Deputy Director Head of Service Operations - DEFRA - SCS1

Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle Reading and York. Regular UK travel to Defra group sites including London.

About the job

Job summary

This is a leadership role within Defra’s operational IT function, Group Infrastructure and Operations (GIO). The role requires demonstration of deep and wide-ranging IT leadership skills in service management and strategic direction setting of the Service Operations functions. The Head of Service Operations is responsible for the effectiveness of operational IT services and user support to ensure optimum service availability and user productivity. The postholder is expected to be an experienced IT professional.

Reporting to the Director of Group Infrastructure and Operations, the Head of Service Operations is responsible for the effectiveness of services and user support to ensure optimum service availability and user productivity. This includes all user support and comes with responsibilities over run and maintain services, as well as cyber security operations.

The Head of Service Operations brings current knowledge and future vision for transforming Service Operations functions, including strategy, to remain effective whilst supporting modern service delivery approaches, including Agile and DevOps. As such the role requires the ability to function seamlessly between strategic thinking and operational management of live services. The role’s level of operational responsibility is high and includes leading through major disruption at times of major incidents including cyber security ones.

As a key member of the GIO senior IT leadership team this role contributes to the development and execution of the GIO business plan and is responsible for ensuring the availability of live IT services to Defra group end users (circa 30,000). The post holder will be required to develop strong relationships with Defra group’s delivery bodies and Arms Length Bodies (ALBs) in order to deliver core IT services as part of the Service Management Operating Model.

Key Responsibilities

Primary responsibility is to ensure service availability is maintained at required levels, and in doing so own the responsibilities of:

• Sets the vision, and strategy for the management of live services, to maximise availability, limit downtime, and ensure users are effectively supported.
• Ensures operational support is fully considered as services are released into the live environment.
• Delivers operational capability to manage technology risks, to reduce the likelihood of disruption and to limit the impact of major incidents when disruption does occur.
• Provision of an effective and user-friendly Catalogue of requestable items backed by lean workflow and supported by an efficient exceptions process to deliver what users need, when they need it.
• Provision of effective cyber security protective monitoring, vulnerability management in conjunction with technical teams and suppliers, and a responsive and effective cyber incident response capability.
• Lead on software licencing (circa £40m/y) seeking to ensure legal compliance and cost effectiveness *
• Provide a comprehensive inventory of the IT estate to enable effective operational processes and effective decision making *
• Provision of a primary lead on Joiner-Mover-Leaver initiatives on behalf of GIO.
• Building successful stakeholder relationships with other IT and business leaders by developing a clear understanding of business needs, acting as a trusted advisor, and ensuring cost-effective IT service operations to meet those needs.
• Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritise resources (incl. budgetary elements).

*Functions are currently in the role scope, but consideration is being given to rebalancing effort across leadership roles which may impact on this scope.

Knowledge Required

• A deep understanding of Service Management best practice backed up by industry qualifications (ITIL). Certification in ITIL mandatory.
• A thorough understanding of modern IT technologies and management approaches.
• Knowledge and experience in leading in an operational environment.
• Knowledge of cyber security and cyber incident response
• Desirable a certification in Service Operations.

Skills Required

• Strategic thinking and strategy development, especially in the area of IT services.
• Exceptional leadership skills, including in operational crisis situations, with the ability to develop and communicate an operational service management vision that inspires and motivates staff and aligns with the IT and business strategy
• An inspirational people leader, able to motivate own teams, colleagues and suppliers alike. Ability to develop staff including coaching, mentoring and performance management
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills in an environment where resources required for success may not be in direct control of this role
• Strong business acumen, including industry, domain-specific knowledge of the enterprise and its business units
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, informed by political and business awareness.
• Excellent customer experience skills, informed by customer needs, changes and trends
• Ability to build consensus, making decisions based on many variables, and gain support for major initiatives.
• Strong sense of self, ethics, and effort, as well as the willingness to go the extra mile to achieve important goals.
• Excellent influencing, relationship and conflict resolution skills.
• Strong third-party management skills, working closely with sourcing and vendor managers.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts and technologies to business leaders, and business concepts to the I&O workforce.

Person specification

• Board level influencing and operating experience (incl. budget management).
• Establishing a vision and goals for the organisation/units and to establish a system of measuring effectiveness of goal attainment.
• Proven track record in the management of major IT incidents and major disruption management, including cyber security incidents, and a willingness to support teams out of hours when necessary.
• Deep understanding of current and emerging IT trends and in particular ITSM practices, and how other enterprises are employing them.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute a strategic staffing plan that ensures the right people are in the right roles at the right time, and employees are highly engaged and satisfied.
• Experienced in leading Service Operations teams, including cyber operations and establishing governance mechanisms along with operational procedures and playbooks.
• Experienced in leading on customer experience, including establishing relationships with key customer representatives and mechanisms on reporting and collecting two-way feedback.

Qualifications

• A deep understanding of Service Management best practice backed up by industry qualifications (ITIL). Certification in ITIL mandatory.

Qualifications

A deep understanding of Service Management best practice backed up by industry qualifications (ITIL). Certification in ITIL mandatory.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: