IT Operations Manager
Richards Manufacturing Company is a producer of electrical and gas distribution equipment for utility and commercial/industrial markets. For over 70 years Richards has served the industry with quality, dependability, and outstanding customer service. With humble beginnings as a family owned and operated business—originally entering the market as a producer of a single style of underground connector—Richards has evolved to offer a wide selection of products across several product lines. Our offices and manufacturing facilities are located in Irvington, NJ—approximately 14 miles west of New York City.
The IT Operations Manager is responsible for strengthening the reliability, responsiveness, and scalability of Richards Manufacturing’s IT environment. This role serves as a hands-on operational leader and force multiplier for the VP of IT, ensuring day-to-day IT execution is strong while the organization remains resilient, modern, and well-positioned for growth. This position plays a critical role in business continuity planning, user support effectiveness, project execution, and technology adoption across manufacturing, warehouse, and corporate environments. The IT Operations Manager also supports enterprise initiatives such as capacity expansion, plant changes, and network integration with TE, ensuring improvements are delivered with minimal disruption to users. Why This Role Exists Richards Manufacturing is growing in scale and complexity. This role exists to ensure IT execution keeps pace — improving speed, reliability, and user experience — while reducing organizational dependency on any single individual. The IT Operations Manager ensures that systems, people, vendors, and processes work together to support uninterrupted operations and continuous improvement
Location: Onsite, Richards Manufacturing Facility (Irvington, NJ)
Key Responsibilities:
IT Operations & Service Delivery
• Own day-to-day IT operational execution across manufacturing
plants, warehouses, and corporate offices.
• Improve ticket management, prioritization, escalation, and closure to
increase responsiveness and user satisfaction.
• Act as first point of escalation for IT incidents, coordinating internal
resources, vendors, and managed service providers.
• Ensure consistent service delivery standards across locations.
Business Continuity & Resilience
• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve IT business continuity and
disaster recovery plans.
• Lead regular testing of continuity and recovery plans, documenting
results and improvements
• Hold managed service providers accountable to contractual SLAs related
to uptime, recovery, and support.
• Reduce operational risk through redundancy, documentation, and
coverage planning.
ERP & Enterprise Application Support
• Provide operational IT support for enterprise applications, including
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.
• Coordinate issue resolution, enhancements, and integrations with
vendors and internal stakeholders.
• D365 experience is helpful but not required; focus is on execution and
coordination rather than system ownership.
Training, Enablement & Organizational Effectiveness
• Design and deliver IT training programs to improve user knowledge,
productivity, and confidence.
• Help employees work smarter by promoting best practices, automation,
and effective tool usage.
• Act as an extension of the VP of IT by reinforcing standards and
consistent practices across the organization.
Project Execution, Plant Changes & Equipment Integration
• Lead or support IT initiatives related to capacity expansion, new
construction, facility upgrades, and equipment expansion across
manufacturing and warehouse environments.
• Act as the IT liaison for plant changes, working closely with Operations,
Engineering, Facilities, and external vendors to ensure technology
requirements are identified early and executed with minimal disruption.
• Support new equipment installs, production line changes, and factory
layout modifications by coordinating IT and OT readiness, including
networking, connectivity, access, and remote support needs.
• Ensure IT and OT infrastructure considerations (network drops, switches,
firewalls, wireless coverage, power, labeling, device access, and security
requirements) are planned and delivered on schedule.
• Coordinate with OEMs, integrators, and service providers to ensure
equipment is properly connected, tested, and supported before go-live.
• Help reduce risk during plant changes by ensuring documentation,
escalation paths, and support coverage are in place prior to production
use.
• Support post-implementation stabilization by monitoring issues,
coordinating fixes, and ensuring a smooth transition to steady-state
operations.
TE Network Integration & Optimization
• Support network and technology integration with TE while minimizing
disruption to users.
• Maximize the value of TE tools and platforms while maintaining
Richards’ agility.
• Navigate new governance requirements without introducing
unnecessary friction.
Multi-Plant Harmonization
• Support harmonization of IT practices, equipment, and applications
between Chardon, OH and Irvington, NJ.
• Reduce fragmentation while respecting site-specific operational needs.
Technology Modernization & Innovation
• Stay current on emerging technologies to keep Richards modern and
competitive.
• Support responsible adoption of tools such as AI and Microsoft Copilot
to drive productivity.
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