Free Template for Dealers

IT Manager Job Description for Dealerships: A Template and What One Hire Can Cover

Duties, skills, interview questions and pay data for a dealership IT manager, plus an honest look at what one person can cover.

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Or download the job description as an editable Word file or a printable PDF.

Dealer principal at his desk interviewing a candidate for a dealership IT manager role, with the showroom visible through the window behind them

An IT manager job description for a dealership lists the duties across every rooftop, the DMS and OEM systems, network, phones, Microsoft 365, security and vendors, plus the skills to hire for. This template covers all of it, with interview questions.

Last updated: November 2, 2026

DMS and help desk

Network and phones

Security and Safeguards

One hire

Most dealership IT job postings describe a whole department, then hire one person.

When a dealer decides IT needs more attention, the first move is usually a job posting. That’s a sensible instinct. Plenty of groups run well with an IT manager on staff. The trouble starts with the duties list, because it grows to cover every rooftop, the DMS, the network, the phones, Microsoft 365, security, the Safeguards file and now AI tools, and then it gets handed to a single person who’s expected to be good at all of it.

This page gives you a job description you can copy, written for a dealership, with the skills, certifications and interview questions to go with it. It also shows which duties one person can realistically own and where a co-managed IT partner backs them up. Still deciding whether to hire at all? Our in-house vs managed vs co-managed IT comparison covers that choice. This page is for when you’ve decided to hire.

One thing before you post it. Write the job around the work you want done in-house, not around everything IT touches.

The template

The Dealership IT Manager Job Description Template

Copy it straight into your posting, or download the editable Word version or the printable PDF. Both carry the same duties, interview questions and a coverage worksheet.

Dealership IT manager and controller going over a printed vendor contract list at a wooden conference table

Where Helion fits

The strategy side of this job belongs on your payroll. In a co-managed setup, we take the daily work around it. A complimentary IT and cybersecurity assessment shows which duties your stores need covered.

Job description: IT Manager Fill in the brackets and cut any duty a partner will cover. Keep the numbers, so the interview questions still line up.

1 About the role

This part is yours. Say which stores the job covers, who the person reports to and roughly how many people and computers they’ll support. Good candidates read it first and use it to judge whether the job is real, and a posting that says “all IT” for six rooftops and one person tells them it isn’t.

Job title
Reports to
Rooftops and locations
Users, PCs and phones
Who else works on IT
Start date

You complete this section before posting.

2 What you’ll own

2.1 Keep every rooftop’s users, PCs, printers and accounts working, and own the IT ticket queue until each request is closed.
2.2 Support the DMS, such as CDK, Reynolds and Reynolds, Tekion or PBS, and the OEM systems each franchise requires.
2.3 Manage the network, Wi-Fi, internet circuits and firewalls at each store, from the service drive to the customer lounge.
2.4 Look after the phone system and call routing for sales, service and parts.
2.5 Administer Microsoft 365, including email, licenses, admin roles and multifactor authentication.
2.6 Run the information security program day to day and keep the dealership’s FTC Safeguards Rule evidence current.
2.7 Manage IT vendors and contracts, from the DMS and the internet carrier to any managed IT or security partner.
2.8 Plan projects and budgets with the dealer principal, the CFO and department managers, including new stores, PC refreshes and AI tools.
2.9 Take part in the after-hours on-call schedule set out in section 6.

Strong hire: someone who’d rather own 2.7 and 2.8 than close tickets all day. The coverage table below shows which duties a partner can share.

3 Skills and experience

3.1 Five or more years in IT, with at least two running systems for a dealership or another multi-location business.
3.2 Hands-on time with a dealership DMS and the OEM portals and diagnostic setups that come with each franchise.
3.3 Working knowledge of business networks, firewalls, Wi-Fi and VoIP phone systems.
3.4 Microsoft 365 administration, including identity, MFA and email security.
3.5 Experience working with a managed services provider, from writing the scope to holding the provider to it.
3.6 Comfort explaining plans, risks and costs to owners and a CFO in plain language.

The BLS lists a bachelor’s degree and five or more years of related work for computer and information systems managers. Dealership years count for more than the degree.

4 Certifications worth asking about

None is required. They tell you someone has studied the specialty, which helps when you’re comparing two candidates with similar years behind them.

CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Security+
Microsoft 365 administrator
CISSP or CISM
ITIL Foundation
PMP or CAPM

Strong candidate: certifications that match the duties you kept in section 2.

5 Interview questions

5.1 Walk me through the last time a store lost its DMS connection. What did you check first, and who did you call?
5.2 How would you document our network so someone else could run it if you were out for two weeks?
5.3 Which IT work would you keep in-house, and which would you hand to a managed provider? Why?
5.4 Tell me about a vendor that missed its agreement. What did you do about it?
5.5 How would you approach our FTC Safeguards program in your first 90 days?
5.6 A salesperson wants to paste customer details into a free AI chatbot. What do you tell them?
5.7 What would you put on a one-page IT report to the dealer principal each month?

Strong answer: named systems and real decisions, not a list of tools. We’d weigh 5.3 most. Our guide to IT documentation for dealerships shows what a good answer to 5.2 covers.

6 Pay, schedule and on-call

For a pay range, the BLS puts the median annual wage at $175,140 for computer and information systems managers and $99,130 for network and computer systems administrators, both as of May 2025. Where your role lands depends on how many rooftops it covers, how much on-call it carries and how much of the strategy it owns. Always post the range.

Salary range
Bonus and benefits
On-call schedule
Travel between stores

You complete this section before posting.

The honest part

What One IT Manager Can Cover on Their Own

IT has split into specialties. Network, voice, cybersecurity, compliance and project management each run deep, and one generalist hire can’t replicate a full bench. That isn’t a knock on the person. It’s arithmetic. Each row below points to a duty in the template.

Duty	One IT manager on their own	Your IT manager with co-managed IT
2.1 Day-to-day tickets	Every password reset and printer jam lands in one queue, so the projects wait.	Our help desk takes the daily tickets, live weekdays and Saturdays, so your IT manager isn’t the first call for every printer.
Vacation and sick days	Tickets pile up, or a department manager covers. Anything that isn’t written down waits until they’re back.	The help desk keeps taking tickets, and the documentation lives in systems the store owns.
2.9 Evenings and weekends	One phone and one person, every weekend they’re on call.	Callbacks on weekday mornings and evenings, and on weekends for emergencies that affect multiple users, multiple stores or a whole location.
2.6 Security monitoring	Alerts reach an inbox that one person checks between everything else.	Live, US-based analysts monitor your systems 24/7 and step in the moment they see signs of an attack.
2.3 Network, phones and Microsoft 365	Three specialties resting on one person’s experience. The thin spots show up during an outage.	Specialists in each, on one team, working from the same documentation as your IT manager.
2.6 Safeguards evidence	Your IT manager can be the Qualified Individual, but testing, reports and the annual written report still have to get done.	Penetration testing, vulnerability monitoring and the paperwork run through our compliance program, with your IT manager in the loop.
2.8 Strategy, vendors and budgets	Squeezed into whatever is left of the week.	Stays with your IT manager, who finally has the time for it. This is the work worth hiring for.

Where the lines fall gets worked out with your IT manager before anything starts, and our co-managed IT responsibility matrix puts one owner on every row. The Word and PDF downloads include this table as a blank worksheet.

Write the IT Manager Job Description Around Strategy

In the dealer groups we work with where internal IT works well, the IT person isn’t spending the day on tickets. They’re working with us on what the stores should do next and how to get there, and the routine blocking and tackling of IT and projects is shared with a partner.

So we’d write the job around that. The right hire manages vendor relationships, has worked with a managed services provider before and sits with your executive team on reporting, business processes and where technology goes next. That’s the person you want on your payroll, because nobody outside the building knows your stores the way they will. Order matters, too. Get the infrastructure documented and in shape first, then hire, or the new manager’s first year goes to cleaning up a network nobody wrote down.

Hire for strategy. Share the daily work.

The strategic hire

Owns vendors, budgets and the roadmap, reports to the dealer principal and works with a managed partner on the daily load. Duties 2.7 and 2.8 are the core of the job, and the interview leans on 5.3 and 5.7.

Build the posting around 2.7 and 2.8.

The jack-of-all-trades hire

Expected to fix printers, run the network, secure Microsoft 365, keep the Safeguards file and roll out AI tools, all alone. Good people burn out in that job, and every specialty stays a little thin.

Cut the list, or add a bench behind it.

Who’s Behind This Job Description Template

2,000+ Automotive and heavy truck dealerships

35,000+ Dealership employees supported daily

98% Client retention rate

82 sec Average time to reach a live support agent

Helion Technologies has worked only with automotive and heavy truck dealerships since 1997. Most of the duties in section 2 are ones we share with in-house IT people through co-managed IT, where your IT manager stays employed and in charge and our team covers the specialties around them.

How to Use This IT Manager Job Description

1
Fill in the role
Sections 1 and 6. Stores, reporting line, pay range and the on-call schedule.
2
Mark what stays in-house
Go through section 2 and decide which duties this person owns and which a partner covers.
3
Post it and interview
Cut the duties you’ve handed off, then ask every candidate the section 5 questions.
4
Line up coverage before day one
Document the network and cover the help desk, so the new hire starts on strategy.

Common Questions

Dealership IT manager talking with a service technician in the service bay, with a pickup truck on a lift behind them

Planning the hire?

A complimentary IT and cybersecurity assessment shows what your stores need covered before you write the posting. Prefer a figure first? Get a price quote.

What does a dealership IT manager do?

A dealership IT manager keeps every rooftop’s systems running and owns the technology plan, from the DMS, network and phones to Microsoft 365, security, vendors and the FTC Safeguards evidence. In the setups that work best, the role leans toward strategy and vendor management.

How much does a dealership IT manager make?

$175,140 was the median annual wage for computer and information systems managers in May 2025, according to the BLS, and $99,130 for network and computer systems administrators. Where your role falls depends on rooftops, on-call duty and how much strategy it owns.

Can one IT manager support several rooftops?

Yes, with help. One person can own the plan for several stores, but not every ticket, network closet and on-call weekend across all of them. As rooftops get added, the gaps tend to show up first during outages and vacations.

Should our IT manager be the Safeguards Qualified Individual?

They can be, since the FTC Safeguards Rule lets the Qualified Individual be employed by you, an affiliate or a service provider. If it’s a service provider, 16 CFR 314.4(a) says your dealership keeps responsibility for compliance and names a senior person to oversee them. Either way, the Qualified Individual reports in writing to your board or equivalent at least once a year.

Will a co-managed provider replace our IT manager?

No. Co-managed IT is the model where your IT manager stays employed and in charge, and a partner team takes the daily tickets and the specialties one hire can’t cover. Who owns what gets written down before anything starts.

Should we hire an IT manager or outsource IT?

It depends on what you want the person doing. If you need strategy, vendor management and someone in the room with your executive team, hire. If the need is mostly closing tickets and watching networks, that work is usually better shared with a managed partner, and our comparison of in-house, managed and co-managed IT walks through all three models.

What certifications should a dealership IT manager have?

Look for CompTIA Network+ or Security+, a Microsoft 365 administrator certification and, if the role owns the security program, a CISSP or CISM. Treat those as a floor, though. Hands-on years with a DMS and multi-store networks count for more.

Before you post the job, it helps to know what your stores need covered, and a complimentary assessment will show you.

Get Your Complimentary IT & Cybersecurity Assessment →