Coleman, 57, announced the decision to town staff Friday morning. Coleman has spent more than 30 years in public service, 20 of which have been in Cary.

Coleman’s next move, into the private sector, will not take Coleman far away. He will join the local government group of SAS, where he will use his knowledge of government to help the company devise and implement software solutions for governmental operations.

The manager gave a twofold explanation for why he made the decision now.

"The organization is in a really good place," Coleman said of the town. "It has a really good staff [that] has been been and accomplished a lot and has good internal leadership."

Within that context, Coleman considered his personal situation.

"I've been doing this for 30 years," Coleman said. "If I'm going to do something else, this is a good time to do it."

In 1988 Coleman was hired as assistant town manager. He succeeded James Westbrook in the top spot in 1994.

Since he arrived in Cary, the town’s population has more than tripled to more than 130,000. To serve those residents, Coleman has overseen billions of dollars of town investment in water, sewer, road and park infrastructure.

Before coming to Cary, Coleman served as Chatham County manager, and manager of the towns of Pittsboro and Southern Pines.

The Cary Town Council will select Coleman’s replacement.

Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said the council is just beginning to develop a process.

The council wants to reach a consensus on the chararacteristics it is looking for in a manager before moving forward, Weinbrecht said.

“The first thing we’re going to do is try to make sure we’re all on the same page when we decide to hire,” Weinbrecht said.

The council concurred with Coleman's assessment of the state and wants to keep the remaining senior town staff, nearly all of whom Coleman hired, in place.

“We think he created a dream team of [department] directors and we want to keep that intact,” Weinbrecht said.

Coleman’s last day with the town is set for Oct. 17.