IT Operations Manager
IT operations managers keep an organisation's systems, networks and support teams running, so the technology staff and customers depend on stays available and secure.
- Median salary*
- $127,400
4.1%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 1,700
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +11%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours*
- 42/wk
+2h vs all jobs
- Shortage status*
- In shortage
national
The work sits inside the technology function of a bank, hospital group, government agency or IT services firm, where the operations manager is accountable for servers, networks, cloud services and the service desk that supports them. They spend as much time on people and money as on technology, rostering on-call staff, negotiating vendor contracts and reporting on reliability and cost to senior management. The role is often confused with IT project management: an operations manager owns what is already running, while a project manager delivers something new.
How much do it operations managers earn?
The median full-time salary for an it operations manager is $127,400 per annum, before tax, up $26,700 since 2018.
Pay rises with the size of the environment and the team you run, and with the sector, since banks, insurers and government departments tend to sit above smaller employers. On-call allowances, after-hours loadings and enterprise agreements can add a noticeable amount on top of base salary, so it is worth asking how on-call is compensated before accepting an offer. Certifications in cloud platforms or security are also a familiar point in salary negotiations.
What does an it operations manager do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Managing servers, networks, cloud services and the monitoring that watches them
- Leading operations engineers and service desk staff, including the on-call roster
- Running incident response when a system goes down, and the review that follows
- Planning maintenance windows, upgrades and change control
- Negotiating vendor contracts and licensing, and managing the annual IT budget
What skills do it operations managers need?
Employers look for operations management, risk and internal controls, process improvement, backed by ServiceNow fluency and strong people leadership.
Specialist skills
- Operations management
- Risk and internal controls
- Process improvement
- Cloud infrastructure
- Cyber security
Software and tools
- ServiceNow
- Jira Service Management
- Splunk
- Microsoft Intune
- AWS Management Console
General skills
- People leadership
- Problem solving
- Stakeholder management
Is the job growing?
About 1,700 people work as it operations managers in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 11% over the decade to 2035. That's healthy, above-average growth, and the role should stay in solid demand.
How do you become an it operations manager?
Here's the path most it operations managers take, step by step.
- 1Build a technical foundation
A bachelor degree in information technology or computer science is the standard entry qualification, and about 38% of people working in the role hold a Bachelor degree. Diplomas and vendor certifications also lead here, with networks, operating systems, cloud platforms and service management the study areas that matter most.
- 2Start in a hands-on technical role
Most operations managers spend years in IT support, systems administration or network engineering first, learning how infrastructure behaves when something goes wrong. Those roles are paid, and the incident experience they give you is what later management work is built on.
- 3Move into leading a team
Team leader or service desk manager roles are the usual step across, taking on rosters, escalations and coaching rather than only fixing things yourself. Employers are looking for evidence you can run a service, not just a system.
- 4Add the service and management credentials
ITIL certification is widely expected at this level, and a graduate certificate or MBA helps in larger organisations. Vendor and budget management are usually learned on the job, because few technical roles teach them.
- 5Keep pace with cloud and security
Certifications in AWS, Azure or security fundamentals keep your technical judgement current, which matters when you are approving change or deciding what is safe to automate.
Ready to apply as an it operations manager?
Whether you're working toward becoming an it operations manager or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can an it operations manager move to?
Moving into Chief Technology Officer typically comes with the biggest pay rise, worth $72,800 a year more on average.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Technology Officer IT operations managers bring infrastructure leadership and vendor management, stepping up to technology strategy with further executive study. | +$72,800 | 38% | requalify |
| Solutions Architect IT operations managers bring operational infrastructure knowledge and stakeholder skills, moving into solution design with further study. | +$10,400 | 29% | reskill |
| Cyber Security Architect IT operations managers bring system availability and infrastructure knowledge, specialising in security architecture with further study. | +$7,800 | 41% | reskill |
| IT Service Delivery Manager IT operations managers bring infrastructure oversight and service management experience to delivery leadership, adding further study in service frameworks. | +$2,600 | 40% | reskill |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as an it operations manager?
The typical it operations manager is 44 years old; 79% are men, 95% work full-time, and full-timers average 42 hours a week.
- 44
- Median age
- 21%
- Female share
- 95%
- Full-time
- +2h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being an it operations manager?
The week has a steady rhythm of meetings, reviews and planned change, broken by the occasional outage that resets the day's priorities. Operations managers spend more of their time coordinating than working hands-on, which suits people who like solving problems through a team and keeping many moving parts in order. Full-time hours average 42 a week, and out-of-hours contact is part of the arrangement rather than a rare exception.
What people like
- You see how everything connects. The role sits across servers, networks, cloud and the service desk, so you usually end up understanding more of the technology estate than any single specialist.
- Problems get fixed at the source. When something keeps failing, an operations manager can change the process, the tooling or the team's approach instead of patching the symptom again next month.
- A team that holds up under pressure. Fair on-call rotations, runbooks people actually use and colleagues who back each other up are the visible results of the work.
- Clear feedback on whether it is working. Availability figures, response times and support queues tell you fairly quickly whether last quarter's changes helped or made things worse.
What people find hard
- On-call follows you home. Outages do not wait for business hours, and a manager near the top of the escalation path can be called at night or on a weekend.
- Accountable for things you do not fully control. Cloud providers, software vendors and other teams' changes all affect availability, but the operations manager answers for the result.
- Budget pressure that never quite lets up. Licence renewals, cloud consumption and hardware replacement all compete for the same money, and the push to reduce cost is constant.
- Maintenance windows eat weekends. Upgrades and patching that need systems offline are usually scheduled outside business hours, and someone senior has to be present.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ it operations managers?
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employs the largest share of it operations managers, followed by Information Media and Telecommunications.
Top employing industries
- 1Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- 2Information Media and Telecommunications
- 3Financial and Insurance Services
- 4Public Administration and Safety
- 5Health Care and Social Assistance
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 38% | |
|---|---|---|
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 24% | |
| Certificate III/IV | 20% | |
| Postgraduate | 10% | |
| Other | 8% |
Will AI replace it operations managers?
AI and automation reach a moderate way into this job. Monitoring and observability tools increasingly spot anomalies on their own and trigger routine fixes, and cloud platforms handle scaling and patching that once took scheduled engineer time. What stays with the manager is deciding what is safe to automate, the call on how to respond when something serious breaks, and the running of the team that handles the rest.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Incident response and service monitoringPlatforms such as Splunk and AIOps tooling group alerts and suggest likely causes, but the manager still decides whether to fail over, escalate or accept degraded service.30%moderate
- Leading the operations team and the on-call rosterRostering, coaching and performance conversations stay with a person, including the judgement about who is ready to take an on-call shift alone.25%low
- Vendor contracts, licensing and IT budgetsSpend dashboards and cloud cost tools forecast consumption, but negotiating a contract and defending the budget still depend on knowing the estate and the business.25%moderate
- Patching, upgrades and capacity planningIntune and cloud tooling now push patches and resize environments automatically, so the manager sets the policy and reviews exceptions rather than running the work.20%high
Moves least exposed to AI
These career moves from it operations manager work are rated low for AI exposure:
- Cyber Security Architect
Solid skill overlap (41%), reskill to get there, and a low automation-risk profile.
Common questions about becoming an it operations manager
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much does an IT operations manager earn?
$127,400 per year before tax for full-time workers, as a guide. Pay depends heavily on the size of the environment, the sector, and whether on-call or after-hours work is part of the package.
How do you become an IT operations manager?
Most people get there after several years in hands-on roles such as IT support, systems administration or network engineering. A degree or diploma in information technology is the usual starting point, then team leadership and service management experience before you take on the manager title.
Are IT operations managers in demand?
IT operations managers are currently in shortage nationally, and employment is projected to grow 11% over the decade to 2035. It is a small occupation, with about 1,700 people working in it, so openings tend to appear in larger organisations that run their own infrastructure and support teams.
Will AI replace IT operations managers?
It is changing parts of the job rather than removing it. Monitoring tools increasingly detect anomalies and trigger routine fixes before an engineer looks at the alert, which shifts the day-to-day work towards oversight, while responsibility for outages, budgets and how the team is run stays with the manager.
What can an IT operations manager move into?
Moving to IT service delivery manager uses the same service management frameworks, and the pay difference is $2,600 more. Further specialisation in security or solution design leads to cyber security architect or solutions architect roles, and stepping up to chief technology officer is a longer-term path into technology strategy.
What hours do IT operations managers work?
Full-time hours average 42 a week, though the on-call rotation means some weeks run longer. Outages and maintenance windows can fall at night or on weekends, so managers usually agree an escalation roster with their team rather than covering everything themselves.
Related roles
- IT Service Delivery Manager
- Cyber Security Architect
- Solutions Architect
- Chief Technology Officer
- Systems Administrator
- Network Engineer
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