IT Operations Manager

About Us

We are a technology solutions provider specialising in the public sector. Our mission is to help government organisations become truly data-driven by transforming their digital services, streamlining operational processes, improving citizen outcomes, and enhancing transparency across public services.

We work closely with government bodies to design and deliver modern, secure, and scalable digital solutions that have real-world impact.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced IT Operations Manager who holds current Security Clearance (SC) on a contract basis to lead the operational management and support of a live data product supporting a central government client.

You will be accountable for the end-to-end operation of the live service, ensuring the stability, availability, security, and performance of the platform while leading Service Desk operations, IT operational processes, and release management activities. You will act as the primary escalation point for operational issues, major incidents, service requests, access management, and service performance, ensuring high-quality support outcomes within an ITIL-aligned environment.

You will take ownership of operational governance across the service, overseeing incident, problem, change, and release management, whilst proactively monitoring system health, service availability, operational risks, and capacity. Working closely with cross-functional technical teams including Data Engineers, Software Developers, Platform Engineers, DevOps teams, and third-party suppliers, you will coordinate operational activities to ensure services remain resilient, secure, and continuously available.

As IT Operations Manager, you will play a key role in maintaining operational readiness and driving continual service improvement. You will identify opportunities to enhance service reliability, streamline operational processes, improve automation, and optimise support practices to deliver a highly effective live service.

A key aspect of the role is proactive stakeholder management. You will build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders, client representatives, delivery teams, senior leadership, and third-party suppliers. You will provide regular operational reporting, communicating service performance, operational risks, system health, release readiness, and improvement initiatives, ensuring services remain aligned with business priorities, contractual obligations, and government security standards.

The successful candidate will bring strong operational leadership with experience managing live services within complex technical environments. They will have a proven track record of owning IT operations end-to-end, including Service Desk management, operational governance, release management, service performance, supplier management, stakeholder engagement, risk management, and continual service improvement. They will be comfortable working in secure, ITIL-based environments and driving operational excellence across business-critical services.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day delivery of IT Operations, ensuring the stability, availability, security, and performance of live services in line with agreed SLAs, KPIs, and operational objectives.
• Oversee Service Desk operations, ensuring the effective management of incidents, service requests, problems, access management, and operational support activities through to successful resolution.
• Act as the operational lead and primary escalation point for major incidents, coordinating cross-functional technical teams to restore service quickly, minimise business impact, and drive post-incident reviews.
• Own operational governance across Incident, Problem, Change, and Release Management processes, ensuring services are delivered in accordance with ITIL best practices, organisational policies, and government security standards.
• Monitor and maintain system health, service availability, operational resilience, capacity, and performance, proactively identifying and resolving risks before they impact service delivery.
• Plan, coordinate, and oversee release and deployment activities, working closely with engineering, platform, and delivery teams to ensure successful implementation with minimal operational disruption.

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• Build and maintain strong relationships with client stakeholders, business users, delivery teams, senior leadership, and third-party suppliers, providing clear communication on operational performance, risks, releases, and service improvements.
• Produce and present regular operational reporting, including service metrics, SLA and KPI performance, system health, operational risks, and continual improvement initiatives.
• Drive continual service improvement by analysing operational trends, identifying root causes, implementing process improvements, and promoting automation and operational efficiencies.
• Oversee operational governance for access management, ensuring appropriate controls, compliance, and adherence to security and role-based access management policies.
• Maintain and continuously improve operational documentation, knowledge management, support procedures, runbooks, and service standards to ensure operational readiness and resilience.
• Identify, manage, and mitigate operational risks throughout the service lifecycle, ensuring appropriate governance, escalation, and business continuity planning.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the Service Desk and wider operational support function, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, customer focus, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with Data Engineers, Software Developers, Platform Engineers, DevOps teams, and third-party suppliers to ensure the successful operation, support, and continuous enhancement of the live service.

Essential Skills & Experience

You must have demonstrable, hands-on experience of:

• Proven experience leading IT Operations or Service Management functions within complex technical, cloud, or data-driven environments.
• Extensive experience managing live IT services in accordance with ITIL best practices, including Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Request, and Major Incident Management.
• Experience owning the operational management of cloud-hosted platforms and services, ensuring high availability, resilience, system health, performance, and operational readiness.
• Strong operational leadership with experience managing Service Desk functions alongside wider IT Operations and live service support.
• Experience planning, coordinating, and governing release and deployment activities, ensuring successful delivery with minimal operational disruption.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across business, technical, supplier, client, and senior leadership teams.
• Experience managing service performance against SLAs, OLAs, and KPIs, using operational metrics to drive continual service improvement and operational excellence.
• Experience coordinating cross-functional technical teams to resolve complex operational issues, major incidents, and service risks in live production environments.
• Knowledge of operational governance, service resilience, capacity management, risk management, business continuity, and operational support best practices.
• Knowledge of access management processes, identity and access governance, and role-based access control within secure environments.
• Experience using IT Service Management (ITSM) tools (e.g. ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, BMC Remedy, or equivalent) to manage operational support, service delivery, and reporting.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills, with experience producing operational dashboards, service metrics, trend analysis, and management information to support decision-making.
• Excellent communication, leadership, organisational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities within a fast-paced operational environment.
• Experience working within highly regulated or public sector environments, with an understanding of government security standards and secure service delivery.

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Desirable Skills/Experience

• Good understanding of AWS cloud services, including technologies such as Redshift, Lambda, Athena, CloudWatch, and S3, with experience managing the operational support of cloud-based services.
• Ability to interpret technical information and data to support service management, incident oversight, trend analysis, and informed decision-making.
• Experience overseeing the support of data platforms, data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and cloud-based reporting solutions, working collaboratively with engineering and platform teams.
• Experience using service monitoring and observability tools, such as Grafana, Kibana, CloudWatch, or equivalent, to monitor service health, identify trends, and drive proactive service improvements.
• Ability to work effectively with technical specialists to coordinate the resolution of complex incidents, manage operational risk, and improve service resilience.
• Service Transition & Operational Readiness - experience managing handover from delivery teams into live service, including operational acceptance, support readiness, and knowledge transfer.
• Service Availability, Resilience & Continuity - responsibility for service availability, capacity management, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
• Security Incident & Risk Management - experience managing security incidents, vulnerabilities, and operational risk within secure government environments.

Additional Requirements

• Experience supporting data platforms or analytics products
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to prioritise workload and meet SLAs in a live service environment
• Must hold valid UK Security Clearance (SC) (essential)
• Ability to work independently in a remote environment

What We Offer

• Outside IR35 contract
• Fully remote working (UK-based)
• Opportunity to work on meaningful public sector digital services
• Start ASAP (subject to onboarding)