Job Description
The Service Delivery Manager provides visible leadership across operational service teams, ensuring high-quality, customer-focused IT services are delivered in line with contractual obligations, service levels and business objectives. Acting as a trusted customer advocate and key escalation point, the role leads performance management, stakeholder engagement, continuous improvement and effective day-to-day service governance across on-site and remote teams.
Key leadership and service delivery responsibilities
- Lead, motivate and develop operational teams, creating a positive, accountable and customer-focused culture across Onsite Services, field, campus and support functions.
- Provide clear direction, coaching and performance management, ensuring team capability, conduct, training and development support effective service delivery.
- Act as the primary leadership escalation point for customers, internal stakeholders and delivery teams, ensuring issues are owned, communicated and resolved effectively.
- Manage service performance against SLAs, KPIs and contractual commitments, using operational data to identify risks, trends and improvement opportunities.
- Oversee service reporting, daily and weekly reviews, productivity updates and monthly service packs, ensuring accurate, timely and meaningful management information.
- Drive continuous service improvement by challenging existing ways of working, capturing lessons learned and prioritising actions that improve quality, efficiency, customer satisfaction and profitability.
- Maintain strong customer relationships through regular communication, service reviews and proactive management of expectations, risks and changing requirements.
- Support effective resource planning, absence management and operational cover to maintain service continuity across customer sites and remote locations.
- Ensure governance, compliance, health and safety, security clearance and agreed service management processes are understood and followed by the team.
Person profile
The successful candidate will be an experienced operational leader with strong communication, stakeholder management and customer advocacy skills. They will combine a customer-first mindset with the confidence to lead teams through operational challenges, make data-led decisions, manage priorities under pressure and promote a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement. Experience of structured service governance, SLA management and operational reporting is important, while knowledge of IT Service Management principles and the ITIL framework would be desirable rather than essential. The candidate must also be able to be security cleared and work effectively in a site-based customer environment.
Based in Whitehaven, Cumbria.
