Senior Manager, Server Operations

We are looking for a Senior Manager to join our FDA team! This Senior Manager will manage teams that provide technical support for Windows and Linux servers and the Citrix environment for data center operations. Teams provide 24/7 operations and maintenance as needed. The senior manager drives issue resolution to achieve Service Level Agreements. Directs, establishes, plans, and implements the policies and procedures to support the organization's incident handling and technical support services. The role is a member of the leadership team on a large federal government program. This position is remote, but living in the MD/DC area is a plus for customer interface.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Oversee daily operations of data center server and Citrix support
• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of system administrators
• Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of all the Citrix and server environments
• Develop and enforce operational procedures, standards, and best practices
• Monitor system performance and capacity, plan for scaling and future growth
• Coordinate incident response, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis for outages or performance issues
• Partner closely with customer through consistent communication, reliable execution and proactive collaboration to build and maintain a trust-base relationship
• Manage hardware and software lifecycle, including deployment, upgrades, and decommissioning
• Ensure compliance with security policies, audits, and regulatory requirements
• Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to mitigate risks and address vulnerabilities
• Track and report key performance indicators (KPIs), SLAs, and operational metrics
• Support change management processes, including maintenance windows and system upgrades
• Maintain documentation for systems, processes, and configurations
• Drive automation and process improvements to increase efficiency and reduce manual effort
• Serve as escalation point and customer interface for service area

Required Qualifications:

• 12 years of experience, may have supervisory or management experience
• Strong experience leading data center teams in a leadership or supervisory role
• Experience with Windows, Linux and Citrix environments
• Strong understanding of server hardware, virtualization platforms (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V), and operating systems (Linux/Windows)
• Understanding of scripting/automation (e.g., PowerShell, Python, Bash)
• Understanding of cybersecurity principles, access controls, and vulnerability management
• Experience with 7x24, on-call response as needed for escalations
• Methodical incident response and root cause analysis to resolve problems
• Experience collaborating with other IT support teams and customers
• Team leadership, coaching, and performance management
• Must be a US Citizen
• Must be able to obtain and maintain the required agency clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Clear communication of IT concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Ownership mentality and bias for action
• Foster collaboration to continuously build bridges
• Experience with federal government IT environment and customers
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and hybrid environments
• Strong decision-making and problem-solving abilities under pressure
• Experience managing after-hours maintenance and incident response teams
• Ability to prioritize tasks and manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Experience with IT service management frameworks (e.g., ITIL)
• Change management, incident management, and problem management expertise
• Capacity planning and resource forecasting
• Documentation and process standardization