Operational Infrastructure Manager

You will lead the day-to-day running of our entire infrastructure estate including cloud, on-prem, network, identity, backup, DR, and security platforms. Your job is to keep everything stable, secure, resilient, cost-efficient, and continually improving.

This is a hands-on operations leadership role with real ownership: you'll run the operational infrastructure function like a managed service provider, drive down risk and technical debt, resolve escalations, and ensure the estate is always moving forward.

Reporting to the IT Director with a dotted line to the Head of IT Infrastructure who will have overall responsibility for infrastructure strategy., Infrastructure Operations

• Own the daily performance, stability, and reliability of all infrastructure services (Azure, on-prem, networks, identity, backup, DR, security).
• Ensure platforms are monitored, patched, supported, and healthy.
• Maintain an accurate CMDB and ensure operational processes and documentation are kept up to date.
• Participate in out-of-hours work when required to minimise business disruption.

Resilience, Risk & Technical Debt

• Own and maintain infrastructure-related risk items, driving remediation to completion.
• Reduce vulnerabilities, end-of-life systems, legacy dependencies, and unmonitored assets.
• Lead disaster recovery readiness, including runbooks, testing, failover/failback, and alignment with business continuity requirements.

Incident, Escalation & Problem Management

• Act as the senior escalation point for infrastructure-related issues.
• Identify true root cause and implement robust, repeatable fixes.
• Produce or update KB articles and ensure teams are trained on new processes.
• Improve service flows and prevent repeat issues.

Supplier & Partner Leadership

• Work closely with an outsourced support team and external vendors.
• Run operational service reviews, track performance, and hold partners to account on SLAs.
• Ensure consistent delivery standards and aligned ways of working across internal and external teams.

Projects & Continuous Improvement

• Plan and deliver infrastructure changes and operational improvement projects (migrations, upgrades, tooling rollout, hardware refresh, etc.).
• Manage resource planning across BAU and project workloads.
• Look for ways to automate, simplify, and improve operational processes.

Standards, Governance & Collaboration

• Enforce strong engineering and operational standards across infrastructure.
• Ensure compliance with security, governance, and regulatory expectations.
• Work closely with Infrastructure, Cyber, Applications, and Architecture teams to align operations with overall IT strategy.
• Represent infrastructure within technical forums and change governance processes.

People Leadership

• Directly manage a small team of infrastructure engineers (Portugal-based), developing capability through coaching, mentoring, and cross-training.
• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and proactive engineering., At Ardonagh Specialty, we have a straightforward interview process to ensure the best fit for both you and the company:
• Submit your application with your CV, emphasising your skills and experience related to the job.
• Our Talent Acquisition team will then arrange a call where they can tell you more about the role and the team. We want to learn about your motivation and goals, what you can bring to Ardonagh Specialty, and answer any immediate questions.
• If successful, you will generally be invited to engage in a 1-hour interview with the Hiring Manager and selected team members, via teams or in person. We will discuss our technologies, key skills, and team dynamics and provide further opportunity to ask any questions. This is your chance to voice your thoughts on the role and we will outline our expectations and ensure this role aligns with your ambitions for the future.
• Depending on the role, you may be invited to attend a second stage interview with further members of the team.

If successful or unsuccessful, we always try and move quickly in presenting an offer or providing feedback.

• 5+ years leading IT infrastructure operations in a hybrid-cloud environment.
• Experience managing operational teams (internal, offshore, or outsourced).
• Strong understanding of cloud, on-prem, and network technologies.
• Proven track record reducing risk, improving stability, and eliminating technical debt.
• Experience in DR planning and resilience engineering.
• Able to translate complex technical detail into clear, business-friendly communication.
• Confident stakeholder manager; able to influence at all levels.
• Solid planning and delivery skills across both BAU and project work.
• Familiarity with ITIL processes (Incident, Problem, Change).

Technical Strengths (desired)

Azure IaaS/PaaS, AVD, SQL, Storage, Backup, Active Directory/Entra ID, Conditional Access, RBAC, firewalls (Fortinet), networking (Meraki/Cisco), VPN, Office 365, Mimecast, Rubrik/Acronis, monitoring platforms, automation, network segmentation, and ITOM/CMDB tooling.

• Employer pension contribution of 10% (providing you, the Employee provides 5%).
• Good work life balance - flexibility to suit you.
• Competitive salary.
• Life Assurance at X4 of your base salary.
• Group Income Protection.
• Generous Annual Leave entitlement.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Group annual bonus scheme.

At Ardonagh Specialty, we provide much more than just a workplace. We are dedicated to fostering skill development and knowledge within a team that is passionate about their work, values their Employees, and truly celebrates diversity. Working at Ardonagh Specialty means you'll be part of The Ardonagh Group. We are proud of our innovative environment offering many opportunities for growth across the wider group. Employees regularly move between our united teams, and we encourage you to make your role your own. Our offices are lively and exciting places to be, but we understand that life needs flexibility, and offer a genuinely flexible approach to working. If you are looking to join a thriving, energetic business with exciting plans, this role could be an ideal fit for you. What we can offer: We offer much more than just an inclusive culture with apprenticeships, study support, participation in our annual Spotlight Awards, Community Trust, Sports Teams, office socials, events and so much more. All of this with a supportive management team as well as working alongside some of the industry's top talent. You'll have access to wellbeing programs, fantastic discounts across many big-name businesses including supermarkets, gym memberships, restaurants, and healthcare cash plans etc.