Operations Manager-Linux

Operations Manager – On-Premise Infrastructure (Linux & Network) Location Brussels-50% onsite Contract 6-12 months contract (potential extensions) On-callYes (24/7 escalation rota)

About the role
We are looking for an Operations Manager to take over leadership of the team that runs our on-premise infrastructure: the Linux server estate, virtualisation, storage and the network elements that underpin mission-critical services. These services run 24/7 and downtime has real operational consequences. The role has two halves. First, own and tighten day-to-day operations: incident, change and configuration control, ITSM discipline in ServiceNow, and a team that knows exactly what is running, where, and why. Second, be the operational anchor for the move of this landscape away from on-premise hosting towards VMware-based cloud platforms (Azure VMware Solution or Amazon Elastic VMware Service). The migration programme is led elsewhere; this role brings the knowledge of the estate into it, sets the conditions under which the target platform is accepted into operations, and then runs it — while keeping the current estate stable throughout. This is a hands-on management role for someone who is meticulous by nature, treats production with respect, and considers "we don't know" an unacceptable answer about a mission-critical system. The environment
- On-premise data-centre infrastructure supporting 24/7 operational services
- Linux server estate (enterprise distributions), VMware-based virtualisation, storage and backup
- Network elements: switching, routing, firewalls, load balancers, DNS/DHCP/NTP, network segmentation
- ITSM on ServiceNow: incident, problem, change, configuration (CMDB), knowledge
- Target state: hybrid, then cloud-hosted VMware (AVS / EVS) with on-premise decommissioning — delivered by a migration programme that this role supports and takes into operations

Key responsibilities
Run the platform
- Own end-to-end availability, performance and security posture of the on-premise Linux and network infrastructure against agreed SLAs/OLAs
- Ensure patching, hardening, backup/restore and disaster-recovery procedures are defined, scheduled, executed and evidenced — not assumed
- Manage infrastructure lifecycle: obsolescence tracking, hardware/software refresh, vendor support contracts and licences Own the process
- Act as process owner for infrastructure Change, Incident, Problem and Configuration Management in ServiceNow; chair or co-chair the Change Advisory Board for infrastructure changes
- Enforce change control: every production change has a risk assessment, test evidence, a rollback plan and an approval trail
- Keep the CMDB accurate and complete for the infrastructure estate and make it the single source of truth
- Own major incident management for infrastructure: incident command, communication, post-incident review, and problem management through to root cause and permanent fix Lead the team
- Lead, prioritise and develop the infrastructure team (Linux and network engineers): workload, on-call rota, skills and performance
- Set clear standards for documentation, runbooks and operational procedures, and make sure they are followed Control and report
- Define and track operational KPIs (availability, incident volume and MTTR, change success rate, patch compliance, backup success, capacity headroom) and report regularly to management
- Maintain the infrastructure risk register and drive mitigations; support security, audit and compliance reviews with evidence Support the transition and take the target state into operations
- Be the source of truth on the current estate for the migration programme: inventory, dependencies, configurations, constraints and operational risks — and make sure migration planning is built on it
- Review migration and target designs from an operations standpoint: supportability, monitoring, backup/DR, access, network and security controls, ITSM and CMDB integration
- Define and enforce operational acceptance criteria for the AVS/EVS landscape: no workload is accepted into operations without runbooks, monitoring, backup, DR evidence, CMDB entries and trained on-call
- Prepare the team and the operating model for the target platform: skills, procedures, on-call, vendor and cloud-provider support paths
- Support cutovers from the operations side, run hyper-care, and execute on-premise decommissioning through formal change control
- Run hybrid operations during the transition without degrading service levels Must-have experience and skills
- 8+ years in infrastructure operations, including 3+ years leading an infrastructure team in a 24/7, mission-critical or regulated environment (e.g. aviation, energy/utilities, telecom, finance, defence, healthcare)
- Strong Linux operations background (RHEL/SUSE or similar): patching, hardening, configuration management, troubleshooting
- Solid networking knowledge: TCP/IP, routing and switching, firewalls, load balancing, D