Manager, I.T. Production Systems

Are you Smart, Fast, Competitive? At Hanley Wood these traits are the foundation of who we are. We believe in the power of collaboration, insight infused by imagination, and the ability of creative ideas to transform business.

Hanley Wood is the leading business-to-business media company serving the housing and construction industry, and one of the top 10 B2B media companies in the country.

We are over 500 employees strong with offices nation-wide. Over 150 imaginative, creative and driven people from our Corporate and Business Media divisions are based in our downtown Washington, D.C. headquarters. We enjoy a corporate culture that simultaneously encourages high levels of creativity and productivity. Those who thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and are motivated by personal and team success will find a challenging and rewarding career here at Hanley Wood.

We currently have an opportunity for an experienced Manager, I.T. Production Systems to work closely with our Corporate Technology Group.

The Manager, I.T. Production Systems position is responsible for supporting the business by providing unsurpassed hands on technical and supervisory leadership for the day-to-day operation of the Systems Operations team and excellent service to our internal/external users. This includes managing and coordinating activities of employees engaged in supporting the organization’s 24×7 production websites, applications, databases, websites and HP/Windows 2003/8 development environments.

Specific Job Duties and Responsibilities Include:
•Provide input to the strategic direction of IT, directly influencing the business direction in new and existing systems as well as upcoming integration efforts with new acquisitions
•Coordinate and drive the business relationship with key internal partners and significant external partners
•Develop infrastructure and budget plans that support both the long-term and the short-term objectives of the company
•Manages a team of system engineers and systems administrators who troubleshoot application and database related issues
•Implements service level agreements, policies and procedures regarding how problems are identified, received, documented, distributed, and corrected
•Evaluates new information systems products or services and suggests changes to existing products or services to better assist the end user
•Has responsibility for infrastructure staff and activities associated with the identification, prioritization, and resolution of reported problems
•Ensures that all phases of upgrades, patches and support are coordinated, monitored, logged, tracked, and resolved appropriately
•Maintain responsibility for development, maintenance, and integrity of monitoring software
•Manage software and hardware vendor support agreements, including server licensing compliance
•Responsible for all aspects of operational database
•Accountable for the administration of all databases at Hanley Wood including: analysis, testing, maintenance, data loads and moves, replication, data recovery, security, documentation and development of operational guidelines.
•Oversight of offshore admins; working with management team to ensure their compliance with set procedures and workflows
•Effectively plan staff schedules and on-call rotation schedules
•Develop and manage budgets and actuals, including variance and performance analysis
•Prepare proposals and solicit sale of services from outside firms Operating Skills

Qualified candidates should possess the following skills, experience and education:
•Bachelors degree in computer science, management information systems, related field or equivalent experience
•At least 8 years of experience in the networks and infrastructure environment, with minimum of 3 years in a management or supervisory role.
•Recent technical certifications highly desirable
•Building production operations environments that work
oCreating run-books that detail how to build and recreate the production operations environment
oSoftware architecture: Presentation components, Business logic components, Persistent storage, Reference software platforms
oRelease rollout/rollback and cutover: Product releases, Hardware upgrades/additions, Maintenance
•Technology protection
oMonitoring and alerting: Availability, Performance, Capacity, SLA
oAvailability: Hardware/Software maintenance agreements, Backup/restore, Disaster recovery testing
oSecurity: Physical, Network, Operating system, Software, Application, Disaster recovery, Security policies and procedures, Security audits
•Running production operations environments
oCreating standard operating procedures (SOPs) that detail how to run the production environment
oAutomating SOPs where feasible
oCross training staff on SOPs
oPartner integration management: Integration with external data sources – i.e. newsfeeds, Integration with syndication partners, Web services, Troubleshooting partner integration interface glitches, Sandbox maintenance
oReporting services: Scheduled reports, Batch jobs
oExceptions management: Identification, Response, Notification, Troubleshooting, Tracking
oManage on-call rotation
•Provide transparency into production operations
oCommunicate effectively with non-technical team members
oContact with vendors, partners and clients
oRelease notes
oRegular status
oPre-notification of changes – maintain a production operations calendar
•Patch management
•Task based project management within the team being managed and outside of that team
•Background knowledge of multiple database technologies
oComfortable configuring and troubleshooting commercial database servers
oWork with DBAs to create a predictable and reliable database tier
•Application platforms
oJava-based platforms such as Servlet/JSP, lightweight Java, J2EE
•Expertise with a variety of network and hosting management concepts, practices, and procedures
•Experience in developing and managing solid service level agreements
•Extensive knowledge in Windows Server 2003/8 environment and troubleshooting
•Extensive knowledge with data communication devices such as routers, switches, firewalls and intrusion detection devices
•Ability to determine appropriate use of technology
•Print media experience – support, upgrading of related systems (financial, ad management, crm, order entry, etc)
•XML
•Knowledge of SCOM or similar monitoring systems
•Microsoft .NET application stack expert
oWindows 2003/8, IIS, ASP/VB/C#, SQL 2000/2005
•Content management and content delivery experience
•Candidate should also be capable of working independently and in a team environment; excel at meeting deadlines
•Should have superior organizational and problem solving skills
•Be pre-emptive and ambitious in problem solving
•Work in a controlled, structured manner
•Seek to share knowledge and ideas with others
•Be able to quickly take ownership of existing processes and procedures, understand it, and improve upon it
•Relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals
•Leads and directs the work of others
•A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected
•Ability to work in a demanding environment and deal with hard and strict deadlines
•Excellent people skills, excellent horizontal and vertical communication skills

You owe it to yourself to work for a dynamic company. Employee satisfaction is important to us, so we provide competitive compensation and benefits within a dynamic workplace setting.

If you meet the required skills and qualifications, apply on line at www.hanleywood.com/careers for immediate consideration.

Hanley Wood is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. m/f/d/v