Senior Manager, Service Operations

Job Description

Hiring Manager – Cristina Gil Knapp

Location – Belfast, London, Sheffield.

Closing Date – 14/12/2025

Salary – Competitive.

About the role -

The Senior Manager, Service Operations is accountable for 1st line service desk operations on a 24/7 basis for managed service customers, including Major Incident Management. The role holder will lead the service for a large proportion of Business’ portfolio of contracts/customers, ranging from small corporate to large, multi-national managed contracts and public sector government frameworks, a number of which underpin some the UK’s and other regional/country’s most critical network infrastructures and have the potential to be significantly brand impacting on behalf of BT.

The role holder is responsible for influencing and shaping the service operations strategy and direction, bringing outside in thinking with regards to ways of working, organisational effectiveness and future technologies both within the telco/IT environment as well as those of its customers ,to continually improve and evolve service operations being offered and provide a competitive edge in the market.

You'll have the following Responsibilities

• Leads a Service Operations team, ensuring cohesiveness working as a single team, collaborating closely to meet agreed SLAs/KPIs.
• Operates as an SME within own field of expertise, leading the implementation of the Service Operations strategy and delivery of customer service contractual requirements, ensuring that profit of service products is maximized.
• Oversees the incident management process and ensures service standards and best practices are diligently followed.
• Leads streams involved in continuous improvement projects through change management across the business, designing support workflows according to strategic goals and aimed at customer excellence and world-class service experience.
• Leads optimal operations and service processes that meet customer needs in terms of responsiveness, efficiency, quality and cost, supporting with corresponding systems.
• Drives innovation efforts of the function with the focus on improving tools for data collection, measurement and analysis.
• Manages collaboration with service leaders and key internal stakeholders to establish a conscious and transparent view on innovation regarding optimising service performance, delivery and assurance.
• Mentors, coaches, and manages a team to develop current and future team capabilities and ensure performance.
• Champions, continuously develops and shares with team knowledge and industry best practices on emerging trends and changes in service operations.
• A point of contact for senior level escalations, managing customer expectations during these periods and managing service teams to ensure resolution as well as root cause analysis to support service improvements
• ITIL Intermediate or expert with extensive knowledge and experience working within an ITIL best practice, in a high complex, commercialised& global environment.

You'll need to have the following skills and experience

• Managed Services - Performs a set of activities to enter into a newly acquired IT environment and manage its operations.
• Service Operations Strategy – Makes decisions regarding the production and delivery of the organisation's service that helps the organisation to run effectively and efficiently.
• Issue Resolution – Addresses problems that need to be solved, the decisions that need to be made, and the risks that need to be mitigated.
• Incident Management - Ensures that any incidents affecting processes and performances of services or systems are managed appropriately to mitigate risk and minimise disruption.
• Continuous Improvement – Continuously thrives to improve products, services, or processes.
• Customer Relationship Management - Maintains relationships with customers, cultivating a favourable reputation by meeting customer needs in an effective and timely manner and using data analysis to track and manage the overall relationship.
• Commercial Acumen - Possesses knowledge of critical business concepts relevant to the business unit and demonstrates ability to use deep business knowledge to inform decision-making.
• Technology Implementation - Establishes new technologies within an organisation to secure a competitive advantage in the market.
• Performance Management - Creates the appropriate environment needed to maximise employee performance and ensure alignment with the organisation's strategy using regular discussions, feedback and reviews.
• Communication - Effectively conveying information, ideas, or emotions between individuals or groups to foster understanding and connection.
• Stakeholder Management - Organises, monitors and improves relationships with stakeholders.

Experience you would be expected to have

• Experience leading and managing people, transforming capability and performance while maintaining engagement.
• Experience of working in a highly pressurised customer environment and improving customer outcomes, ideally within service operations discipline.
• Deep understanding of future digital, data and market trends and how these will influence customer behaviours and needs.
• ITIL Certification: Certification in ITIL is essential, demonstrating a solid understanding of IT service management principles and practices.

Security Clearance (SC) will be required

Benefits

As well as offering a competitive base salary, you’ll also have a rewarding bonus scheme, access to equity schemes and an attractive pension offer.

We value different perspectives, skills and experiences. Diversity makes sense for us, our customers and our ambitions. We’re creating an inclusive working culture where people from all backgrounds can succeed.

About Openreach

We’re the nation’s number one broadband network and we build the connections that matter.

Our customers are the 640+ communications providers who sell phone, broadband and Ethernet services to homes and businesses and our mission is build the best digital future for the UK.

There’s over 33,000 of us across the country, and we have a vision that our workforce should represent the communities that we serve. Diversity and accessibility are important to both where we are now and where we’re going. We value every colleague and the contribution they make, because a diverse business is a stronger business.

We also want the best work-life balance for all our people, which is why we offer smart working. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, so you’ll be able to discuss how smart working fits with your role during the recruitment process.

How to Apply

It's easy to apply online; you just need a copy of your up-to-date CV and to follow the step-by step process. Don't worry if you need to make changes - you'll have the opportunity to review and edit your work on the final page.

We’re creating an inclusive working culture where people from all backgrounds can succeed. We welcome applications from every community and we’re looking forward to receiving yours.