Cloud Operations Manager / O&M Service Delivery Manager

AIS (Applied Information Sciences); Reston (VA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 189,000; Full time

Job summary

AIS (Applied Information Sciences) is seeking a talented Senior Cloud Operations Manager in Reston, Virginia. In this role, you will lead Operations & Maintenance service delivery for a large Defense Industrial Base customer utilizing Microsoft Azure Government and Microsoft 365 services.

The ideal candidate will provide strategic leadership, oversee O&M performance, and manage vendor relationships while driving innovation in a compliance-driven environment. Extensive experience in IT service delivery and cloud operations is essential.

The position offers a competitive base salary ranging from $125,000 to $189,000 based on experience and qualifications.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in IT service delivery, cloud operations, or managed services required.
• 3+ years leading managed services or support teams.
• Experience improving operations through automation, self-service, and process redesign.

Responsibilities

• Own overall O&M service performance across Azure and Microsoft 365.
• Drive teams to meet defined SLAs and KPIs.
• Lead help desk/service desk operations, ensuring responsiveness and quality.

Skills

Multi-cloud and hybrid architectures

ITIL 4 Foundation certification

ServiceNow experience

Cloud operations management

Executive communication

Education

8+ years in IT service delivery, cloud operations, or managed services

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft 365

ServiceNow

Job description

Working @ AIS

At AIS, we are dedicated to providing employees with diverse opportunities to grow their careers while supporting a variety of impactful projects. For this position, we are seeking a talented Senior Cloud Operations Manager.

Core Knowledge & Skills

• Expert in multi‑cloud and hybrid architectures, compliance, disaster recovery, and financial governance. Leads technology adoption and innovation.
• Develops long‑term strategies for scalability, leads complex migrations and operations projects, and manages vendor relationships.
• Drives innovation, enforces standardized processes, leads continuous improvement, and sets best practices for operations and cost management.
• Provides strategic leadership, builds high‑performing teams, collaborates with senior leadership, and represents the organization externally.
• Offers strategic consulting, develops technology roadmaps, recommends vendors, ensures compliance, and leads industry‑based best practices.

Project Summary

The Cloud Operations Manager / O&M Service Delivery Manager leads Operations & Maintenance service delivery for a large Defense Industrial Base customer operating Microsoft Azure Government and Microsoft 365 GCC‑High cloud services. This role is expected to evolve O&M from its current state into a scalable, repeatable, and high‑performing operating model while maintaining stability and service continuity. The ideal candidate combines strong managed services leadership with enough technical fluency to understand Azure and M365 operations, challenge technical teams appropriately, interpret service health data, and communicate operational risk and business impact to customer leadership. The Manager must understand service desk operations, ITSM processes, cloud operations, compliance‑driven environments, and how to lead technical teams toward measurable service outcomes and a strong positive customer experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Own overall O&M service performance across Azure, Microsoft 365, endpoint management, identity, collaboration, messaging, security, and related operational workstreams.
• Drive teams to meet defined SLAs, KPIs, service levels, and customer commitments.
• Establish and enforce a consistent operating model for incident, request, problem, change, release, knowledge, and service level management.
• Hold technical and support teams accountable for responsiveness, quality, documentation, escalation discipline, and customer communication.
• Lead and mature help desk/service desk operations, including intake, triage, queue management, ticket routing, escalation, and backlog hygiene.
• Define and manage tiered support models across Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, engineering escalation, and vendor escalation.
• Monitor and improve key service desk metrics such as first‑contact resolution, mean time to acknowledge, mean time to resolve, reopen rate, aged backlog, SLA compliance, customer satisfaction, and ticket deflection.
• Drive consistent use of ServiceNow or comparable ITSM tooling for tickets, workflows, dashboards, reporting, approvals, and audit trails.
• Provide operational leadership across Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 services, including monitoring, identity, endpoint management, collaboration, messaging, security, compliance, and platform reliability.
• Understand the operational implications of Microsoft Entra ID, Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Intune, Defender, Purview, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure networking, backup/recovery, and landing zone operations.
• Serve as a primary service delivery interface for customer stakeholders and program leadership.
• Build trust with customer leaders, technical teams, service desk stakeholders, and executive sponsors.
• Translate technical and operational data into clear business‑relevant communication, including risk, impact, trends, mitigation plans, and decisions needed.
• Ensure O&M execution aligns with customer security, compliance, audit, and operational control requirements.
• Support operations in regulated DIB, federal, GCC High, Azure Government, CUI, or ITAR‑sensitive environments as applicable.

Required for This Opportunity

• 8+ years in IT service delivery, cloud operations, or managed services.
• 3+ years leading managed services or support teams through growth, change, or operational maturation.
• ITIL 4 Foundation or equivalent IT service management certification.
• Experience in customer‑facing managed services with ownership of service performance, service outcomes, customer experience, and operating model effectiveness.
• Experience improving operations through automation, self‑service, monitoring improvements, ticket deflection, or process redesign.
• Experience driving SLA/KPI performance, backlog health, escalations, and/or service reviews, using data to improve the system, not just report on it.
• Experience leading service desk / support operations (tiered support, incidents, requests, escalations, knowledge management).
• Ability to design and implement scalable operating models across service functions.
• Working knowledge of Azure and M365; able to engage technical teams and translate operational risk.
• Experience with ServiceNow or similar to drive process discipline and service improvement.
• Strong executive communication; able to align stakeholders and build trust.

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience supporting GCC High, Azure Government, or other restricted cloud environments.
• Experience supporting DIB, DoD, federal, aerospace, shipbuilding, manufacturing, or critical infrastructure customers.
• Experience leading major incident management, root cause analysis, post‑incident reviews, and corrective action tracking.
• Experience building or improving runbook libraries, SOPs, knowledge articles, and operational readiness processes.
• Experience preparing monthly service reviews, executive dashboards, QBR inputs, SLA reports, and continuous improvement plans.
• HDI Support Center Manager, HDI Support Center Director, or HDI Desktop Support Manager, or comparable help desk/support center leadership certification.
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification.
• Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert certification.
• Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate certification.
• Microsoft Certified: Endpoint Administrator Associate certification.
• CompTIA Security+, CISSP, CISM, CCSP, or comparable security/compliance certification.

Compensation

Competitive and fair compensation is offered. The targeted base salary range for this role is $125,000–$189,000 per year. Final offer will be based on skillset, experience, education, certifications, and location.

Applied Information Sciences does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis. Employment decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs.