Head of Service Management

Job Title

Head of Service Management

Location

Asda House

Employment Type

Full time

Contract Type

Permanent

Hours per Week

37.5

Salary

Competitive Salary plus benefits

Category

End User Support

Closing Date

5 May 2025

We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Head of Service Management to lead the evolution of our enterprise-wide service management capabilities. This is a key leadership role responsible for shaping and embedding a high-performing, agile, and business-aligned service management function that enables consistent, controlled, and customer-focused service delivery.

You’ll be responsible for setting direction, introducing structure, and establishing clear areas of focus within the team—while actively supporting innovation and continuous improvement. With a deep understanding of service management principles and an adaptive mindset, you will enable transformation across service design, operations, stakeholder engagement, and third-party governance.

What you'll love:

• Strategic Service Leadership: Define and implement a service management strategy aligned to business priorities. Introduce structure and team pillars focused on core areas: Service Introduction, Service Design, Service Operations, 3rd Party Management, and Stakeholder Engagement—ensuring coverage, collaboration, and avoidance of single points of failure.
• Team & Capability Management: Assess current team responsibilities and evolve the operating model accordingly. Provide mentorship and leadership to develop a strong, responsive service management team with clear ownership and defined accountability across service domains.
• Command & Control Support: Partner with existing teams to enhance the Command & Control function (Incident & Problem Management), observing current practices and supporting evolution with a focus on smarter, modern ways of working including AI integration and intelligent automation.
• Service Lifecycle Management: Oversee the end-to-end service lifecycle, from initial design and transition to operational support. Ensure new or changed services are introduced seamlessly and managed effectively throughout their lifecycle.
• Vendor & 3rd Party Management: Govern and drive accountability across third-party and supplier relationships. Focus on efficiency, value delivery, cost control, and clear service-level performance.
• Stakeholder & Relationship Management: Build and nurture strong relationships across the organization. Ensure transparent communication, alignment of service expectations, and continuous collaboration with business stakeholders.
• Governance, Risk & Control: Establish governance and change control mechanisms that enable innovation without compromising stability or compliance. Champion a balance of agility and risk management in all service processes.
• Knowledge & Innovation Culture: Promote a culture of knowledge sharing, service excellence, and continuous improvement. Leverage technology, automation, and AI to drive innovation and smarter ways of working across the service landscape.

What you'll need:

• Proven experience in leading enterprise-level IT Service Management functions.
• Deep understanding of service management best practices, with demonstrated experience across the full-service lifecycle.
• Experience building or reshaping service teams, including defining roles, responsibilities, and focus areas.
• Expertise in stakeholder engagement, vendor governance, and performance-driven leadership.
• Familiarity with agile and adaptive ways of working in a technology-led organization.
• Strong track record of innovation and evolving service models using modern tools and technologies.
• Strong track record of financial accountability and control of service provider organisations.

Preferred Certifications:

• ITIL Foundation (v3 or v4) – Required
• ITIL Intermediate or Expert level – Strongly Preferred
• COBIT, ISO/IEC 20000, or other governance frameworks – Desirable
• Project Management or Agile certifications (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, Scrum) – Advantageous

Everything you'll love:

To ensure we balance moments where we know we need to collaborate together and the need for flexibility, Asda has a hybrid way of working with a minimum 3 days a week in one of our Home Offices. Over and above this, each area of Asda may have additional requirements which may require spending more days in the office, visiting suppliers, stores or depots.

You will also get an excellent benefits package including:

• Discretionary company bonus
• Company pension up 1.5 times colleagues' contribution (Max 15%)
• Company Car allowance of £8000
• 15% colleague discount in store and online
• Free access to wellbeing services such as Wagestream
• 24/7 virtual GP, counselling, health and dental cash plans and a 24/7 employee assistance helpline, alongside discounts across a range of services and activities, from airport parking, enhanced to theme parks and cinemas
• Asda Allies Inclusion Networks – helping colleagues to make sure everybody is included and that our differences are recognised and celebrated
• Excellent parental leave policies, including maternity & adoption leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave, and support for those doing fertility treatments.

We want all colleagues to be able to bring their best and true selves to work, every day. Simply put, we want our colleagues to be Proud to be Asda and proud to be themselves.