IT Service Delivery Manager

Service Delivery Manager Location: Hybrid at Newcastle (3 days/week) Employment Type Full-Time Role Overview We are seeking an experienced and proactive Service Manager to oversee the performance, stability, and continuous improvement of business-critical applications and services within the Service Group. The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring effective incident and problem resolution, managing service performance against agreed SLAs, and acting as a key liaison between technical support teams, delivery teams, and client stakeholders.

The Service Manager will play a pivotal role in maintaining operational excellence, leading major incident management activities, driving service improvements, and ensuring a seamless transition of new services into production.

Key Responsibilities Service Operations & Incident Management

• Own and drive incident and problem management activities across the Service Group.

• Monitor service performance, application availability, and operational stability in production environments.

• Lead the resolution of Priority 1 (P1) and Priority 2 (P2) incidents, coordinating technical teams to restore services within SLA targets.

• Actively participate in and lead major incident bridge calls, providing timely updates to stakeholders and clients.

• Ensure production incidents are managed effectively and escalated appropriately based on business impact and priority.

Service Performance & Reporting

• Track, analyse, and report on service performance metrics, trends, and KPIs.

• Produce weekly and monthly service reports, including Monthly Service Reviews (MSRs) for client presentation.

• Identify service risks and recommend actions to improve performance and reliability.

• Ensure compliance with contractual SLAs and operational objectives.

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Coordinate and direct support teams to prioritise work effectively and address critical issues.

• Collaborate with technical, delivery, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment on service priorities.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients, providing clear communication on operational performance and ongoing initiatives.

• Deputise for the Service Lead when required.

Continuous Service Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve service quality, operational efficiency, monitoring, and alerting capabilities.

• Drive Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) initiatives to reduce incident volumes and improve customer experience.

• Support the implementation of process enhancements, automation, and best practice service management methodologies.

Change & Transition Management

• Partner with delivery and project teams to understand upcoming releases and business changes.

• Support the successful transition of new services and applications into live operations.

• Ensure service readiness processes are followed and operational support requirements are clearly defined.

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in a Service Manager, IT Service Delivery Manager, Application Support Manager, or similar role.

• Strong understanding of ITIL Service Management principles and practices.

• Demonstrated experience managing major incidents, problem management, and service operations.

• Experience producing service performance reports, KPIs, and client-facing dashboards.

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills with the ability to engage at all levels.

• Experience managing support teams and coordinating cross-functional technical resources.

• Ability to work effectively in high-pressure environments and make decisions during critical incidents.

• Knowledge of SLA management and operational governance.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL Foundation or higher certification.

• Experience within enterprise application support environments.

• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, SolarWinds, or similar.

• Experience working within large-scale managed services or consulting environments.

Key Competencies

• Leadership & Team Management

• Incident & Problem Management

• Client & Stakeholder Engagement

• Service Delivery Excellence

• Analytical & Data-Driven Decision Making

• Continuous Improvement Mindset

• Communication & Influencing Skills

• Risk & Escalation Management