Server Operations Senior Manager

Targa Resources; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Targa Resources is seeking a Senior Manager, Server Operations to lead the enterprise server, storage, virtualization, and cloud compute environments across on-prem, colocation, and cloud services. You will ensure reliability, security, scalability, and lifecycle management for a large distributed footprint including thousands of VMs and hundreds of hosts.

You will drive modernization, governance, and 24x7 operational readiness while partnering with Cybersecurity, Network, and Data teams to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in IT, CS, Engineering or related field.
• Deep knowledge of enterprise Windows/Linux, virtualization, storage, backup, and directory services.
• 10+ years in enterprise infrastructure with 5+ years leading 24x7 teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute multi-year strategy for enterprise infrastructure including on-prem, colocation, and cloud.
• Drive modernization, IaC adoption, automation, and governance.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team of engineers and architects.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy

Cloud IaC

Incident response

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

The Senior Manager, Server Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for the company’s enterprise server, storage, virtualization, and cloud compute environment. This role is accountable for the reliability, performance, security, scalability, governance, and lifecycle management of infrastructure platforms supporting a large, geographically distributed organization, including approximately 3000 virtual machines and 400 physical hosts.

This leader must be able to manage a complex enterprise environment, translate business needs into practical infrastructure strategies, and make sound decisions that balance availability, risk, cost, security, and speed. The position leads technical teams, establishes direction and standards, drives modernization and automation, and maintains operational discipline for business-critical services.

The Senior Manager partners across Cybersecurity, Network, Enterprise Applications, Operations Technology, Data, and business functions to ensure infrastructure capabilities remain resilient, supportable, and aligned with broader Technology and business priorities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop and execute the multi-year strategy and roadmap for enterprise server, storage, virtualization, cloud compute, and related infrastructure services while ensuring technology decisions support enterprise scale, geographic distribution, operational continuity, and future growth.

Translate company and Technology priorities into platform capabilities, standards, investment plans, and measurable operating outcomes.

Evaluate technology and operating-model options based on business value, risk, scalability, supportability, cybersecurity, and total cost of ownership.

Architecture, Modernization & Continuous Improvement

Drive adoption of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), configuration management, automated provisioning, and policy-based platform governance to improve consistency, scalability, and operational efficiency.

Own the strategy, governance, and operational integration of on-premises and cloud-based compute platforms, ensuring capabilities are delivered through the most appropriate combination of data center, colocation, and cloud services.

Establish architecture, engineering, security, and lifecycle standards while driving platform simplification, technical debt reduction, improved observability, and continuous improvement using operational data and lessons learned.

People Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of administrators, engineers, architects, and technical leads responsible for enterprise infrastructure services.

Establish clear accountability, priorities, decision rights, and performance expectations while promoting collaboration, ownership, and strong customer service.

Build organizational capability through workforce and succession planning, cross-training, performance management, targeted employee development, and a culture of critical thinking and continuous improvement.

Enterprise Operations & Service Ownership

Own the operational health and service delivery of enterprise server platforms across on-premises, colocation, and cloud environments.

Ensure services meet requirements for availability, performance, capacity, recoverability, security, compliance, and lifecycle management.

Establish service metrics, operational reviews, controls, and standards while maintaining leadership oversight of major incidents, escalations, root cause analysis, corrective actions, change discipline, and 24x7 operational readiness.

Core Infrastructure Services

Provide leadership and governance for enterprise Windows and Linux servers, storage, virtualization, cloud compute, and supporting management platforms.

Oversee Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, and other core services within the team’s assigned scope.

Ensure backup, recovery, business continuity, and disaster recovery capabilities are aligned with business requirements while maintaining lifecycle plans and reducing unsupported or high-risk technology exposure.

Critical Thinking, Risk & Decision Making

Analyze complex, cross-domain issues and make timely decisions using available facts, operational impact, business risk, cost, and long-term consequences.

Challenge assumptions, identify dependencies, and evaluate alternatives before recommending or approving significant technology, architecture, or operational changes.

Anticipate material risks, establish practical mitigation plans, communicate clear options and recommendations to Technology leadership, and balance service stability with modernization and automation objectives.

Develop and manage operating and capital budgets for infrastructure platforms, cloud consumption, licensing, maintenance, and lifecycle investments.

Build business cases and investment recommendations that connect spending to risk reduction, service improvement, scalability, or business value.

Manage strategic vendors, contracts, renewals, licensing, and commercial decisions while overseeing the server, storage, virtualization, and cloud portfolio with clear ownership, governance, dependencies, risks, priorities, and outcomes.

Stakeholder Partnership & Communication

Build trusted relationships with Technology leaders, business stakeholders, field operations, vendors, and service partners.

Partner across teams to resolve competing priorities, clarify ownership, and deliver coordinated end-to-end infrastructure solutions.

Communicate service health, risks, investment needs, decisions, and progress clearly to technical, business, and executive audiences.

Other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Deep working knowledge of enterprise Windows Server and Linux environments, virtualization platforms, enterprise storage, backup and recovery, and directory services, including lifecycle management and operational support of business-critical systems.

10 or more years of progressive enterprise infrastructure experience, including at least 5 years leading technical teams responsible for business-critical, 24x7 services in large, complex environments comparable in scale to approximately 3000 virtual machines and 400 physical hosts spanning multiple locations and integrated server, storage, virtualization, cloud, backup, and directory-service platforms.

Proven ability to develop strategy, translate it into executable roadmaps, lead modernization, and deliver measurable operational outcomes

Strong critical-thinking, decision-making, and communication skills involving operational risk, cybersecurity, cost, availability, and business impact.

Regular and reliable attendance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience supporting infrastructure in the energy, industrial, or another operationally critical sector across geographically distributed corporate, data center, and field environments.

Leadership experience with public cloud, automation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), including major incidents, platform migrations, data center or cloud transformations, and enterprise infrastructure projects.

Experience with financial planning, vendor management, contracts, licensing, technology investment analysis, and operating within SOX, audit, regulatory, or other formal control environments; relevant technical or leadership certifications are a plus.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

Strategic Leadership and Enterprise Management: Sets direction and understands the scale, integration, governance, and resilience required for enterprise infrastructure.

Critical Thinking and Business Acumen: Evaluates facts, assumptions, dependencies, risks, cost, and alternatives to reach sound decisions.

People Leadership and Operational Excellence: Develops talent, creates accountability, and maintains stable, secure, recoverable services while improving performance.

Collaboration and Communication: Builds alignment and explains complex topics clearly to technical, business, and executive audiences.

PHYSICAL & TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS:

Participate in a leadership escalation rotation for major incidents and critical infrastructure events; this role is not the routine first-line on-call resource.

Travel up to 10% to corporate offices, data centers, field locations, and vendor sites.

Ability to occasionally lift and move technology equipment weighing up to 50 pounds.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:

Targa Resources provides equal employment opportunities based on merit, experience, and other work-related criteria and without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, age, pregnancy, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. We also strive to provide reasonable accommodation to employees’ beliefs and practices that do not conflict with Targa’s policies and applicable law. We value the unique contributions that every employee brings to their role with Targa.