IT Service Manager

Job title: IT Service Manager

Reporting to: Head of IT Service Delivery

Supervisor to: IT Service Desk Manager

Department: IT

Location: London

Purpose of role: To oversee the effective delivery and continual improvement of IT services, ensuring they are reliable, secure, user-focused and aligned with the firm’s operational priorities.

Hours: Permanent, full-time

Reviewed: October 2026

Summary

The IT Service Manager provides operational leadership across the firm’s IT service delivery function. The role turns service data, user feedback, operational risks and business priorities into clear actions for the Service Desk, technical teams and suppliers. It ensures that technology changes are introduced into support with clear ownership, documentation, training, security controls and measurable acceptance criteria, while developing scalable services that support the firm’s continued growth.

Job Responsibilities

• Service delivery leadership and governance: Lead day-to-day IT service delivery through the IT Service Desk Manager, setting clear priorities, service expectations and performance measures, and escalating material risks or decisions outside delegated authority.
• Service performance and improvement: Monitor service levels, customer experience, capacity and reliability, using data and feedback to maintain a prioritised service improvement roadmap and reduce avoidable demand through better processes, self-service and automation.
• Major incident, escalation and problem management: Act as the operational escalation point for high-impact service issues, coordinating restoration, communications and supplier or technical team engagement. Ensure root causes, corrective actions and lessons learned are identified and tracked to completion.
• Service operations and request fulfilment: Oversee effective incident and request processes, including joiner, mover and leaver services, staff moves and requests for equipment, software or service enhancements, applying agreed standards and managing exceptions appropriately.
• Knowledge management: Own the IT knowledge management process, ensuring support procedures, documentation and knowledge content are accurate, accessible and routinely updated to improve first-time resolution and self-service.
• Service transition and change enablement: Ensure new and changed services enter live support with defined ownership, documentation, training, security controls, support capacity and acceptance criteria. Coordinate CAB administration, scheduling, records and communications.
• ITSM platform and service catalogue: Act as operational owner of the ITSM platform and service catalogue, ensuring core workflows, catalogue content, service dependencies and configuration information are consistently maintained, adopted, measured and improved.
• Supplier and cross-team service management: Manage operational relationships with suppliers and technical teams, monitor performance, coordinate escalations and ensure service risks, dependencies and improvement actions have clear ownership through to closure.
• IT business continuity & operational resilience: Coordinate day-to-day continuity and resilience activities, including maintaining recovery plans, supporting business impact assessments and disruption response, organising exercises and tests, and tracking remedial actions. Work with stakeholders, technical teams and suppliers to keep recovery arrangements current and aligned with business priorities. Escalate material gaps, overdue actions, failed tests and significant risks to the Head of IT Service Delivery, who retains assurance and executive reporting accountability.
• Stakeholder and service communications: Maintain effective relationships with business stakeholders and ensure timely, clear communication about outages, service performance, remediation activity and planned changes.
• Hardware lifecycle and financial planning: Maintain the end-user hardware refresh programme, forecast demand, coordinate replacements and contribute to service budgeting, investment recommendations and risk reporting.

Skills and experience

• Proven experience leading IT service delivery in a complex, multi-user environment, including oversight of service desk operations and third-party suppliers.
• Able to demonstrate experience of championing a culture of continuous service improvement and proactive problem-solving within the IT Service and Support Teams.
• Strong working knowledge of IT service management practices, including incident, request, problem, change, knowledge and service transition management.
• Demonstrable experience coordinating major incidents and operational escalations, with clear decision-making, communication and follow-through under pressure.
• Ability to interpret service data, identify trends and risks, and translate insight into practical improvement plans and measurable outcomes.
• Strong leadership, coaching and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Experience managing ITSM platforms, service catalogues, support documentation and operational governance controls.
• Understanding of information security, compliance, business continuity and operational resilience requirements within a professional services environment.
• Commercially aware, organised and proactive, with a collaborative approach and a strong focus on service quality and user experience.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.

Qualifications

• ITIL 4 Foundation or an equivalent service management qualification is required.
• A relevant service management accreditation beyond foundation level, or an equivalent qualification in leadership, service improvement or operational resilience, is desirable.