IT Operations Manager

SALARY RANGE: $136,594.32-$170,745.45

At Noble, we believe the health of soil, plants, animals, and humans is one and indivisible. We believe in rebuilding healthy soils and helping producers maintain a strong bottom line. Through these two actions, we can transform degraded grazing lands across the United States, benefiting the environment and society as a whole.

Our focus is to help farmers and ranchers apply regenerative ranching principles to the nation's 654 million acres of grazing lands. This monumental undertaking requires thousands of producers across the U.S. to overcome significant barriers and change their current practices to work with nature, not against it.

Our Information Technology team supports the organization's mission through service, infrastructure, and technologies providing scalability and integration that seamlessly deliver Noble's educational products to facilitate the regeneration of grazing lands. This work is crucial for us to deliver information necessary for farmers and ranchers to triumph over the barriers and ultimately benefit all of society through their efforts. We live to find new ways to generate usable information so farmers and ranchers can leave their land better at sunset than at sunrise.

So, do you want to join us? We are looking for a IT Operations Manager

As IT Operations Manager, you will be responsible for leading the strategy, governance, and lifecycle management of Noble's cloud and on-premises infrastructure platforms. Serving as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert, providing leadership in infrastructure strategy, guiding technology decisions and continuous improvement initiatives. Overseeing IT governance, risk management, and operational support, in collaboration with IT management, to align technology with organizational goals.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Bachelor's degree in IT, MIS, computer science, or related field (or equivalent experience - see education and experience requirements)
• In-depth experience with hybrid infrastructure architecture
• Experience with virtualization, backup, and disaster recovery across cloud and on-premises platforms
• Ability to guide and mentor technical teams and provide architectural direction
• Excellent communication and planning skills

You will be responsible for:

• Leading teams

• Translating departmental priorities into actionable team goals, establishing clear expectations, performance measures, and accountability for results. Managing assigned resources, budgets, staffing needs, risks, and competing priorities to ensure effective execution of operational and strategic objectives.

• Making timely and informed decisions within delegated authority, taking ownership of outcomes and ensuring consistent accountability for organizational, operational, and team results.

• Leading, coaching, and developing employees by providing ongoing guidance, performance feedback, and growth opportunities that support individual and team success.

• Building collaborative partnerships across departments, proactively engaging stakeholders, communicating effectively, and leading change initiatives to drive successful outcomes.

• Overseeing infrastructure, architecture and strategy

• Providing leadership and oversight for infrastructure-related projects, ensuring initiatives are appropriately planned, resourced, executed, and aligned with organizational priorities.

• Defining and maintaining hybrid infrastructure architecture, including integration between cloud platforms and on-premises systems, ensuring scalability, availability, and resilience aligned with business needs.

• Establishing standards, reference architectures, and best practices while evaluating and selecting infrastructure technologies that align with organizational strategy and long-term goals.

• Working with leadership and stakeholders to align infrastructure capabilities with business objectives, identifying opportunities for innovation, process improvement, and effective technology adoption.

• Planning and lifecycle management

• Managing the lifecycle of infrastructure platforms, including selection, implementation, optimization, upgrades, and retirement.

• Maintaining inventory of hardware and cloud assets. Providing oversight for hardware donation and disposition programs.

• Assisting IT Director with planning and budgeting for infrastructure-related investments.

• Identifying opportunities for modernization, cost optimization, and operational improvement.

• Assisting with IT governance

• Assisting the IT Director in establishing and maintaining effective IT governance frameworks and overseeing processes, procedures, and policies related to technology use within the organization.

• Monitoring and managing risks, compliance activities, and internal controls associated with infrastructure, information technology, and cybersecurity.

• Ensuring infrastructure solutions comply with organizational policies, security standards, industry best practices, and regulatory requirements.

• Assisting with security reviews, risk assessments, and the development of mitigation strategies to protect organizational data, systems, and networks.

• Managing vendor relationships

• Providing vendor management through the evaluation and selection of appropriate vendors.

• Negotiating contracts, managing vendor relationships and ensuring vendor compliance with Noble IT practices and vendor governance.

• Preparing and managing IT budgets related to technology initiatives and maintenance.

• Ensuring system and data security

• Working with Institute leaders to ensure protection, confidentiality, privacy, integrity and availability of data and systems.

• Aligning and building business-driven processes and policies that best position Noble's data and security.

• Complying, as an IT employee who has access to Confidential data, with the Data and Systems Security Policy.

We will:

• Teach you. We will support you with professional development opportunities that will hone your skills and grow you professionally.
• Support you. We're committed to building solutions for each other in addition to our stakeholders. Our team members make time to help, provide solutions, and remove roadblocks with regular collaboration across groups, regardless of where our office is. We are empowered and equipped with the tools that allow us to connect, to be intentional and to grow together.
• Include you. We come from different parts of the globe and from different walks of life, but we share the vision of our founder, Lloyd Noble, to improve the land for the benefit of all society. Our culture is inclusive, supportive, and diverse. We want to be a part of your story and you to help write part of ours. Your perspective and experience is invaluable. Come grow with us!
• Provide you. We offer competitive salary and benefits, including multiple options for health and retirement plans, employee wellness program, employee recognition program, and onsite wellness center. In addition, we have a collaborative work environment and organizational support for community involvement and volunteering.