IT Operations Service Manager

$90,000 - $330,000/Yr

Johns Hopkins - Laurel, MD

Full-time - Mid Level

Laurel, MD

Educational Services

About the position

The Classified IT Service Manager at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is responsible for leading the delivery of critical operational services in classified areas, ensuring operational reliability across multiple classified networks. This role involves managing service delivery, establishing Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) while collaborating with customers and internal teams to enhance service capabilities and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

• Manage service delivery to ensure availability, performance, and responsiveness to customer needs across multiple classified networks.
• Coordinate with technology leads to maintain service reliability and support seamless operations of classified environments across the entire service architecture.
• Work with the service owner and key stakeholders to develop and implement a road map for the service, based on changing business needs and leveraging the latest technology developments.
• Collaborate with customers to gather feedback, understand short- and long-term needs, and implement projects that enhance service capabilities to meet customer requirements.
• Act as the primary advocate for customer-centric projects, ensuring they align with government compliance standards as well as the overall service roadmap.
• Partner with internal teams to identify, scope, and execute improvement initiatives focused on optimizing service delivery and enhancing the operational efficiency of the networks.
• Create and maintain detailed SOPs to support efficient service delivery and operations, ensuring best practices and consistency.
• Establish and track SLAs, ensuring adherence to defined standards, and manage expectations across service delivery teams.
• Engage with key stakeholders to build and maintain a multi-year service roadmap aligned with business needs and emerging technologies.
• Lead governance/advisory groups to prioritize projects and service enhancements.
• Oversee service disruptions and outages, coordinating with CNOC and other support staff to ensure continued communication as well as timely and effective resolutions.
• Lead root cause analysis and develop strategies for continuous service improvement.
• Manage major service changes, ensuring proper communication with user communities regarding outages, disruptions, and overall status.
• Lead and mentor resources to manage incidents and ensuring high levels of performance and accountability.
• Prepare and deliver service briefings and presentations, including key performance metrics, cost analysis, and variance reports for both internal teams and external customers.
• Maintain comprehensive service documentation, ensuring the service definition and related materials are up to date and easily accessible.

Requirements

• A Bachelor's degree in IT, communications, business administration, operations, public relations, or a related field.
• 5+ years proven experience managing complex projects that include customer communications with tight deadlines within government regulations.
• Strong customer service focus with the ability to build strong relationships while balancing customer needs between quality service delivery and resource management.
• Experience in matrix-management and dotted-line team leadership.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, with the ability to influence decisions and build relationships.
• Proven ability to manage multiple high-priority projects, meeting tight deadlines while driving innovation and process improvements.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with experience in root cause analysis and service recovery.
• Results-driven leader with a focus on operational excellence and customer service.
• Experience using IT project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Microsoft Project).
• Able to obtain Top Secret level security clearance.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with business applications development and deployment
• Change management experience and user adoption
• Experience creating and giving presentations to executive-level stakeholders to gaining consensus and buy-in.
• PMP Certification
• Experience working APL IT technical sector leaders
• Experience working with the government or DoD
• A Master's degree in IT, communications, business administration, operations, public relations, or a related field.
• Top Secret-level (or higher) security clearance.

Benefits

• Robust education assistance program
• Unparalleled retirement contributions
• Healthy work/life balance
• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, flexible spending accounts, education assistance, and training and development.