IT Service Design and Transition Manager

Lincolnshire Co-op; Lincoln; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual leave 30 days

Pension contributions

Colleague discounts

Performance bonuses

Learning & development

Free tea & coffee

Wellbeing support

Job summary

Lincolnshire Co-op is seeking an experienced Service Design and Transition Manager to bridge project delivery with business-as-usual support. You will ensure operational requirements are understood and every new or changed service moves into live with control and solid documentation.

You will lead ITIL 4-aligned design and transition practices, coordinate knowledge transfer, and manage risks and readiness reviews across a diverse IT portfolio.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in IT service management, service design or service transition within a medium-to-large IT environment.
• Managed handovers from project delivery into live operational support.
• Strong working knowledge of ITIL 4, especially service design and transition practices.
• Led readiness reviews, service acceptance processes or go-live governance.
• Influences project teams and challenges where operational requirements aren’t met.
• Creates clear, practical standards, processes and documentation for colleagues.
• Interprets incident and support data to improve future outcomes.
• Communicates clearly with technical and non-technical colleagues at all levels.
• Organised and able to manage several transitions, risks and priorities concurrently.
• Builds positive working relationships while maintaining accountability and readiness.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead an ITIL 4-aligned approach to design, transition and acceptance across the IT project portfolio.
• Engage with projects from initiation to ensure supportability, monitoring, resilience and operational requirements are planned.
• Maintain service design standards, templates and service catalogue information.
• Represent business-as-usual support during design and delivery, informing decisions with operational risks.
• Lead service acceptance and go-live readiness reviews with clear criteria.
• Coordinate knowledge transfer between project and support teams, including runbooks and monitoring documents.
• Plan early-life support arrangements before formal handover to steady state service.
• Maintain transition risk logs and escalate readiness concerns before go-live.
• Provide reporting on transition progress, risks, decisions and outcomes.
• Review post-go-live incidents and feedback to improve future transitions.

Skills

ITIL 4

Service design

Service transition

Stakeholder management

Project delivery

Education

ITIL 4 Foundation or higher

Job description

What if your next IT role gave you the opportunity to shape how new technology is introduced across a diverse organisation, connect project delivery with operational support, and make sure important services are ready to perform from the moment they go live?

At Lincolnshire Co-op, technology supports a varied family of businesses and services, from our food stores and pharmacies to our funeral homes, travel branches, warehouses and Support Centre teams.

Introducing new technology successfully takes more than completing a project. Services need to be supportable, resilient and operationally ready, with the right knowledge, monitoring and processes in place before they are handed over.

As our Service Design and Transition Manager, you’ll bridge the gap between project delivery and business-as-usual support. You’ll work with projects from their earliest stages, making sure operational requirements are understood and every new or changed service moves into the live environment in a controlled, well-documented and proportionate way.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll establish and lead an ITIL 4-aligned approach to service design, transition and acceptance across our IT project portfolio.

In this role, you will:

• Engage with projects from initiation, making sure supportability, monitoring, resilience and operational requirements are considered from the outset.
• Own and maintain practical service design standards, templates and service catalogue information.
• Represent business-as-usual support during service design and delivery, ensuring operational risks and support requirements inform project decisions.
• Lead service acceptance and go-live readiness reviews, with clear entry, exit and approval criteria.
• Coordinate knowledge transfer between project and support teams, including runbooks, known errors, monitoring and support documentation.
• Plan and manage early-life support arrangements before overseeing the formal handover into steady-state service.
• Maintain transition risk logs and elevate unresolved readiness concerns ahead of go-live.
• Provide clear reporting on transition progress, risks, decisions and outcomes.
• Review post-go-live incidents, early-life support and colleague feedback to improve future transitions.
• Build strong relationships across project delivery, the PMO, applications, infrastructure, service operations and the wider business.

You’ll be supported by colleagues across IT, project delivery and the wider Society who share a commitment to introducing change effectively and providing dependable services for our colleagues, customers and members.

About You

You may already be working in service design or transition, or you might be an experienced IT service management professional looking for an opportunity to shape a more consistent approach across a complex organisation.

What matters most to us is your ability to connect technical delivery with operational reality, bring people together and make sure services are genuinely ready before they go live.

You’ll probably recognise yourself in this if:

• You have significant experience in IT service management, service design or service transition within a medium-to-large IT environment.
• You have managed handovers from project delivery into live operational support.
• You have a strong working knowledge of ITIL 4, particularly its service design and transition practices.
• You have led readiness reviews, service acceptance processes or go-live governance.
• You’re confident influencing project teams and constructively challenging where operational requirements haven’t been met.
• You can create clear, practical standards, processes and documentation that colleagues will use.
• You’re comfortable interpreting incident and support data and using it to improve future outcomes.
• You communicate clearly with technical and non-technical colleagues at every level.
• You’re organised and able to manage several service transitions, risks and priorities at the same time.
• You build positive working relationships without losing sight of accountability, service quality or operational readiness.

Experience within a retail, multi-site or high-availability environment would be helpful, as would an ITIL 4 Foundation or higher-level service management qualification.

A full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for business use would also be advantageous.

Why this role matters

Technology supports almost every part of our Society.

Every day, colleagues across our businesses rely on IT services to serve our customers and members, support patients, manage important information and keep our operations moving.

When a new or changed service goes live, its impact can be felt across the organisation. By making sure services are designed with operational support in mind, you’ll help reduce disruption, resolve early issues more quickly and give colleagues confidence in the technology they use.

You’ll have the opportunity to influence:

• How operational requirements are built into IT projects from the beginning.
• How new and changed services are assessed and approved before go-live.
• How effectively knowledge is transferred from project teams into operational support.
• How transition risks are identified, managed and escalated.
• How quickly services move from early-life support into a stable operating environment.
• How lessons from previous transitions improve the delivery of future change.

Most importantly, you’ll help us deliver on our purpose of bringing together ideas, energy and resources to make life better in our communities.

What connects for you

Alongside the opportunity to shape an important area of our IT service and make a difference across the Society, you’ll receive:

• 30 days’ annual leave, including bank holidays, increasing with service.
• A pension scheme with up to 12% employer contributions.
• Generous colleague discounts across our family of businesses.
• Annual discretionary performance-based bonuses.
• Access to a wide range of learning and professional development opportunities.
• Free tea and coffee during rest breaks.
• Wellbeing support and opportunities to get involved in our local communities.

We’re also proud to be an Investors in People Platinum employer, recognising our commitment to helping colleagues learn, develop and build rewarding careers.

The role is contracted for 37.5 hours per week, with typical working hours of Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm. Some flexibility will be needed from time to time to support important service transitions and go-live activity.

A final thought...

This is an opportunity to shape how services move from project delivery into live operation across a diverse organisation that people rely on every day.

We’re looking for someone who can ask the right questions, bring structure to change and give both project and support teams confidence that a service is genuinely ready to go live.

About Us

From a single store in 1861 we have grown to be one of the most successful co-operatives in the UK. We’re proud to be able to offer a wide range of services from across our family of businesses. From Food Stores and Pharmacies to Post Offices and Support Services, we’re a growing society made up of over 220 outlets and nearly 3,000 colleagues.

We're owned by our members, the people of Lincolnshire and surrounding counties, and have been for more than 160 years! Communities are at the heart of everything we do and motivates us to deliver more than great customer service. We support them by sharing dividend with our members, investing in new and improved services, raising money for charity through our Community Champion scheme, supporting local schools and so much more! Find out more about us, our purpose and wonderful colleagues here.