IT Infrastructure & Operations Manager

OVERVIEW

Lead the day-to-day operation, reliability, and continuous improvement of Santikos enterprise technology environment while providing direct leadership to the IT support team. Oversee infrastructure, networking, cloud operations, service delivery, technical vendor relationships, and operational technology projects across corporate offices and theater locations. Serve as the primary technical owner for Santikos digital platforms, including coordination of website, mobile application, kiosk, and related vendor activities.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

- Lead the day-to-day operations of Santikos IT infrastructure, networking, cloud, and end-user support functions to ensure reliable and responsive technology services across corporate and theater locations

- Directly manage, coach, and develop the IT support team, including workload prioritization, escalation management, performance expectations, cross-training, and professional development

- Provide leadership-level technical oversight and hands-on accountability while keeping the role focused on team leadership, operational ownership, complex escalations, and continuous improvement rather than functioning as the primary end-user support resource

- Oversee enterprise infrastructure and network operations, including Meraki networking, firewalls, wireless networks, connectivity, VPN technologies, DNS, certificates, and related services

- Provide operational leadership for Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments in partnership with internal administrators and external technical resources

- Monitor infrastructure health, availability, capacity, and performance; identify recurring issues and drive corrective actions that improve reliability and reduce support demand

- Serve as the senior operational escalation point for complex, infrastructure, network, cloud, endpoint, and theater technology issues

- Lead major incidents and service disruptions, coordinating internal staff and external vendors through restoration, root-cause review, follow-up actions, and communication to leadership

- Manage backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity processes for assigned infrastructure and systems; periodically validate documentation and recovery readiness

- Plan and coordinate infrastructure upgrades, technology refreshes, deployments, migrations, and other IT projects while balancing operational priorities and business impact

- Develop and maintain technology standards, operating procedures, support processes, inventories, diagrams, system documentation, and knowledge-transfer materials

- Manage assigned technology vendors and service providers, including performance, escalations, project delivery, contract obligations, service levels, and technical accountability

- Serve as ITs primary technical relationship owner for The Tuna Group and other digital-platform vendors supporting the Santikos website, mobile application, kiosks, and related guest-facing technologies

- Coordinate website, mobile application, and kiosk technical health, deployments, integrations, releases, DNS/SSL requirements, credentials, outages, and vendor escalations while partnering with Marketing on guest-facing content and priorities

- Partner closely with the Cloud/POS team on Vista/POS, Azure, Microsoft 365, and related operational dependencies while maintaining clear ownership and escalation paths

- Partner with the Cybersecurity Analyst and CIO to implement security improvements, remediate vulnerabilities, support incident response, maintain appropriate access controls, and ensure operational practices align with security and compliance requirements

- Support PCI and other technology compliance activities by ensuring infrastructure changes, evidence, documentation, and remediation actions are completed within assigned areas

- Identify opportunities to simplify operations, automate repetitive work, reduce technical debt, improve service levels, and optimize technology spending

- Evaluate emerging technologies and make practical recommendations that improve reliability, scalability, supportability, and business value

- Communicate technical risks, outages, project status, vendor issues, and recommended actions clearly to the CIO and other business leaders

- Build operational depth within the team through cross-training, documentation, delegation, and deliberate development of future technical and leadership capability

- Perform other technology leadership and operational duties as assigned

Qualifications

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

- Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Management Information Systems, or a related field preferred; equivalent combination of relevant education, technical training, certifications, and experience will be considered

- Minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in information technology, including infrastructure, systems, network, cloud, or IT operations responsibilities

- Minimum of 2 years of direct people-management or technical team leadership experience, including responsibility for performance management, workload prioritization, employee development, and accountability

- Relevant certifications, such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Cisco, Meraki, ITIL, CompTIA, or project management certifications preferred

- Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments, including identity, compute, storage, networking, monitoring, and administrative concepts

- Demonstrated experience supporting multi-site or distributed technology environments; retail, hospitality, entertainment, or location-based operations experience preferred

- Strong experience with enterprise networking concepts including routing, switching, firewalls, wireless, VPNs, DNS, DHCP, internet connectivity, and network troubleshooting

- Experience managing third-party technology vendors, MSPs, software providers, or other outsourced technical partners

- Experience leading infrastructure projects, technology deployments, upgrades, migrations, or operational improvement initiatives

- Experience with IT service management, incident management, change management, disaster recovery, and business continuity practices

- Working knowledge of cybersecurity fundamentals, vulnerability, remediation, identity and access management, logging/monitoring, and technology compliance requirements

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & ABILITIES:

- Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure, cloud, networking, endpoint, identity, and support operations

- Working proficiency with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Windows Server, and related Microsoft enterprise technologies

- Strong networking knowledge, including firewalls, routing, switching, wireless, VPNs, DNS, DHCP, WAN/ISP connectivity, and network troubleshooting

- Experience with monitoring, alerting, backup, recovery, patching, configuration management, and infrastructure documentation tools

- Ability to troubleshoot complex issues across multiple technology layers and coordinate specialists or vendors when escalation is required

- Understanding of web and mobile technology operations, including DNS, SSL/TLS certificates, application releases, integrations, APIs, credentials, and vendor-hosted platforms

- Familiarity with scripting, automation, and modern infrastructure-management practices is preferred

- Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, develop, and hold technical employees accountable while creating a collaborative and service-oriented team environment

- Strong judgment and composure during outages, escalations, security events, and other high-pressure operational situations

- Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to move between hands-on technical detail and broader business priorities

- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical issues, risks, and recommendations to non-technical stakeholders and executive leadership

- Strong project-management and organizational skills with the ability to prioritize competing operational, project, and support demands

- Ability to build productive relationships across departments, including Marketing, Operations, Finance, and other business functions

- Strong vendor-management and negotiation skills with a focus on accountability, measurable outcomes, and value

- Proactive mindset with a focus on ownership, continuous improvement, documentation, and eliminating recurring problems

- Ability and willingness to develop broader enterprise IT leadership capability over time