IT Service Operations Manager

Lincolnshire Co-op; Lincoln; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

34 days annual leave (including bank)

Pension scheme with employer contrib.

Colleague discount rates

Annual discretionary bonuses

Job summary

Lincolnshire Co-op is seeking an IT Service Operations Manager to own IT services and ensure high-quality delivery across the organisation. You will lead IT Support, Support Engineer and User Fulfilment teams, with a focus on ITIL processes, incident management, and continuous service improvements.

You will monitor performance, report on KPIs, manage changes and maintain strong stakeholder communication while driving efficient service transitions and vendor partnerships.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as an IT Service Operations Manager or similar, leading multiple IT support functions.
• Strong understanding of ITIL principles; ITIL certification or equivalent framework is a plus.
• Hands-on incident management experience and escalation leadership.
• Experience chairing Change Advisory Board and overseeing change control processes.
• Proven ability to lead internal teams and external service partners.
• Excellent vendor management including negotiating SLAs.

Responsibilities

• Own IT services delivery and ensure high-quality performance against SLAs.
• Lead IT Support, Support Engineer and User Fulfilment teams with team leaders.
• Monitor service performance, report KPIs, and address delivery gaps.
• Oversee User Fulfilment activities including IAM and security compliance.
• Coordinate major incident responses and stakeholder communications.
• Drive service improvements and smooth transitions for changes.

Skills

ITIL

Incident management

Change management

Vendor management

Leadership

Communication

Job description

About the role:

Our colleagues in IT provide an efficient and dependable support service to all of our business areas. A crucial part of our support services, this team use their creative knowledge to design, develop and supportsystems and processes across all of our business areas.

We’re looking for an experienced IT Service Operations Manager to take ownership of our IT services and ensure their consistent, high-quality delivery.

In this role, you’ll ensure IT services align with business needs, are proactively managed and continuously improved. You’ll be fully accountable for service delivery against Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and lead the IT Support, Support Engineer and User Fulfilment teams, supported by team leaders.

You’ll monitor and report on service performance, address delivery gaps and ensure accurate KPI reporting. You’ll also oversee User Fulfilment, including identity and access management, equipment requests and security compliance.

As the main contact for service-related issues, you’ll ensure customer satisfaction, coordinate responses to major incidents and maintain clear communication with stakeholders. You’ll identify and implement improvements to enhance service efficiency and support change projects by ensuring smooth service transitions. Root cause analysis and preventative action planning will also form part of your remit.

For a more detailed role breakdown, please refer to the full job description which is available as a download on this page.

INDMP

About You

We’re looking for someone with strong leadership, communication, and service management expertise—someone who can bring structure, reliability, and a continuous improvement mindset to a fast-paced IT environment. To succeed in this role, you’ll need:

• Proven experience as an IT Service Operations Manager or in a similar role, managing multiple IT support functions.
• A strong understanding of ITIL principles and practices; certification in ITIL or a relevant framework would be a plus.
• Hands‑on experience leading IT incident management and acting as the key escalation point.
• Experience chairing a Change Advisory Board and overseeing change control processes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop both internal teams and external service partners.
• Excellent vendor management skills, including negotiating and managing service-level agreements.

You will demonstrate strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with a focus on driving service improvements. With experience in managing service transitions, you ensure changes are implemented smoothly and effectively. Your proactive mindset helps you identify and deliver operational enhancements, while your excellent communication skills enable you to influence stakeholders and align teams with business goals.

Benefits:

In addition to working for a successful co‑operative business, we offer our colleagues fantastic benefits, including:

• 34 days annual leave (including bank holidays) (pro‑rate)
• Pension scheme (with up to 12% employer contributions)
• Generous colleague discount rates across our family of businesses
• Annual discretionary colleague bonuses to reward you for your hard work

We are an “Investors in People - Platinum” employer, meaning that we have been recognised as one of the country’s top employers, offering progression opportunities to all our colleagues. As your confidence grows, you’ll have the opportunity to build the skills necessary to further progress your career and help to open up future opportunities. Whether you’re thinking of a future with us or looking to develop your skills with a community‑focused business, we’ll work together with you to shape your career for the better.

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.

We work together as a Society and are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is barrier free and as inclusive as possible for everyone. If you need any adjustments, would like us to do anything differently during the interview or would like to get in touch with us about anything else, please contact our Recruitment team on [phone], or alternatively you can [e-mail].