement Plans
• PCI audit participation and management
• Weekly operations meetings
• Ensure the accuracy and integrity of operational reporting data.
• Measure the service performance against established KPIs and service objectives agreed with the client.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The Technical Operations Manager will be measured against:

• SLA Compliance Achievement
• Service Availability Targets
• Architecture accuracy
• Mean Time to Restore Service (MTTR)
• Monitoring accuracy
• Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT)
• Major Incident Reduction
• Change Success Rate
• Service Improvement Delivery
• Automation and Operational Efficiency Gains
• Audit and Compliance Outcomes

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Telecommunications, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• ITIL v4 Foundation (Minimum)
• ITIL Managing Professional (Advantageous)

Professional Certifications

Essential

• Cisco CCNA Enterprise
• Cisco DevNet Associate
• ITIL v4 Foundation

Advantageous

• Cisco CCNP Enterprise
• Cisco SD-WAN (ENSDWI)
• Cisco Wireless Certifications
• NETSCOUT nGeniusONE Certifications
• Fortinet NSE4 or higher
• PMP or Prince2
• Certified Scrum Master
• Cloud Platform Certifications (Azure or AWS)

Experience

• Minimum 8-10 years experience in enterprise network operations.
• Minimum 5 years experience managing technical operations teams.
• Experience managing large-scale Cisco networking environments.
• Experience supporting enterprise SD-WAN environments.
• Experience managing Cisco Wireless deployments.
• Experience operating enterprise monitoring and observability platforms.
• Experience within a Managed Services Provider (MSP) or Managed Network Services environment.
• Experience with service delivery governance and customer-facing operations.
• Experience leading major incident and problem management processes.
• Experience managing and collaborating with external vendors

Technical Competencies

Networking

• Cisco SD-WAN
• BGP
• OSPF
• MPLS
• DIA
• VPN Technologies
• IPSEC
• Network Security
• Enterprise Routing and Switching

Wireless

• Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers
• Cisco Access Points
• Wireless Design Principles
• RF Fundamentals

Observability & Monitoring

• Prometheus
• Grafana
• NETSCOUT nGeniusONE
• SNMP
• Telemetry
• Network Analytics
• Performance Monitoring
• Capacity Management

Automation

• Python
• Ansible
• Network Automation Frameworks
• API Integrations
• Infrastructure as Code Concepts

Operations

• ITIL Service Management
• Major Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Change Management
• Capacity Management
• Availability Management
• Service Reporting

Core Competencies

• Strategic Leadership
• Customer Relationship Management
• Technical Decision Making
• Team Development and Coaching
• Service Delivery Excellence
• Business Acumen
• Risk Management
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Financial Awareness
• Communication and Presentation Skills
• Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
• Continual Service Improvement