Location
City of Westminster, 160 Tooley Street, London SE1 2QH

Hours
36 hours per week (Monday to Friday)

Salary
£76,485 per annum

About the Role
This is a rare opportunity to shape how technology serves one of London's most ambitious boroughs. Southwark Council is building a brand new Digital and Resident Experience, and as IT Service Manager, you will be the single point of ownership for how service quality is defined, held to account and improved across it, setting the standards that the Service Desk, technical teams and suppliers work to.

You will join at an exciting time as the council invests in people and technology to better serve more than 300,000 residents across Southwark's diverse communities. You will build the service management framework from the ground up, manage and develop the ITSM Lead, and use your credibility and influence to secure consistent practice across teams you do not directly manage.

If you are a service management leader who wants to set the standard for how a council delivers technology to its residents, this role offers a unique platform to make a significant impact.

Key Responsibilities
- Ensure service levels and supplier commitments reflect what matters to residents, including rapid restoration of resident-facing services.
- Build a team culture where expectations are clear, good work is recognised, and learning from mistakes is encouraged.
- Own the IT service management framework for Digital and Resident Experience, defining standards, policies and service levels for the Service Desk, technical teams and suppliers.
- Hold accountability for service performance across the division, using service reporting to assess performance, hold services and suppliers to account, and direct corrective action.
- Lead service governance and assurance by chairing service performance and review meetings and advising the Head of Operations on service performance, risk and improvement.
- Direct the ITSM Lead in operating service management processes and platforms, owning the framework and priorities for continual service improvement.
- Manage the service level and service management aspects of supplier and managed-service performance, collaborating with the Commercial function to secure council outcomes.
- Line manage and develop the ITSM Lead and build cross-service relationships to embed consistent practice without direct line authority.

Experience
- Significant experience owning or leading IT service management practice and service performance within a large, complex organisation, ideally local government or the public sector.
- Strong understanding of ITIL or equivalent service management frameworks, including incident, problem, change, request and configuration management.
- Proven track record of defining service levels and standards, and holding services and suppliers accountable.
- Experience leading service management improvements and embedding consistent practice across multiple teams through influence rather than direct authority.
- Sound judgement and integrity, with resilience to operate effectively in a politically aware and complex environment.

About You
- Credible and confident service management professional.
- Genuine commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Passionate about using technology to improve outcomes for diverse communities.
- Ability to build strong relationships and influence across teams.
- Resilient and adaptable in a complex organisational environment.

Qualifications
- Relevant IT service management qualifications such as ITIL are highly desirable.
- Demonstrable knowledge of service management frameworks and best practices.