Manager, Service Operations

Thrive; Town of Mansfield (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Thrive is seeking a Service Operations Manager to lead engineering support teams and partner with the Director, Managed Services to drive operational excellence and strong client relationships. This role acts as the operational owner for day‑to‑day service performance across assigned accounts, reinforcing technical execution and proactive service delivery.

The position focuses on meeting SLAs and KPIs, scaling processes, and growing the engineering support bench while maintaining high customer

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering or technical support teams within a managed services or enterprise IT environment.
• Strong track record delivering services that meet SLAs and customer expectations.
• Ability to analyze operational data and drive improvements with metrics.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Deliver services that meet or exceed SLAs, KPIs, and customer expectations.
• Enforce standardised processes, quality documentation, effective communication, and escalation protocols.
• Track operations, identify risks early, and resolve issues proactively.
• Assist in capacity planning, workload distribution, and resource allocation for operational goals.
• 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.
• Regularly assess customer experience and drive actions to boost satisfaction, reliability, and value.
• Turn customer feedback into practical improvements for engineering and service teams.
• Support renewal readiness through effective service delivery and by spotting upsell or expansion opportunities linked to customer goals.
• Track and 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.
• 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 by facilitating coordination and communication among teams.
• Work with leadership to implement initiatives that improve efficiency, quality, and scalability.

Skills

Team Leadership

Coaching

Operational Excellence

Customer Relationship

Data-Driven Decision Making

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Job description

Thrive is a rapidly growing technology solutions provider focusing upon Cloud, Cyber Security, Networking, Disaster Recovery and Managed Services.Our corporate culture, engineering talent, customer-centric approach, and focus upon “next generation” services help us stand out amongst our peers.Thrive is on the look‑out for individuals whodon’tview their weekdays spent at “a job” butrather look to develop valuable skills that ignite their passion and lead to a CAREER.Ifyou’reattracted to a “work hard, play hard” environment, seeking the guidance,trainingand experience necessary to build a lucrative career, then welcome to THRIVE!!

Position Overview:

The Service Operations Manageris 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.

Responsibilities:

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.

Operational Excellence & Service Delivery Execution

• Deliver services that meet or exceed SLAs, KPIs, and customer expectations.

• Enforce standardised processes, 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.

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.

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 spotting upsell or expansion opportunities linked to customer goals.

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.

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.

Resource & Budget Management

• Maintain team 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.

• 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 toanalyzeoperational 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 experience strongly preferred.

• 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).