IT Operations - Manager

Keka Technologies Private Limited; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 5,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Tarento is seeking an experienced IT Operations Lead / IT Manager to oversee a 500-person IT organization, balancing strategic leadership with hands-on delivery. The role covers infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, cybersecurity, and governance, leading 5–8 IT professionals to ensure reliable, secure operations and continuous improvement.

Based in Bangalore, you will drive operation excellence, implement ITIL-based service management, and partner with stakeholders to align technology with business

Qualifications

• ITIL 4 framework familiarity and implementation experience.
• ISO27001/CISSP/CISM awareness is a plus.
• Experience leading large IT operations teams and service delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day IT operations, ensuring availability and security of infrastructure and services.
• Own IT Service Management processes (Incident, Problem, Change, Request).
• Drive cost optimization and FinOps across cloud resources.
• Mentor a team of 5–8 IT professionals and manage priorities and escalations.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams during incidents, audits, and projects.

Skills

IT Operations Leadership

ITIL

Cloud Computing

FinOps / Cost Optimization

Security Governance

Tools

ManageEngine Desktop Central

GitLab

Jenkins

Terraform

Kubernetes

Docker

Azure DevOps

Cortex EDR

Job description

Tarento is a fast-growing technology consulting company headquartered in Stockholm, with a strong presence in India and clients across the globe. We specialize in digital transformation, product engineering, and enterprise solutions, working across diverse industries including retail, manufacturing, and healthcare. Our teams combine Nordic values with Indian expertise to deliver innovative, scalable, and high-impact solutions.

We're proud to be recognized as a Great Place to Work , a testament to our inclusive culture, strong leadership, and commitment to employee well-being and growth. At Tarento, you’ll be part of a collaborative environment where ideas are valued, learning is continuous, and careers are built on passion and purpose.

Job Description – IT Operations / IT Manager

Location: Bangalore| Experience: 10+ years |Team: 5–8 IT professionals | User base: ~500-person IT organization

About the Role

We are seeking a highly experienced and proactive IT Operations Lead / IT Manager to lead and optimize the technology environment supporting a 500-person IT organization. The role combines strategic IT leadership with hands‑on operational ownership across infrastructure, IT service management, end‑user computing, cloud, DevOps, cybersecurity, compliance, vendor management, automation, and technology governance. The successful candidate will lead a team of 5–8 IT professionals, ensure stable and secure day‑to‑day operations, and drive continuous improvement, automation, cost‑optimization, and exceptional service delivery.

1. IT Operations, Service Management & Service Delivery

• Lead day-to-day IT operations, ensuring availability, performance, reliability, resilience, and security of infrastructure, systems, applications, networks, cloud services, and end‑user technology.
• Own IT Service Management processes covering Incident, Problem, Change, Request, and Service Management through the IT ticketing platform.
• Establish, govern, and continuously improve SLAs, KPIs, ticket ageing, response/resolution targets, and user satisfaction.
• Act as the escalation point for critical and major incidents; coordinate troubleshooting, root‑cause analysis, corrective actions, and post‑incident reviews.
• Drive continuous service improvement aligned with ITIL best practices and business priorities.
• Develop monthly SLA and operational reports covering Internet uptime, service uptime, ticket volumes, ageing, resolution performance, and recurring issues.
• Maintain a strong customer‑service culture and provide empathetic, professional support to internal users.
• Lead, mentor, coach, and develop a team of 5–8 IT support and infrastructure professionals.
• Assign work, establish priorities, monitor performance, manage escalations, and ensure timely resolution of IT issues.
• Define objectives, KPIs, development plans, knowledge‑sharing practices, and operational ownership across the team.
• Foster a collaborative, supportive, accountable, and continuous‑improvement‑oriented culture.
• Coordinate cross‑functional teams during major incidents, audits, projects, technology changes, and transformation initiatives.

3. IT Infrastructure, Network & End‑User Computing

• Oversee enterprise infrastructure including networks, servers, storage, virtualization, wireless, firewalls, cloud environments, and end‑user devices.
• Ensure high availability and reliability of critical IT systems and services.
• Manage wireless access points, hardware firewalls, switches, network equipment, Internet circuits, and associated vendor services.
• Manage the complete lifecycle of laptops, desktops, mobiles, peripherals, and accessories from procurement and provisioning through refresh and secure disposal.
• Own user onboarding, role changes, access provisioning, offboarding, asset recovery, and access‑card coordination with HR.
• Perform monthly Internet bandwidth and capacity checks and recommend upgrades based on usage and business demand.
• Maintain disk‑capacity and infrastructure‑health reports and proactively address capacity risks.
• Manage and optimize cloud resources across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), where applicable.
• Support cloud services and customer‑facing workloads hosted on AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Monitor availability, performance, capacity, security, and operational health of cloud resources.
• Track monthly cloud bills, analyze consumption trends, forecast spend, and drive FinOps‑style cost optimization.
• Define cloud adoption standards and ensure appropriate governance, tagging, access controls, backup, and lifecycle management.
• Balance on‑premises and cloud workloads to optimize performance, scalability, resilience, and total cost of ownership.

5. Software, License, Patch & Configuration Management

• Manage Microsoft 365/O365 licenses and project‑specific software licenses, including allocation, renewal, usage, and cost optimization.
• Oversee software deployment, application inventory, endpoint configuration, and patch management using tools such as ManageEngine Desktop Central/Endpoint Central.
• Implement and govern automated OS patching for employee workstations and servers.
• Maintain accurate software and hardware inventories and ensure appropriate licensing compliance.
• Track software renewals, support contracts, certificates, and technology lifecycle milestones.

6. DevOps, Git & CI/CD Operations

• Provide operational leadership and governance for DevOps tooling and practices.
• Manage and support Git, GitLab, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevOps environments as applicable.
• Perform periodic Git/GitLab access reviews and ensure least‑privilege access and appropriate segregation of duties.
• Support CI/CD pipelines, automation, deployment reliability, and operational stability in collaboration with development and DevOps teams.
• Lead infrastructure‑as‑code and configuration‑management practices using Terraform and Ansible where applicable.
• Support containerization and orchestration platforms such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Define and implement IT security policies, standards, procedures, and operational controls.
• Act as the IT/security escalation point and support enterprise security governance and risk management.
• Conduct vulnerability checks and coordinate remediation of identified vulnerabilities.
• Manage endpoint protection and antivirus/EDR platforms such as Cortex and ensure security agents remain healthy and current.
• Oversee identity and access management, privileged access, access reviews, endpoint security, network security, and incident response.
• Maintain the Information Security Management System (ISMS) and support ISO 27001 certification and audit requirements.
• Participate in quarterly audits, evidence collection, remediation tracking, and management reviews.
• Coordinate cybersecurity incidents, containment, investigation, recovery, and lessons learned.

8. Enterprise Architecture, Technology Strategy & Governance

• Define and govern enterprise IT architecture standards, technology reference models, and infrastructure principles.
• Establish vendor evaluation frameworks and technology selection criteria.
• Define cloud adoption policies, technology lifecycle standards, and application rationalization roadmaps aligned with business strategy.
• Partner with C‑suite and executive leadership to translate business objectives into technology roadmaps and investment priorities.
• Present IT performance metrics, risk posture, cybersecurity status, governance outcomes, and strategic initiatives to senior leadership.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI, automation, AIOps, and cloud platforms, and assess their operational and business value.

9. AI, AIOps & Automation

• Lead adoption of AIOps capabilities such as ML‑based event correlation, anomaly detection, predictive monitoring, and automated first‑line remediation.
• Drive AI‑powered ITSM capabilities including intelligent ticket classification, AI‑driven routing, NLP‑based resolution recommendations, and predictive SLA‑breach alerts.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive IT operations, support processes, monitoring, reporting, and remediation activities.
• Architect and manage infrastructure for AI workloads, including on‑premises GPU platforms and cost‑optimized cloud AI services where appropriate.
• Measure operational improvements from AI and automation initiatives, including reduced downtime, faster MTTR, and lower operating cost.

10. Proactive Maintenance, Upgrades & Business Continuity

• Plan and execute quarterly firmware upgrades for wireless access points and network equipment.
• Implement and maintain automated OS patching and upgrade cycles for end‑user systems and servers.
• Perform planned server OS upgrades and maintain application/platform upgrade schedules.
• Perform quarterly GitLab version upgrades with appropriate validation, backup, rollback, and change‑management controls.
• Maintain backup, disaster recovery, business continuity, and infrastructure resilience plans for critical services.
• Use monitoring and capacity data to identify and resolve issues before they impact users or customers.

11. Monitoring, Reporting & Operational Governance

• Develop and maintain monthly IT dashboards covering service uptime, Internet uptime, network bandwidth, patch compliance, license renewals, ticket performance, disk usage, cloud spend, and security posture.
• Produce monthly SLA and KPI reports for leadership and relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain operational dashboards and trend analysis to identify recurring incidents, capacity risks, cost anomalies, and improvement opportunities.
• Maintain accurate IT documentation, asset records, service ownership information, escalation matrices, and operational runbooks.
• Maintain and share access‑card server details with HR in accordance with access governance procedures.
• Own procurement of IT hardware, software, licenses, accessories, network equipment, and technology services.
• Manage vendor, MSP, telecom, cloud, and technology‑partner relationships.
• Define and monitor vendor SLAs, KPIs, contracts, renewals, service quality, and operational performance.
• Lead vendor evaluations, commercial negotiations, renewals, and corrective actions in collaboration with procurement and leadership.
• Ensure third‑party services meet requirements for availability, security, compliance, performance, and cost.

13. IT Budget & Financial Management

• Own IT CapEx and OpEx planning, forecasting, budget tracking, and financial reporting.
• Manage cloud spend forecasting and optimization across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Optimize software licensing, infrastructure, telecom, support, and vendor costs without compromising service quality or security.
• Present technology investment proposals and cost‑benefit analysis to leadership.

14. Client & Stakeholder Interaction

• Participate in client calls and technical discussions as required.
• Provide service status, operational updates, logs, evidence, and technical information to clients in coordination with relevant teams.
• Translate technical issues into clear business impact, resolution status, risk, and next steps for non‑technical stakeholders.
• Build strong relationships with business leaders, customers, vendors, and internal technology teams.

Preferred Qualifications & Certifications

• ITIL 4 certification.
• ISO 27001 Lead Implementer or Lead Auditor; CISSP or CISM is advantageous.
• AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud certifications.
• CompTIA or other infrastructure/security certifications.
• PMP/PRINCE2 or equivalent project‑management certification.
• Terraform, Kubernetes, or DevOps‑related certifications.
• IT Operations Leadership
• Infrastructure & Network Management
• IT Service Management & ITIL
• Cybersecurity & Compliance
• DevOps & Automation
• Enterprise Architecture & Technology Strategy
• Budget & Cost Management
• Problem‑Solving & Incident Management
• Customer Service & Empathy
• Executive Communication & Stakeholder Management

Key Performance Indicators

• IT infrastructure and service availability / uptime.
• SLA compliance, ticket resolution time, backlog, and user satisfaction.
• Major incident frequency, MTTR, recurrence, and root‑cause closure.
• Patch compliance and vulnerability remediation performance.
• Cloud spend against budget and measurable cost optimization.
• Software/license compliance and renewal management.
• Vendor/MSP performance against contractual SLAs.
• Audit findings, security compliance, and ISO 27001/ISMS performance.
• Change success rate and change‑related incidents.
• Automation/AIOps adoption and measurable reduction in downtime and operational effort.
• Successful delivery of infrastructure upgrades, lifecycle activities, and technology roadmaps.

Role Impact

The IT Manager / IT Operations Lead is accountable for building a stable, secure, scalable, cost‑effective, and business‑aligned IT environment. The role combines strong operational discipline with strategic technology leadership, proactive service improvement, automation, cybersecurity governance, cloud optimization, and people leadership. The successful candidate will help transform IT into a highly reliable, measurable, customer‑focused, and continuously improving technology function.

Required Skills