Head of IT Service & Operations

• 18/11/25
• North East, Newcastle upon Tyne
• £700 - 850 per day
• Contract
• Senior IT Appointments
• Full time

Head of IT Services & Operations

This is a senior leadership role for someone who enjoys taking ownership of how an organisation delivers, supports, and continually improves its technology services. You'll be leading the full Enterprise Technology Service & Operations function, shaping how the business thinks about service excellence, operational performance, resilience, and user experience.

If you're someone who thrives in a complex environment, understands what "good" looks like across ITSM, and enjoys building high-performing teams, this will suit you perfectly.

The Role

You'll set the direction for service operations across the organisation, creating a clear strategy that underpins reliability, availability, and performance across all technology services. Sitting on the wider Technology Leadership Team, you'll play a major role in how the function aligns to business goals and supports ongoing transformation.

Your remit covers service delivery, operational performance, the ITSM framework, tooling, supplier management and the handling of major incidents. You'll have the scope to uplift service maturity, modernise processes, and embed a culture of accountability, collaboration, and user-centric thinking.

You'll also play a key part in ensuring the organisation meets regulatory, audit and operational resilience expectations, so experience in environments where compliance matters will be valuable.

What You'll Lead & Deliver

• Setting the overall strategy for IT service operations and ensuring it aligns with business and technology priorities.
• Leading high-performing teams across service delivery, service desk, and operational support.
• Driving performance through clear SLAs, KPIs, reporting, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Managing major incidents with pace and clarity, ensuring communication to senior stakeholders.
• Owning and maturing the ITSM framework covering Incident, Problem, Change and Request.
• Overseeing the development of ITSM tooling and service reporting capabilities.
• Ensuring operational compliance with industry standards and regulations (ISO27001, GDPR, NIST, DORA, COBIT).
• Contributing to disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
• Working with supplier relationship teams to ensure MSPs and vendors deliver to agreed standards.
• Identifying opportunities for service optimisation, automation, and cost efficiencies.
• Supporting technology change programmes and operational readiness activity.

What You'll Bring

• Significant experience leading IT Service Operations or ITSM functions in complex or multi-site organisations.
• Strong grounding in ITIL best practice (ITIL v4 favourable).
• A background in running large-scale service desks, operations teams, or enterprise IT support environments.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels.
• Experience with enterprise-grade ITSM tools and service reporting.
• A good understanding of cloud, infrastructure, and application environments.
• Confidence managing high-impact incidents and crisis situations.
• A leadership style built on collaboration, communication, and delivering consistent outcomes.

Nice to Have

• ITIL v4 Certification
• PRINCE2 / Agile delivery knowledge
• Experience in regulated sectors
• Familiarity with Microsoft cloud environments (Azure, M365)