Manager, IT Operations

Job DetailsJob Location: Remote - Corp - Tustin, CA 92782Position Type: Full TimeJob Shift: DayJob Category: Information TechnologyOwn Stability. Lead Operations. Protect Performance.

LIBERTY Dental Plan is seeking a Manager, IT Operations to oversee the stability, security, and reliability of our production IT environment. This role is responsible for end‑to‑end production operations and plays a key leadership role in ensuring systems are resilient, supportable, and compliant within a regulated healthcare environment.

The Manager, IT Operations partners closely with application delivery, infrastructure, and security teams to lead incident response, manage operational risk, and ensure operational readiness across all production deployments. This position requires a hands‑on leader who can balance strategic oversight with execution, communicate effectively during high‑impact situations, and drive continuous improvement across IT operations.

What You’ll Do

Operational Ownership & Production Management

Own end‑to‑end production operations, including application workloads, batch jobs, integrations, infrastructure, and cloud environments across multiple U.S. time zones.
Maintain ownership of production job schedules and inter‑system dependencies, ensuring reliable execution of batch, ETL, claims, and downstream processes.
Establish and manage alerts and monitoring for job overruns, execution failures, performance degradation, and systemic slowness; ensure proactive remediation.
Plan, approve, and communicate all planned production downtimes, coordinating with business stakeholders to minimize operational and member impact.
Oversee production maintenance activities, including data purges, archiving, and system housekeeping aligned with retention and compliance policies.

Incident, Triage & Root Cause Management

Lead production incident response and operational triage calls, ensuring timely resolution, clear communication, and stakeholder alignment.
Own Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for significant incidents, driving corrective and preventive actions across teams.
Track incident trends and systemic risks, escalating recurring issues and recommending long‑term remediation.

Release, Change & Access Governance

Own production release timelines, coordinating with application, infrastructure, and vendor teams to ensure controlled, predictable deployments.
Provide oversight of business and IT change management, identifying cross‑system, downstream, and regulatory impacts prior to approval.
Approve and control all production administrative access, ensuring access is locked down, auditable, least‑privileged, and compliant with security policies before any changes are made.

Operational Readiness & Project Engagement

Partner with project and delivery teams from Architecture Review Board (ARB) onward to ensure operational considerations are embedded early.
Assess and approve operational readiness (monitoring, runbooks, support models, SLAs, access, rollback plans) before any production deployment.
Act as the final operational gate for production go‑lives, ensuring systems are supportable, resilient, and compliant.

Compliance, Audit & Resilience

Support and participate in audits, security scans, and regulatory assessments, including HIPAA and healthcare compliance requirements.
Lead or support Disaster Recovery (DR) exercises, failover testing, and resilience planning; ensure lessons learned are implemented.
Ensure operational processes, documentation, and controls meet internal governance and external audit expectations.
Ensure compliance with HIPAA and other regulatory requirements across network and infrastructure operations, maintaining secure system configurations and enforcing access controls in alignment with corporate security policies.

Vendor & Team Leadership

Manage vendor and managed‑service‑provider operational performance, ensuring adherence to SLAs, OLAs, and contractual commitments.
Lead and mentor IT operations staff, setting clear expectations around accountability, escalation, and production ownership.
Drive continuous improvement through automation, standardization, and operational maturity.

Reporting & Metrics

Define and report on operational KPIs, including availability, incident trends, release success rates, batch/job performance, and mean time to resolution (MTTR).
Provide regular operational insights and risk assessments to IT leadership and business stakeholders.

What You Bring

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field
6+ years of experience in IT operations, including at least 2 years in a leadership role
Experience supporting production environments in healthcare, insurance, or other regulated industries
Strong knowledge of application management, infrastructure management, cloud technologies, and ITIL best practices
Experience with monitoring, alerting, and automation tools