a. Management and Operations Oversight * Directs day-to-day operations and issue resolution for operations and personnel within the Platform Engineering team. * Develops strategies for improving the technical, interpersonal and communication skills of the team. Motivates employees and defines goals/objectives for the group. * Ensures that support requests are handled in a timely and appropriate manner. Assist in support request metrics/trending. Ensure proper documentation of support requests. * Looks for ways to streamline and maximize the effectiveness of the group. * Time-tracking and timesheet approval. Handles all hiring, firing, and disciplinary actions. Provides regular feedback and performance evaluations for the group. * Ensures agreed-upon operations (e.g., auditing, documentation) are performed. Ensures procedures are accurate, clear and well-documented. * Ensure appropriate cross-training is provided within the group and with others in OTS. * Performs operational tasks as required. Performs technical work in a lead role as required. * Manage contracts/budget items, submit purchase requests, and perform capacity planning as required, including working with others in EIS to ensure proper budget planning and identifying ways to lower costs. b. Leadership and Guidance for Service Offerings * Ensure proper management of the many service offerings for which the Platform Engineering team is responsible, including reliability, capacity and security. * Work with multiple OTS teams and business/end users to ensure that the service offerings meet the needs of the university in a reliable, user-friendly, and secure manner. * Ensure appropriate, secure, sustainable, audit-ready design of services. * Lead virtual team/product groups as directed, which will include participants across EIS and possibly OTS; these groups will improve the quality of support, the level of understanding, and overall product direction. * Provide technical guidance, assistance and oversight as needed in the design and implementation of services. * Ensure adherence to state, USM and university security guidelines and policies. * Ensure operations/procedures are well-defined and well-documented. * Continue to build knowledge on industry trends and best practices. * Follow architecture best practices whenever implementing and improving service offerings. * Develop capacity planning processes to ensure services are sized accordingly, future growth/needs are understood, and future budgets can properly reflect necessary growth. * Provide suggestions on improvements, ways to reduce risks and costs, and forecasting of needs to the Director of Enterprise and Infrastructure Services. c. Project Management and Coordination * Management or oversight of projects and initiatives as directed, following all OTS project management processes. * Prioritizes tasks according to their relative positive impact and/or risk to the university. * Clearly directs what is expected from the group and holds regular meetings to ensure that the group is meeting its goals. * Participates in project implementation planning within OTS and supports approved projects within our campus community. * Lead research efforts, virtual teams and workgroups as assigned. d. Communications * Meets regularly with the Director of Enterprise and Infrastructure Services to discuss issues, problems, strategies, and solutions. * Works directly with other managers in OTS to assist in planning and to understand and support their needs. * Communicates on a regular basis with peers, vendors and those in similar roles at other universities. * Works with clients/business users as appropriate to identify requirements, to communicate issues and changes, and to resolve issues. * Communicates any service outages immediately using approved methods and procedures. * Bachelor's degree and three years of experience. * Strong demonstrated experience in designing, implementing, supporting and maintaining enterprise-level services. * Demonstrated experience in managing Windows Server environments. * Experience or familiarity in managing Linux server environments. * Experience with complex systems architectures. * Experience with Microsoft infrastructure solutions, including Active Directory. * Experience managing small and mid-sized projects. * Experience or familiarity in building automation to support services and improve efficiency. * Experience with physical server and storage management. * Experience with managing virtualization (such as VMware or Hyper-V). * Experience with large-scale cloud offerings (such as Microsoft Azure). * Demonstrated ability to successfully interact with multiple stakeholders with divergent interests to obtain a set of common goals and objectives. * Demonstrated ability to handle multiple projects and operations to ensure they are delivered on-time, in-budget, in-scope, and meet requirements. * Ability to perform cost-benefit analyses of alternatives and assess risk. Preferred Qualifications: * Demonstrated ability to lead a team of technical staff. * Experience in higher education environments. * Experience with server management and monitoring software (such as SCCM, Ansible, SCOM, Azure Monitor). * Experience with datacenter management. * Experience with backups, immutable backups, and disaster recovery. * Experience with scripting and/or programming/development. * Experience or strong familiarity with information security concepts, security hardening, and security auditing. * Experience with network and voice infrastructure, particularly Cisco solutions. * Experience in technical leadership and/or project management. * Technical certifications in any relevant disciplines.