Manager, Service Operations

Thrivenextgen; New York (NY); On-site; USD 80,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Thrive is seeking a Service Operations Manager to lead engineering support teams, drive operational excellence, and strengthen client relationships across our managed services portfolio.

You will own day-to-day service performance, coach engineers, manage capacity and budgets, and collaborate with Account Management and Project Delivery to enhance quality, reliability, and customer outcomes across global accounts.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering or technical support teams within a managed services or enterprise IT environment, with a strong focus on operational execution and customer outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, mentor, and grow engineering teams, fostering accountability, learning, and high performance.
• Experience supporting complex customer environments with adherence to strict SLAs, regulatory controls, and high availability service expectations.
• Ability to analyze operational data, identify trends, and drive improvements using metrics-based decision making.
• Strong communications skills with the ability to translate technical and operational details into clear, actionable information for both engineers and client stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering teams to ensure technical excellence and accountability.
• Build scalable team structures and workflows to support growth and changing customer needs.
• Promote a culture of learning and collaboration for ongoing skill development.
• Review performance metrics and guide engineers on improvement.
• Delivers services that meet SLAs, KPIs, and customer expectations.
• Enforce standardized processes, quality documentation, and escalation protocols.
• Track operations, identify risks early, and resolve issues proactively.
• Assist in capacity planning, workload distribution, and resource allocation.
• Serve as the main operational contact for assigned clients, aligning engineering support with client goals.
• Collaborate with Account Management and Project Delivery for unified service.

Skills

Engineering leadership

IT operations

Mentoring & growth

SLA & regulatory

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Client relationship management

Cross-functional collaboration

Remote team management

ITIL knowledge

Education

ITIL Foundation certification

Job description

About us:

Thrive is an innovative technology solutions provider focused on Cyber Security, Hybrid Cloud, Global Network Management, Disaster Recovery and traditional Managed Services. Our corporate culture, engineering talent, customer-centric approach, and focus upon NextGen services help us stand out among our peers. Thrive is on the look-out for individuals who don't view their weekdays spent at 'a job' but rather look to develop valuable skills that ignite their passion and lead to a CAREER. If you're attracted to a work hard, play hard environment and seek the guidance, training and experience necessary to build a lucrative career, then welcome to THRIVE!

Position Overview

The Service Operations Manager

Responsible forleading, developing, and scalinghigh performingengineering support teams to deliver consistently exceptional customer experience. In partnership with the Director, Managed Services, this role drives operational excellence, engineers’ professional growth, and strong client relationships that reinforcelong termcustomer success.This leader acts as the operational owner forday-to-dayservice performance across assigned accounts, strengthening the technical execution of engineering teams while ensuring services are delivered with predictability,qualityand a proactive mindset.

1. Engineering Team Leadership & Growth

• Lead and coach engineering teams to ensure technical excellence and accountability.
• Build scalable team structures and workflows to support growth and meet changing customer needs.
• Promote a culture of learning and collaboration for ongoing skill development.
• Review performance metrics and guide engineers on technical and professional improvement.

2. Operational Excellence & Service Delivery Execution

• Deliverservices that meet or exceed SLAs, KPIs, and customer expectations.
• Enforcestandardizedprocesses, quality documentation, effective communication, and escalation protocols.
• Track operations,identifyrisks early, and resolve issues proactively.
• Assistin capacity planning, workload distribution, and resource allocation for operational goals.

3. Strategic Client Relationship Management

• Serve as the main operational contact for assigned clients, building transparent and responsive relationships.
• Align engineering support with client business needs and goals.
• Collaborate with Account Management and Project Delivery for unified service.
• Join customer reviews, service discussions, and roadmap planning to support the partnership.

4. Customer Success Ownership

• Regularly assess customer experience and drive actions to boost satisfaction, reliability, and value.
• Turn customer feedback into practical improvements for engineering and service teams.
• Supportrenewal readiness through effective service delivery and by spottingupsellor expansion opportunities linked to customer goals.

5. DataDriven Performance Management

• Trackand respond to service KPIs like SLA attainment, response/resolution times, backlog status, and customer sentiment.
• Use data to inform decisions, enhance team performance, and report trends to leadership and clients.
• Regularly manage metrics,service health, and operational reports.

6. Collaboration & CrossFunctional Alignment

• Collaborate with Engineering, Project Delivery, Account Management, and Central Services to ensure seamless service delivery and effective knowledge sharing.
• Support the onboarding process for new customers and technologies byfacilitatingcoordination and communication among teams.
• Work with leadership to implement initiatives that improve efficiency, quality, and scalability.

7. Resource & Budget Management

• Maintainteam staffing plans and budget alignment to support business growth, SLA commitments, and service quality requirements.
• Participate in hiring, onboarding, and workforce planning to ensure a strong, scalable engineering support bench.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering or technical support teams within a managed services or enterprise IT environment, with a strong focus on operational execution and customer outcomes.
• Solid understanding of core IT operations concepts such as incident, request, change, and problem management, as well as how these functions integrate within a global service delivery model.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, mentor, and grow engineering teams, fostering a culture of accountability, learning, and high performance.
• Experience supporting complex customer environments that require adherence to strict SLAs, regulatory controls, andhigh availabilityservice expectations.
• Ability to analyze operational data,identifytrends, and drive improvements usingmetrics baseddecision making.
• Strong communicationskills with the ability to translate technical and operational details into clear, actionable information for both engineers and client stakeholders.
• Proven success in building andmaintainingtrusted client relationships, including managing expectations, communicating service performance, and advocating for customer needs internally.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in collaboratingcross functionallywith Project Delivery, Account Management, Engineering, and other operational teams.
• Ability to balancehands-onoperational oversight withforward thinkingprocess improvement and scalability initiatives.
• Experience managing remote and distributed teams across multiple geographies or time zones.
• ITIL Foundation certification or practical ITIL experiencestronglypreferred.
• Strong organizational,problem solving, and prioritization skills in afast paced, rapidly evolving environment.
• Comfortable working outside standard business hours whenrequired(major incidents, escalations, oron callrotation).

Base Salary Range: $80K -$105K (bonus eligible)

Actual compensation within the range will be dependent upon the individual's skills, experience, qualifications and location, and applicable employment laws.