Associate IT Manager (Telephony Expert)

Department: Information Technology

Reports To: IT Manager

Location: Alabang (On-site), Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Position Summary:

The Associate IT Manager supports the reliability, security, performance, and scalability of Pinnacle Intelligence's local IT infrastructure and serves as a primary point of contact for client communication during new account onboarding. Working closely with the IT Manager, this role helps oversee a small IT team covering deskside support, desktop and network administration, telephony, and systems integrations, while coordinating with stakeholders across Pinnacle's US, India, and Philippines operations. A defining part of the role is stepping directly into client-facing conversations — primarily with US-based dealership clients — where excellent spoken and written English communication is essential to representing Pinnacle with clarity and confidence. The role also serves as a telephony subject-matter resource, helping ensure Pinnacle's telephony architecture and solutions remain modern, reliable, scalable, and cost-effective, while engaging directly with clients and technology partners when required. The role calls for sound day-to-day judgment on infrastructure and telephony issues, the ability to prioritize by business impact, and the ability to translate technical detail into language non-technical stakeholders and clients can act on.

Key Responsibilities:

1. IT Infrastructure & Operations Leadership

• Help maintain the availability, performance, and security posture of local network, desktop, and endpoint infrastructure across the Alabang site, escalating major risk decisions to the IT Manager.
• Support prioritization and escalation of deskside and desktop support issues, ensuring they are triaged by business impact rather than order of arrival.
• Assess infrastructure risk (capacity, security exposure, single points of failure) and recommend when to remediate versus monitor, in coordination with the IT Manager.

2. Systems Integration & Solutioning

• Support the design of integration approaches for new client onboarding, helping evaluate technical trade-offs (build vs. buy, custom vs. standard connectors, cost vs. speed) before implementation.
• Oversee integrations between internal systems (CRM, telephony, scheduling, and other operational tools) and troubleshoot cross-system issues that affect service delivery.
• Help manage vendor and tool relationships relevant to the local IT stack, assessing trade-offs before recommending changes or replacements.
• Anticipate how infrastructure and integration decisions affect uptime for client-facing operations and plan changes accordingly.

3. Cross-Regional Stakeholder & Client-Facing Engagement

• Build and maintain day-to-day working relationships with IT, operations, and business stakeholders across Pinnacle's US, India, and Philippines offices, coordinating priorities and dependencies across time zones.
• Represent Pinnacle's IT capability directly to US-based dealership clients during onboarding, speaking to security, systems architecture, and integration approach with confidence and precision.
• Co-manage cross-border project workstreams with US and India counterparts, ensuring infrastructure and integration commitments made to clients are delivered on schedule.
• Act as the technical point of escalation when client-impacting IT issues require direct client communication, adapting communication style and pacing to a primarily American client base.

4. Team Leadership & Development

• Support and mentor team members covering deskside, desktop, and network functions, helping build their capability to handle escalations independently over time.
• Help identify individual skill gaps and support development plans — pairing team members on integration work, cross-training across deskside/network/systems disciplines, and creating opportunities to stretch into higher-complexity issues.
• Help uphold clear standards for response times, documentation, and issue resolution quality across the team.
• Provide day-to-day guidance to team members and flag recurring issues, resourcing gaps, and growth opportunities to the IT Manager.

5. Governance, Documentation & Reporting

• Maintain accurate documentation of network topology, systems architecture, and integration points to support audits, onboarding, and incident response.
• Report on infrastructure health, incident trends, and improvement initiatives to the IT Manager.
• Ensure IT practices align with company policy and any client-specific security or compliance requirements.

Skills & Qualifications:

Required:

• Experience: 3–5 years in IT infrastructure, systems administration, or IT operations roles.
• US Client Experience: Demonstrated experience working directly with US-based clients — comfortable leading conversations and representing IT to clients, not just executing tickets.
• Cross-Regional Coordination: Proven ability to coordinate relationships and dependencies across geographically distributed teams (US, India, Philippines or similar multi-site environments).
• Technical Breadth: Strong working knowledge of desktop/deskside support, network administration (LAN/WAN, firewalls, VPN), and systems integration principles, including solution design and technical trade-off evaluation.
• Client-Facing Communication: Excellent spoken and written English communication skills, with the confidence and polish to lead onboarding calls, explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders, and represent Pinnacle professionally to a primarily American client base. This is a core requirement of the role.
• Judgment Under Pressure: Sound judgment in prioritizing and resolving day-to-day infrastructure issues by business impact, particularly in environments supporting live client operations.
• Leadership & Coaching: Experience mentoring or supporting junior colleagues is a plus; formal people-management experience is not required for this role.

Preferred:

• Prior experience managing or mentoring a small technical team.
• Experience supporting BPO, shared services, or multi-client operational environments.
• Familiarity with CRM, telephony, or contact center systems integrations.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., CompTIA Network+/Security+, ITIL, Microsoft/Cisco certifications).
• Familiarity with ISO27001 and SOC2 Type 2 controls
• Implemented automation projects related to IT tools and services

Why Join Pinnacle Intelligence?

Pinnacle Intelligence offers a unique opportunity to be part of a growing and innovative company that is redefining intelligent business solutions for the automotive retail industry. We provide a collaborative work environment, opportunities for professional growth, and the chance to make a significant impact on our clients' success. If you are a skilled and passionate individual eager to contribute to a dynamic team, we encourage you to apply!