Operations Reliability Manager Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Summary

The Manager, Infrastructure Operations is a senior leader responsible for day-to-day operations, reliability, and continuous improvement of the company's global server, storage, and core infrastructure platforms across on-premises data centers, co-location environments, and cloud services. This role manages a global team of Server and Infrastructure Administrators and is accountable for availability, performance, security, and resilience of systems supporting manufacturing, R&D, commercial, and corporate operations.

The role owns operational governance and excellence across on-prem and cloud servers, enterprise storage, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365 (O365), and partners closely with Cybersecurity, Application teams, Manufacturing IT, and business stakeholders. The Manager leads disaster recovery planning and testing, infrastructure modernization, and operational risk reduction in a 24x7x365 environment.

Hollister Incorporated operates in a hybrid work enviornment. Employees are expected to come into the office a minimum of 4 days per week. Sponsorship to work in the US is not available at this time.

Responsibilities

1.

People leadership and operational ownership

• Lead, coach, and develop a global Infrastructure Operations team (server, storage, cloud, and data center operations); drive performance management, training, and succession planning.
• Define team structure, on-call coverage, and resource allocation to meet service expectations in a 24x7x365 environment.
• Establish and communicate clear operational standards, documentation, and runbooks to enable consistent execution across sites and time zones.

2.

Infrastructure reliability, lifecycle management, and service levels

• Own availability, performance, and lifecycle management for physical and virtual servers, enterprise storage platforms, Microsoft Azure infrastructure, and Microsoft 365 (O365) services.
• Implement and enforce monitoring, patching, backup, capacity management, and change control processes; ensure services meet defined SLAs.

• Lead incident response for infrastructure-related events, including triage, escalation, root cause analysis, and corrective/preventive actions.

3.

Security, compliance, and operational risk reduction

• Partner with Cybersecurity to ensure infrastructure is designed and operated with security-by-design and aligned with company policies and standards.
• Ensure infrastructure assets are hardened, patched, secured, and monitored; proactively manage vulnerabilities and operational risks.

4.

Disaster recovery, business continuity, and resiliency

• Lead disaster recovery (DR) planning, testing, and continuous improvement for critical applications and infrastructure platforms.
• Maintain readiness through documented procedures, validation of backups, recovery objectives, and post-test/action reporting.

5.

Data center, facilities, and modernization initiatives

• Manage on-premises and co-located data center operations, including vendor coordination and oversight of power/UPS and environmental monitoring.
• Support and execute infrastructure modernization and hybrid cloud initiatives; partner with project teams to ensure smooth operational transition.

6.

Vendors, financial stewardship, and metrics

• Manage infrastructure vendors and support contracts; partner with IT Finance and Strategic Sourcing to negotiate services and ensure compliance with service levels.
• Develop and manage budgets for personnel and services; track key performance indicators and provide reporting through management review cadences.

Essential Functions of the Role

Education & Work Requirements

Education & Work Preferences

Fluency in English is required.

     Senior operational leadership with a track record of improving availability, reducing risk, and driving continuous improvement through metrics (KPIs/SLAs) and operational cadences.

     Expertise with enterprise hybrid infrastructure: physical/virtual servers, enterprise storage/backup, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365 (O365), including lifecycle, capacity planning, and performance optimization.

     Deep experience leading incident, problem, and change management (e.g., ITIL-aligned), including escalation leadership, root cause analysis, and corrective/preventive action governance.

     Demonstrated partnership with Cybersecurity to drive vulnerability management, hardening standards, audit readiness, and secure operations across on-prem and cloud platforms.

     Proven disaster recovery and resiliency leadership, including DR strategy, runbooks, testing programs, and executive-ready reporting for Tier 0/critical services.

     Ability to lead globally distributed teams, influence across functions, and communicate technical and operational topics to both IT and business leadership. 

Academic/Credentials/Certifications:

Relevant certifications are a plus (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, ITIL, VMware, storage/backup, or security-related certifications).

   Length of Experience:

     Minimum 10 years of progressive IT experience, including 7+ years supporting enterprise server/storage and hybrid cloud infrastructure in a 24x7 environment.

     Minimum 5 years leading infrastructure operations teams (people leadership) with demonstrated accountability for service availability, incident/problem management, and operational controls.

     Experience operating at enterprise scale (global/regional), including vendor management, budget/forecasting responsibility, and cross-functional leadership with cybersecurity and application teams.

Competencies