Service Manager, Middle East

Smithsgroup2; Dubai; On-site; AED 441,000 - 661,000; Full time

Job summary

Smithsgroup2 in Dubai seeks a Middle East Service Manager to lead the delivery of contracted services, assure customer satisfaction, and drive commercial performance across the region.

Reporting to the Global Service Delivery Director, you will shape the service strategy, build a high-performing team, manage cross-functional collaborations, and sustain long-term customer partnerships while ensuring efficiency and growth.

Responsibilities

• Proactively understand market drivers and provide strategic input to the ME Market team.
• Develop and execute account service strategies that support customer growth and long-term partnerships.
• Identify opportunities for service expansion and cross-functional collaboration to maximise contract value.
• Support revenue retention and growth through strong service performance and renewals management.
• Provide commercial oversight of service delivery, including costs, resources, and profitability targets.
• Lead and develop an operational management team with clear performance measures.
• Analyze service performance trends to inform investment priorities and improvements.
• Collaborate with sales, programmes, and leadership to contribute to account planning and customer retention.

Job description

The Middle East Service Manager is a key strategic and operational leadership role, accountable for the successful delivery of contracted services, customer satisfaction, commercial performance, and strategic account growth within the Middle East market; ensuring the organisation consistently delivers value while strengthening long-term customer partnerships.

Reporting to the Global Service Delivery Director, the role has significant levels of responsibility and accountability for operational delivery within the Middle East market. The incumbent will work with the Middle East Market Head and regional management team to define and drive change and deliver a service strategy which supports the market and regional objectives and deliver key customer interactions and outcome across multiple disciplines.

The incumbent must possess a history of strong leadership, deep practical engineering knowledge and a proven track record for timely delivery, management, cost control and customer satisfaction. Able to lead, recruit, train, coach and mentor staff to achieve company goals while facilitating their professional and personal growth; developing a high performing team by encouraging and motivating and ensuring open and honest communications.

The individual is someone who will bring knowledge and creativity to the position as well as have the discipline to drive results, identifying and developing all culture, process efficiencies and continuous performance improvements, whilst following and embedding established fundamental processes.

Duties

Commercial & Strategy

• Proactive understanding of the market and business drivers and provide strategic inputs (both qualitative and quantitative) to the Middle East Market team.
• Develop and execute account service strategies that support customer growth, operational excellence, and long-term partnership objectives.
• Identify opportunities for service expansion, optimisation, and cross-functional collaboration to maximise contract value and customer outcomes.
• Support revenue retention and growth through strong service performance, renewals management, and identification of upsell opportunities.
• Provide commercial oversight of service delivery, ensuring costs, resource utilisation, and profitability targets are achieved.
• Strategically lead and develop an operational management team to enhance performance by setting clear accountable performance measures
• Analyse service performance trends and business data to inform strategic decisions, investment priorities, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate with sales, programmes, and leadership teams to contribute to account planning, business development, and customer retention strategies.
• Drive transformational initiatives and service innovation opportunities that enhance operational efficiency and strengthen competitive advantage.

Customer Relationship Management

• Act as the service primary point of contact for key customer stakeholders, building trusted relationships and serving as a strategic advisor.
• Create a Customer Engagement Plan and lead regular customer governance meetings, executive reviews, and service performance discussions to ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Drive customer satisfaction initiatives through proactive communication, issue resolution, and continual service improvement plans.
• Understand customer business strategies, challenges, and priorities to ensure services evolve in line with organisational needs.
• Manage escalations effectively, coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver timely resolutions and minimise business impact.
• Promote a customer-centric culture by ensuring service teams remain focused on delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Service Contract Management

• Own and Collaborate with Aftermarket Sales to govern the end-to-end service contract lifecycle, ensuring contractual obligations, service levels, and deliverables are consistently achieved.
• Monitor performance against SLAs, KPIs, and contractual commitments, driving corrective actions where required to maintain compliance.
• Conduct regular service reviews to assess contractual performance, identify risks, and implement continuous service improvements.
• Contribute to contract renewals, amendments, and scope changes in collaboration with customers, sales teams, and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure service delivery aligns with contractual governance frameworks, regulatory and legal requirements, and organisational policies.
• Identify and mitigate service delivery risks that may impact contractual performance, customer satisfaction, or commercial outcomes.

General Responsibilities

• Understand the Middle East market country specific legal requirements of working in the Middle East Region
• Responsible for Profit Centre/Cost Centre Budgets.
• Create processes which achieve the business goals and objectives with regards to their customer service.
• Provide leadership on complex projects, bids and tenders, involving multiple technical an