IT Service Manager

About this role

JOB SUMMARY

The IT Service Manager is accountable for the end-to-end performance, governance and continual improvement of a portfolio of IT services, including management and development of the Service Desk function, its team and platform as the single front door for all incidents and service requests.

Operating as the senior service management interface for the Head of IT the role translates business priorities into measurable service outcomes, establishes effective governance and ensures services remain resilient, secure, compliant and commercially sustainable.

The role oversees ITIL-aligned governance across incident management, service request fulfilment, problem management, change enablement, service transition and service level management. It drives continual improvement in service management capability to deliver a consistently high-quality, measurable customer experience.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the Service Desk platform and the operational front door for all incidents and service requests, ensuring effective intake, triage, routing, prioritisation, communication and fulfilment through consistent processes and service standards.
• Manage, lead and develop the Service Desk team, including Service Desk Agents and the Service Analyst, setting clear objectives, clarifying accountability, coaching performance and building consistent service management capability.
• Accountable for end-to-end service performance, customer experience, resilience, risk and value, using KPIs, SLAs, experience measures and trend analysis to drive informed decisions and corrective action.
• Analyse service data and produce accurate dashboards and regular reports covering incident and request volumes, backlogs, SLA performance, resolution times and customer satisfaction. Identify trends, recurring issues and improvement opportunities, translating findings into actionable recommendations and tracking the impact of service improvements.
• Champion the effective and responsible use of automation and artificial intelligence across service management processes to reduce manual handling, accelerate incident and service request fulfilment, improve service quality and deliver a faster, more consistent customer experience.
• Provide leadership during major incidents and critical service escalations, ensuring decisive ownership, effective communications, appropriate business continuity and timely restoration of service.
• Ensure robust problem management and post-incident governance, holding owners to account for root cause analysis, corrective actions, risk reduction and measurable prevention of recurrence.
• Own service change governance and represent service interests in change approval, balancing pace of delivery with operational risk, control, readiness and service stability.
• Set service acceptance and transition standards for new and changed services, ensuring support models, ownership, security, monitoring, capacity, continuity, documentation, knowledge and funding are in place before go-live.
• Maintain a prioritised continual improvement portfolio that delivers measurable gains in service quality, automation, efficiency, resilience, customer satisfaction and business value.
• Manage supplier service performance and commercial outcomes, challenging underperformance, validating obligations, coordinating improvement plans and supporting contract, renewal and sourcing decisions.
• Maintain oversight of service budgets, forecasts, consumption and cost drivers, identifying opportunities to improve value, control demand and optimise the total cost of service.
• Own the service risk and control position, ensuring audit actions, data protection, cyber security, backup, recovery, disaster recovery and operational resilience requirements are understood, evidenced and addressed.
• Chair service reviews and governance forums, presenting concise performance, financial, risk, compliance and improvement updates to senior business and IT stakeholders.
• Develop trusted relationships with business leaders, acting as the senior point of accountability for service matters and converting business demand into clear service priorities and outcomes.
• Own and maintain the project roadmap for service initiatives and improvements, ensuring priorities, dependencies, resources and delivery milestones are aligned with business and technology objectives.
• Own the service management strategy and operating plan for assigned services, ensuring priorities, investment and improvement roadmaps align with business objectives and technology strategy.