How to hire an Incident Manager

How to hire an incident manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step incident manager hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an incident manager job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new incident manager
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an Incident Manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the incident manager you need to hire. Certain incident manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine Employee vs Contractor Status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect incident manager also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   The following list breaks down different types of incident managers and their corresponding salaries.

   Type Of Incident Manager	Description	Hourly Rate
   Incident Manager	Architectural and engineering managers plan, direct, and coordinate activities in architectural and engineering companies.	$30-57
   Engineering Supervisor	An engineering supervisor is responsible for monitoring the engineering operations of an organization, developing strategic processes and techniques to improve staff's performance, and facilitating training and programs to maximize productivity. Engineering supervisors evaluate technology procedures and reports to identify and design new opportunities that would generate more resources for revenues and profits... Show More	$34-62
   Engineering Director	An engineering director or director of engineering is a professional who manages a team of engineering managers and coordinates all the engineering activities within the organization. Engineering directors work closely with the organization's executives to develop new strategies to reduce unnecessary costs and time to complete their projects... Show More	$52-114

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Incident Response
   • Infrastructure
   • ITIL
   • Metrics
   • Problem Management
   • Service Management
   • Escalation Support
   • Incident Management
   • Database
   • Incident Resolution
   • Technical Support
   • Process Improvement
   • ITSM
   • Slas

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Open, manage, rout and close remedy tickets.
   • Manage entire B2B production portfolio, without any issues.
   • Manage UAT testing which are comprised of thirty plus team members.
   • Manage a team and portfolio of production support, projects and processes.
   • Lead a project to migrate from a synchronize terminal base messaging protocol to MQ base messaging.
   • Manage ITSM and TFS cases to ensure SLA are met and provide updates twice weekly to customer.

   More Incident Manager duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your incident manager job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. An incident manager salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, incident managers' average salary in wyoming is 37% less than in new york.
   • Seniority. Entry-level incident managers earn 47% less than senior-level incident managers.
   • Certifications. An incident manager with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in an incident manager's salary.

   Average incident manager salary

   $87,053yearly

   $41.85 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level incident manager salary

   $63,000 yearly salary

   Updated March 26, 2025

   Average incident manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	California	$108,221	$52
   2	New York	$106,969	$51
   3	Massachusetts	$106,379	$51
   4	Connecticut	$106,233	$51
   5	Washington	$98,812	$48
   6	Virginia	$95,942	$46
   7	Georgia	$95,551	$46
   8	Minnesota	$95,280	$46
   9	New Jersey	$93,447	$45
   10	Illinois	$92,334	$44
   11	District of Columbia	$89,199	$43
   12	Pennsylvania	$86,197	$41
   13	Oregon	$85,856	$41
   14	Arizona	$84,205	$40
   15	Indiana	$83,426	$40
   16	Louisiana	$82,576	$40
   17	Maryland	$82,335	$40
   18	Texas	$82,272	$40
   19	Oklahoma	$81,458	$39
   20	Rhode Island	$79,096	$38

   Average incident manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Airbnb	$128,901	$61.97	6
   2	PayPal	$128,774	$61.91	7
   3	Databricks	$121,892	$58.60	50
   4	Turo	$119,608	$57.50	1
   5	Amazon	$119,232	$57.32	125
   6	Snowflake Computing	$116,702	$56.11	10
   7	Cisco	$112,987	$54.32	52
   8	Bloomberg	$111,813	$53.76	3
   9	Citi	$109,951	$52.86	2
   10	ViacomCBS	$109,647	$52.71
   11	Mandiant	$109,298	$52.55
   12	Fanatics	$109,159	$52.48	2
   13	ICE Mortgage Technology	$109,094	$52.45
   14	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$106,676	$51.29	7
   15	Capgemini	$105,172	$50.56	16
   16	Expedia Group	$104,399	$50.19	3
   17	MoneyGram International	$103,145	$49.59
   18	General Electric	$102,120	$49.10	12
   19	Intuit	$101,987	$49.03	4
   20	Salesforce	$101,800	$48.94

4. Writing an Incident Manager Job Description

   An incident manager job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of an incident manager job description:

   Incident Manager job description example

   Working in Application Support means you'll use both creative and critical thinking skills to maintain application systems that are crucial to the daily operations of the firm. You'll work collaboratively in teams on a wide range of projects based on your primary area of focus: design or programming. While learning to fix application and data issues as they arise, you'll also gain exposure to software development, testing, deployment, maintenance, and improvement, in addition to production lifecycle methodologies and risk guidelines. Finally, you'll have the opportunity to develop professionally -and to grow your career in any direction you choose.
   As a Major Incident Manager , you are responsible for the following:
   Own and drive incident management bridge calls and chats with production management, application development, infrastructure teams, and senior leadership with the purpose of remediating impacting incidents. Establishing strong command and control of an incident, establishing clear accountability/ownership and methodical evaluation of complex issue scenarios. Adherence to critical process and procedure, and appropriate escalations in support of production incidents. Applying technical/environmental knowledge and experience to develop and drive appropriate tasks, forming paths to resolution. Distribution of clear and concise communications, summarizing incidents and the business/customer experience to a wide group of technical and non-technical audiences. Ensure incident data is accurately captured and documented. Priming appropriate materials and follow ups to hand-off to the Root Cause Analysis phase in the Problem Management process. Working as part of a global follow-the-sun team, providing 24 x 7 production support coverage on a rotating basis
   This role requires a wide variety of strengths and capabilities, including:
   BS/BA degree or equivalent experience Basic knowledge of application development Relevant Incident management experience in an enterprise scale environment. Extensive customer service, communication, and client interaction skills. Possess critical thinking and troubleshooting skills. Strong ability to think and act independently to resolve production issues. Ability to act with a sense of urgency and agility Must display a history of achieving goals in a high-performance environment. Advanced analytical skills. Must be able to multitask in a fast-paced environment utilizing multiple tools. Ability to work collaboratively in teams and develop meaningful relationships to achieve common goals
   
   JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the oldest financial institutions, offers innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers, small businesses and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Our history spans over 200 years and today we are a leader in investment banking, consumer and small business banking, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management.
   
   We recognize that our people are our strength and the diverse talents they bring to our global workforce are directly linked to our success. We are an equal opportunity employer and place a high value on diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. In accordance with applicable law, we make reasonable accommodations for applicants' and employees' religious practices and beliefs, as well as any mental health or physical disability needs.
   
   The health and safety of our colleagues, candidates, clients and communities has been a top priority in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. JPMorgan Chase was awarded the "WELL Health-Safety Rating" for all of our 6,200 locations globally based on our operational policies, maintenance protocols, stakeholder engagement and emergency plans to address a post-COVID-19 environment.
   
   As a part of our commitment to health and safety, we have implemented various COVID-related health and safety requirements for our workforce. Employees are expected to follow the Firm's current COVID-19 or other infectious disease health and safety requirements, including local requirements. Requirements include sharing information including your vaccine card in the firm's vaccine record tool, and may include mask wearing. Requirements may change in the future with the evolving public health landscape. JPMorgan Chase will consider accommodation requests as required by applicable law.
   
   Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veterans

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right incident manager for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your incident manager job on Zippia to find and recruit incident manager candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with incident manager candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new incident manager

   Once you've found the incident manager candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new incident manager. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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