IT Infrastructure Manager

IT Infrastructure Manager

The IT Infrastructure Manager leads the strategy, reliability, security, and lifecycle management of enterprise infrastructure across Kalmbach Feeds. The role is accountable for on-premises and emerging cloud platforms, networks, servers, storage, telecommunications, databases, backup, recovery, and related services supporting offices, manufacturing plants, and other company locations. The manager leads the infrastructure team and strategic partners, maintains a multi-year roadmap, supports operating and capital budget development, manages spending within approved budgets, and ensures infrastructure remains reliable, resilient, secure, recoverable, and scalable as the business grows.

The Role:

• Lead and develop the infrastructure team; set clear ownership, priorities, performance expectations, and technical standards.
• Build a culture of reliable execution by setting realistic commitments, assigning clear owners and deadlines, tracking progress, addressing barriers early, and holding the team accountable for results. Communicate risks or delays promptly and provide recovery plans.
• Ensure infrastructure is reliable, resilient, secure, and recoverable to support continuous business and production operations.
• Set monitoring, alerting, capacity, and performance standards. Use service trends to identify risk, prevent recurring issues, and meet availability targets.
• Deliver infrastructure for new plants, warehouses, offices, and expansions, aligning design, procurement, installation, testing, and readiness with construction and growth schedules.
• Partner with Service Desk, Business Systems, Analytics, and Cybersecurity leaders to define requirements, resolve cross-functional issues, and ensure reliable business services.
• Evaluate technology trends and recommend improvements aligned with business objectives, operational performance, and risk reduction.
• Maintain multi-year infrastructure roadmaps; lead approved initiatives, manage risks and dependencies, and communicate progress, decisions, costs, and lifecycle needs.
• Support budget development with forecasts, lifecycle plans, estimates, and vendor input. Manage contracts, vendors, and spending within approved budgets; report service, risk, project, vendor, and financial performance.
• Define and execute a scalable hybrid-cloud strategy, including hosting, architecture, security, capacity, cost, and lifecycle standards. Translate business demand and resilience needs into timely infrastructure investments.
• Enforce patching, maintenance, configuration, documentation, and lifecycle standards to keep infrastructure secure, supportable, licensed, and minimally disruptive to operations.
• Own backup, recovery, and disaster-recovery strategies. Define recovery objectives, verify backups, test recovery, remediate gaps, and report readiness and risk.
• Partner with Cybersecurity to implement infrastructure controls, remediate vulnerabilities, and strengthen privileged access, configuration, logging, segmentation, and incident response. Document and communicate risks and exceptions.
• Lead infrastructure escalations, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions. Maintain support documentation and enable the Service Desk to resolve issues at the lowest appropriate level.

Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 10 or more years of progressively responsible infrastructure or IT operations experience, including at least 5 years leading technical teams, enterprise platforms, service providers, or major initiatives in a multi-site environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise networks, compute, virtualization, storage, telecommunications, databases, monitoring, backup, recovery, and related infrastructure services. Experience with VMware, SolarWinds, Microsoft SQL Server, or comparable enterprise platforms is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience designing, governing, and operating hybrid-cloud environments, including cloud and on-premises integration, networking, security, monitoring, cost management, capacity planning, and technology lifecycle management. Microsoft Azure experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting infrastructure in a multi-site manufacturing, distribution, or similarly availability-sensitive environment, including delivery of technology for new plants, warehouses, offices, or major site expansions.
• Demonstrated ability to set direction, establish accountability, coach and develop employees, delegate effectively, manage performance, and build a collaborative, high-performing technical team.
• Experience managing vendors, contracts, licensing, professional services, and managed-service providers, including service reviews, performance escalation, cost control, renewal planning, and operating and capital budget input.
• Demonstrated ability to balance operational support, cybersecurity remediation, lifecycle maintenance, project delivery, construction-driven deadlines, and unplanned incidents while making clear resource and priority decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain portfolio visibility, enforce change discipline, and ensure priority or commitment changes are communicated, aligned, and approved before resources are redirected.
• Working knowledge of infrastructure security practices, including vulnerability remediation, privileged access, secure configuration, logging, network segmentation, patch governance, and incident response.
• Experience establishing and using service and operational measures such as availability, incident trends, capacity, lifecycle compliance, recovery readiness, project delivery, vendor performance, and financial results to drive continual improvement.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical risk, service performance, investment needs, and project status into clear business implications, recommendations, and decision-ready reporting for executives, operational leaders, and technical teams.