WHAT DOES AN SENIOR IT MANAGER DO?

Published: Nov 12, 2025 - The Senior Information Technology (IT) Manager oversees the design and implementation of enterprise infrastructure, including networks, cloud systems, and security frameworks, to ensure reliability and compliance. The role involves leading technical teams, establishing operational standards, and driving strategic system planning to enhance business performance and efficiency. The senior manager also focuses on improving enterprise platforms such as PLM, HPC, O365, and SAP through innovation, best practices, and continuous optimization.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Senior IT Manager

1. Senior IT Manager Duties

  • System Management: Work with the customer and define, develop and deliver key results in Systems, storage and network
  • Process Development: Define processes (SOP) for all the said domains
  • Data Protection: Data protection planning and feasibility
  • Server Optimization: Server optimization strategy planning and design
  • Platform Migration: Platform assessments and migration planning services
  • Service Management: Manage SLA for service requests and incidents
  • Incident Management: Manage and provide support for MIM (Major Incident Management)
  • Performance Reporting: Report and manage KPI
  • Outage Management: Accountable for all critical outages

2. Senior IT Manager Details

  • Outage Resolution: Drive all critical outages to resolution in the quickest time possible
  • Incident Coordination: Monitor Major Incident communication and coordination processes, involving all Third-Party Contractors and the client
  • Priority Management: Resolve disputes regarding incident priority through agreement of the parties
  • Performance Monitoring: Put in a process to monitor overall ticket volumes and performance and audit ticket quality
  • Risk Tracking: Facilitate Risk Tracking, identify and/or track identified risks and present to the customer
  • Process Improvement: Drive improvements, identification and agree with the customer on domain-specific issues for both technical and process
  • Best Practices: Consistently liaise with different towers in business units to share findings, best practices with the intention to improve SM efficiency
  • Team Coaching: Coach and mentor the team for improved effectiveness

3. Senior IT Manager Responsibilities

  • Service Strategy: Develops and executes on ITSM service strategies and plans
  • Operational Management: Directs the operations of the assigned functional area to achieve strategic and operational goals and targeted content quality results
  • Process Leadership: Establishes operational objectives for process managers and/or teams of professionals to achieve the strategic and operational objectives of the group
  • Goal Execution: Responsible for executing on functional and business goals
  • Problem Resolution: Proactively addresses problems across functional areas of IT Service Management
  • Administrative Oversight: Provides day-to-day administrative direction and oversight of key processes and related systems and general administrative activities
  • Vendor Management: Oversees and manages direct resources and vendor resources as well as appropriate SLAs
  • Strategic Planning: Works with key shareholders to formulate a comprehensive plan that is consistent with the overall Technology objectives and budgetary considerations
  • Risk Identification: Applies broad knowledge of process/service capabilities and environment to identify new risk areas, new process updates, reintegration with DEVOPS and CLOUD Infrastructure and service opportunities
  • Technology Research: Conducts technological research by studying organization goals, strategies, practices, and user projects

4. Senior IT Manager Job Summary

  • Process Strategy: Recommends process strategies, policies, and procedures by evaluating organization outcomes, identifying problems, evaluating trends, and anticipating requirements
  • Policy Implementation: Implements policies and defines an approach to strategy achievement for the specified area of responsibility
  • Strategic Analysis: Analyzes long-term impact of new or anticipated strategies and decisions
  • Budget Management: Manages budgets, operational plans, and performance requirements for the specified area of responsibility
  • Goal Achievement: Responsible for meeting budgetary goals and objectives
  • Communication Facilitation: Facilitates communication between staff, management, vendors, and other technology resources within and outside of the organization
  • Information Sharing: Shares highly complex information related to areas of expertise
  • Management Interaction: Interacts with senior management to keep abreast of objectives
  • Cross-Functional Improvement: Interacts with direct reports and peers in management, customers, and vendors to interpret information and improve cross-functional processes and programs
  • Relationship Building: Builds and enhances key internal and external contacts

5. Senior IT Manager Accountabilities

  • M&A Management: Lead and drive work with cross-functional teams to achieve IT M&A deliverables across all phases of the M&A lifecycle including due diligence, pre-close, integration, and post-merger integration handover process
  • Due Diligence: Expect engagement in both due diligence and integration
  • Risk Assessment: As part of the IT due diligence scope, lead and assess the Information Technology related opportunities and risks activities
  • Gap Analysis: Develop an action plan to address gaps
  • Result Communication: Communicate due diligence results in an easy-to-understand format
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Effectively communicate diligence findings to internal stakeholders, BU, and Corporate Development teams
  • Cost Estimation: Provide cost estimations, integration approach, and plans for IT Infrastructure Integrations
  • Risk Management: Work with Cognizant Corporate Development to identify the RAID items (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies) in the M&A IT infrastructure integration
  • Workshop Leadership: Organize, lead, and manage various IT integration workshops for newly acquired companies
  • Integration Strategy: Formulate integration strategies that support deal value drivers
  • Stakeholder Collaboration: Collaborate with multiple technology SME and business stakeholders
  • System Integration: Propose an overall IT infrastructure and systems integration strategy and associated timelines
  • Approval Management: Ensure approval or sign-off from functional stakeholders such as Business, Corporate Development, Corporate Security, and the IT leadership team
  • Process Standardization: Promote standard, repeatable processes that ensure integration project timelines are consistently achieved

6. Senior IT Manager Functions

  • IT Integration: Collaborate with acquired entity IT associates to extend Cognizant IT standards into the acquired footprint
  • Team Advocacy: Act as an advocate between the acquired IT team and the Cognizant extended IT team
  • Process Evangelism: Evangelize Cognizant IT processes, tools, and team structure with the acquired entity teams
  • Status Reporting: Represent Cognizant IT during recurring status calls with Corporate Development and internal leadership
  • Communication Planning: Develop a standard communication plan and associated templates to ensure technical integration activities are easily understood and consumed by the end-user community
  • Contract Analysis: Investigate acquired company vendor contracts
  • Procurement Assessment: Understand the associated procurement needs and risks
  • Synergy Identification: Identify synergy opportunities with respect to contract consolidation
  • Vendor Coordination: Work with Procurement and the Vendor Management Office to achieve contract integration
  • Process Improvement: Drive evergreen process within the acquisitions playbook and associated documentation sets, applying lessons learned and best practices as part of the project retrospective
  • Resource Planning: Assist with resource and capacity planning
  • Team Mentoring: Mentor and guide other IT M&A team members
  • Knowledge Sharing: Proactively share M&A knowledge, experience, and expertise with more junior or inexperienced team members

7. Senior IT Manager Job Description

  • IT Innovation: Creating innovative operations and state-of-the-art IT systems
  • Digital Transformation: Lead the transformation to become a real digital consumer company
  • Team Leadership: Leading the local IT team
  • Staff Development: Guide individual IT members and grow the IT organization
  • Business Partnership: Work as a business partner with client department leaders and users
  • Process Analysis: Analyze business processes and arrive at mutual, cost-effective solutions
  • Project Execution: Lead and execute IT projects with regional and global IT teams, with full commitment to making operations
  • Vendor Management: Manage local IT partners to deliver IT services on schedule, within budget, and in compliance with SLA
  • System Stability: Maintain a stable IT environment for the entire business
  • Budget Control: Monitor and control the IT budget and expenses

8. Senior IT Manager Overview

  • Infrastructure Design: Design and implement enterprise compute platforms, networks, infrastructure security, messaging systems, server virtualization, cloud infrastructures, mobile device communication, high availability and disaster recovery, telephony/VOIP, and software distribution systems
  • Team Leadership: Hire and lead a team of IT specialists, enabling their growth and success within the organization
  • System Planning: Perform enterprise-wide strategic systems planning and analysis
  • Operational Standards: Establish and implement standards for information systems operating procedures
  • Security Assessment: Perform technical security assessments of information systems and computing infrastructures
  • Risk Mitigation: Identify points of vulnerability, non-compliance with established information assurance standards and regulations, and recommend mitigation strategies
  • Security Oversight: Conduct security oversight inspections and assessments, and document and report findings to management
  • System Validation: Validate and verify system security requirements definitions and analysis and establish system security designs
  • Business Solutions: Work within the organization to understand and define system requirements and make recommendations for business solutions
  • Process Optimization: Work with internal stakeholders to reduce process inefficiencies and improve product creation, delivery cycle time, and efficiency
  • Technical Standards: Establish technical standards and guidelines for the effective use and management of the PLM, HPC, O365, and SAP environment
  • System Improvement: Develop improvements to PLM, HPC, O365, and SAP system/tool strategy, deployment, standard work, and best practices

9. Senior IT Manager Details and Accountabilities

  • Team Management: Manage a software development team of 4+ members on rapid development efforts using iterative development methodologies such as Agile
  • Scope Management: Manage scope, assign tasks, track velocity, and report results for each iteration
  • Backlog Management: Manage the team backlog and remove roadblocks
  • Team Communication: Meet regularly with team members
  • Incident Resolution: Manage critical incident resolution and team escalation processes
  • Performance Tracking: Manage team metrics and provide status updates
  • Standards Compliance: Manage standards for the development life cycle and ensure the team follows the standards
  • Process Improvement: Manage processes and define process and performance improvements
  • Application Enhancement: Identify potential application improvements and sponsor technical debt projects
  • Workplace Optimization: Manage workplace environment and recommend improvements

10. Senior IT Manager Tasks

  • Objective Management: Manage individual and team objectives
  • Career Mentoring: Manage employee career paths and mentor individual team members along the path
  • Performance Development: Create individual performance development plans and regularly review with each team member
  • Staff Recruitment: Manage staffing requirements and hire new staff
  • Training Planning: Develop training plans and schedule training for team members
  • Quality Assurance: Ensure that design reviews, code reviews, and peer testing are being conducted
  • Global Communication: Drive effective communication across the global organization
  • Continuous Learning: Participate in company and technical training
  • Business Communication: Expertise in facilitating verbal and written communication between technical and business associates
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