Bachelor's degree in IT, Systems Engineering, or related field or equivalent experience
7+ years experience supporting production systems in an enterprise environment
2+ years of leadership or senior technical experience
Strong background in systems operations, reliability engineering, and incident management
Experience in security- or audit-sensitive environments
Responsibilities
Lead and develop systems engineers for production platforms
Establish engineering standards for system lifecycle and operational readiness
Provide technical leadership during complex incidents and changes
Own day-to-day operational health of enterprise systems
Lead incident response and post-incident root cause analysis
Ensure systems are proactively monitored and champion infrastructure automation
Manage vendors supporting enterprise systems and review service performance
Benefits
Opportunity for professional development and growth
Work in a dynamic, hybrid environment
Collaborative work culture
Participation in disaster recovery planning
Flexible work arrangements
Full Job Description
Description
Position Summary
The Manager of Systems Engineering & Operations is responsible for the reliability, performance, and operational integrity of enterprise systems and platforms. This role leads engineers who operate and harden production environments across on-prem and cloud infrastructure, ensuring systems are observable, secure, resilient, and audit-ready. The manager balances operational excellence ("Run") with continuous engineering improvement, enabling the business to move faster without increasing risk.
Key Responsibilities
Systems Engineering Leadership
Lead and develop systems engineers responsible for production platforms and services
Establish engineering standards for system lifecycle management, operational readiness, and reliability
Provide technical leadership during complex incidents and high-risk changes
Promote ownership culture for production systems from deployment through decommissioning
Operations & Reliability
Own day-to-day operational health of enterprise systems, including compute, storage, identity, and platform services
Ensure systems meet availability, performance, and recoverability objectives
Lead incident response, problem management, and post-incident root cause analysis
Drive reduction of repeat incidents through automation and systemic fixes
Partner with e-Ops during major production events to ensure fast, well-coordinated resolution
Monitoring, Observability & Automation
Ensure systems are proactively monitored using logs, metrics, and alerts
Champion infrastructure automation to reduce manual operations and human error
Improve operational visibility through dashboards and standardized telemetry
Support adoption of modern operational practices, including Infrastructure as Code and automated remediation (where applicable)
Security, Risk & Compliance
Ensure production systems are configured securely and aligned with information security standards
Partner with InfoSec to support detection, response, and containment activities
Ensure systems engineering practices support auditability and compliance requirements
Validate patching, access controls, and change records for regulated systems
Architecture & Continuous Improvement
Contribute to platform and systems architecture decisions with an operational lens
Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity planning and testing
Identify and retire technical debt that increases operational risk or toil
Improve documentation, runbooks, and standard operating procedures
Vendor & Service Management
Manage vendors and managed services supporting enterprise systems
Review service performance, SLAs, and operational risk with providers
Assist with cost optimization, licensing, and capacity planning
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Systems Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
7+ years of experience supporting production systems in an enterprise environment
2+ years of people leadership or senior technical lead experience
Strong experience with systems operations, reliability engineering, and incident management
Experience working in security- or audit-sensitive environments
Familiarity with observability platforms, automation tools, and configuration management
Background in Systems Operations, SRE, or Platform Engineering
Relevant certifications (ITIL, cloud platform certifications, or equivalent)
Key Competencies
Production ownership mindset
Systems thinking and risk awareness
Calm, decisive leadership during incidents
Strong cross-team collaboration
Continuous improvement and operational discipline
Working Conditions
Participation in escalation and after-hours support for major incidents and platform changes
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
About American Credit Acceptance
American Credit Acceptance (ACA) is a subprime auto finance company that provides financing solutions for independent and franchise dealerships across the United States. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina. ACA offers a range of financing options for customers with less-than-perfect credit, including installment loans and lease-to-own programs. The company has over 1,000 employees and has funded over $5 billion in loans since its inception.
