Sr. Manager, IT Operations at Americo Financial Life and Annuity in Kansas City, MO

Job description

• The Sr. Manager, IT Operations exists to lead Americo’s end-user technology support and IT operations functions, ensuring associates have reliable, secure, and effective technology services to perform their work. This role owns the operational discipline, service quality, team leadership, vendor coordination, SaaS lifecycle management, and continuous improvement needed to deliver a consistent support experience across Americo’s business units and remote workforce. The role also serves as a senior operational escalation point between End User Services, Infrastructure, Security, Finance, Procurement, and business stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop Americo’s End User Services / IT Operations team, setting clear expectations, identifying development opportunities, and maintaining a professional service culture.
• Own day-to-day service operations including incident, request/response, problem, change, escalation, and knowledge management, with measurable SLA, CSAT, MTTA, and MTTR expectations. Provide ITIL leadership.
• Drive operational strategy and continuous improvement through automation, self-service, AI-assisted support, runbook standardization, and process documentation.
• Manage the IT asset, endpoint, software, SaaS, and vendor lifecycle, including inventory accuracy, hardware refresh planning, license compliance, renewals, and cost optimization in partnership with Finance and Procurement.
• Serve as senior escalation and relationship owner across Infrastructure, Security, Application teams, Facilities/Workplace, People Operations, and business stakeholders to ensure reliable associate technology services.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field required. Equivalent directly relevant experience may be considered in accordance with Americo policy and HR/Compensation guidance.
• The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience leading enterprise IT operations within a complex, highly regulated environment, including responsibility for production support, infrastructure services, enterprise applications, service management, and operational governance. Candidates should demonstrate a proven ability to lead technical teams, manage competing priorities, influence organizational outcomes, and develop scalable operational models that support business growth, resiliency, and technology modernization.
• 10+ years of progressive IT experience.
• 5+ years of leadership responsibility.
• Experience managing enterprise production systems and service delivery functions.
• Experience driving automation, operational maturity, process improvement, and workforce development initiatives.
• Relevant industry certifications (ITIL, Microsoft, AWS, Azure, Oracle, VMware, CISSP, PMP, or equivalent) are desirable.
• End-user services, service desk/help desk, endpoint management, or infrastructure operations experience; 3+ years leading teams, supervisors, analysts, or engineers preferred.
• Day-one proficiency with ITSM practices and modern workplace platforms such as Microsoft 365, Teams, Azure/Entra ID, Intune/endpoint management, identity/access management, remote support tools, asset inventory, reporting dashboards, and knowledge management. Experience with ServiceNow, Freshworks, Jira Service Management, Zendesk, or comparable tools preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of ITIL-based service delivery, incident/request/problem/change management, vendor management, license lifecycle, procurement/renewals, hardware refresh planning, scripting/automation concepts, and secure access/endpoint practices. ITIL, Microsoft, endpoint management, or project/service management certifications preferred.

Skills

Required

• ITIL-based service delivery
• Vendor management
• License lifecycle
• Procurement/renewals
• Hardware refresh planning
• Scripting/automation concepts
• Secure access/endpoint practices