Manager, Service Operations

Thrive; United States; On-site; USD 80,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Thrive is seeking a Service Operations Manager to lead engineering support teams and drive superior customer outcomes. The role partners with the Director, Managed Services to scale operations, improve service delivery, and foster professional growth across the organization.

Responsibilities include managing SLAs, KPIs, capacity planning, and cross-functional collaboration to ensure consistent, proactive service across global accounts. Occasional after-hours support may be required.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering or technical support teams in managed services or enterprise IT.
• Strong understanding of incident, request, change, and problem management and their global integration.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineering teams with accountability and performance.
• Experience supporting complex customer environments with strict SLAs and high availability needs.
• Ability to analyze operational data, identify trends, and drive improvements with metrics-based decisions.
• Strong communication skills translating technical details for engineers and clients.
• Track record building and maintaining trusted client relationships and managing expectations.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coach engineering teams to ensure technical excellence and accountability.
• Enforce standardized processes, quality documentation, and escalation protocols.
• Act as main operations contact for assigned clients and align engineering with client goals.
• Drive customer success by improving reliability, value, and renewal readiness.
• Track and report service KPIs, identify risks early, and resolve issues proactively.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Project Delivery, Account Management, and Central Services for seamless delivery.
• Oversee staffing plans, budgets, and workforce planning to support growth and SLA commitments.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Customer focus

Operational excellence

Data-driven decisions

ITIL knowledge

Budget management

Cross-functional collaboration

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.

Requirements

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 a fast 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.