IT & Systems Manager

Harvey Nash; Leicester; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Harvey Nash is recruiting an IT & Systems Manager in Leicester to own internal IT operations, business systems, cloud infrastructure and IoT platforms, ensuring security, resilience and scalable services. You will lead change, release, service management and third-line support, working with the Head of Development to align technology with business objectives and drive continual improvement.

You will establish operational discipline, manage incidents and major outages, coordinate with vendors,

Qualifications

• Relevant IT or technology-related qualifications.
• Proven experience managing IT operations within a technology-focused environment.
• Strong understanding of ITIL service management principles.
• Experience managing change, release, and incident management processes.
• Hands-on experience administering Jira and Confluence.
• Strong Microsoft 365 and cloud infrastructure experience.
• Experience with security, compliance, backup, and disaster recovery planning.
• Excellent stakeholder, supplier, and vendor management skills.
• Knowledge of IoT platforms, environments, or connected technologies is highly desirable

Responsibilities

• Oversee the operational management of the production IoT environment.
• Manage service availability, system health, capacity planning, and performance monitoring.
• Develop and maintain alerting frameworks and escalation processes.
• Own service-level and availability targets.
• Work alongside development teams to identify and resolve performance issues.
• Collaborate with infrastructure and cloud providers to support business growth.
• Maintain vendor relationships and ensure value from technology investments.
• Manage the availability and readiness of UAT, testing, staging, and development environments.
• Ensure non-production environments remain aligned with production systems to support effective testing and deployment.
• Manage the lifecycle of IoT devices, sensors, gateways, and associated hardware.
• Maintain certification schedules and compliance requirements.
• Oversee technical documentation, test records, and device version control.
• Coordinate pilot deployments, field trials, and acceptance testing.
• Ensure devices meet required testing and certification standards before release.
• Contribute operational expertise to new product and device development initiatives.
• Lead the response to operational incidents and service disruptions.
• Assess customer impact, determine incident severity, and coordinate escalations.
• Manage major incidents and stakeholder communications.
• Conduct root cause analysis and implement corrective actions.
• Drive continual improvement in service delivery and operational performance.
• Own backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity processes.
• Conduct regular testing of recovery procedures.
• Identify and mitigate single points of failure.
• Manage access controls, monitoring, logging, and operational security.
• Coordinate penetration testing, Cyber Essentials activities, and security assessments.
• Lead remediation of infrastructure, platform, and application vulnerabilities.
• Support ongoing ISO 27001 compliance activities.
• Manage the Request for Change (RFC) process.
• Coordinate and govern all production releases.
• Maintain release schedules and deployment planning.
• Ensure appropriate testing, approvals, rollback procedures, and communications are completed for all releases.
• Collaborate with Development and Operations teams to ensure successful deployments.
• Oversee third-line support activities and SLA performance.
• Manage Jira support boards and technical ticketing processes.
• Prioritise incidents, service requests, bugs, and enhancement requests.
• Validate fixes and resolutions before production release.
• Lead regular review and triage meetings with key stakeholders.
• Own governance and administration of Jira, Confluence, and related tooling.
• Maintain workflows, permissions, automations, and integrations.
• Develop operational reporting and dashboard capabilities.
• Drive best practice adoption across the platform.
• Manage the organisation's IT environment end-to-end.
• Support both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure.
• Maintain Microsoft 365, identity management, endpoint technologies, and security controls.
• Manage supplier relationships, licensing, and IT assets.
• Deliver technology improvements and infrastructure refresh initiatives.
• Develop and maintain the strategic IT roadmap.

Skills

IT Operations

ITIL familiarity

Jira administration

Confluence administration

Microsoft 365

Cloud infrastructure

Security & compliance

Stakeholder management

Vendor management

IoT platforms

Education

IT qualifications

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Azure

Job description

Direct Reports: Senior Testing & Support Officer

About the Company

Our client is a UK-based, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified technology business with a long-established reputation for innovation and service excellence. The organisation is undergoing an exciting period of growth, transformation, and investment as it strengthens its leadership team and enhances operational processes.

This is an opportunity to join a close-knit, ambitious business where you will play a key role in shaping technology operations, driving service excellence, and contributing to the company's future strategic direction. The role offers genuine progression potential, including the opportunity to evolve into a future CTO position as the business expands.

The Role

The IT & Systems Manager will take ownership of internal IT operations, business systems, cloud infrastructure, IoT platforms, and the operational management of deployed devices and supporting technologies.

This is a hands-on leadership role responsible for change management, release coordination, service management, monitoring, third-line support, security, and business continuity. Working closely with the Head of Development and Technical Manager, you will ensure technology services remain secure, scalable, and aligned to business objectives.

Success in this role requires a strong blend of technical expertise, process governance, and stakeholder management. You will be responsible for establishing and maintaining operational discipline while collaborating effectively across the business.

Key Responsibilities:

Platform Management

• Oversee the operational management of the production IoT environment.
• Manage service availability, system health, capacity planning, and performance monitoring.
• Develop and maintain alerting frameworks and escalation processes.
• Own service-level and availability targets.
• Work alongside development teams to identify and resolve performance issues.
• Collaborate with infrastructure and cloud providers to support business growth.
• Maintain vendor relationships and ensure value from technology investments.

Test & Non-Production Environments

• Manage the availability and readiness of UAT, testing, staging, and development environments.
• Ensure non-production environments remain aligned with production systems to support effective testing and deployment.

IoT Device Management

• Manage the lifecycle of IoT devices, sensors, gateways, and associated hardware.
• Maintain certification schedules and compliance requirements.
• Oversee technical documentation, test records, and device version control.
• Coordinate pilot deployments, field trials, and acceptance testing.
• Ensure devices meet required testing and certification standards before release.
• Contribute operational expertise to new product and device development initiatives.
• Lead the response to operational incidents and service disruptions.
• Assess customer impact, determine incident severity, and coordinate escalations.
• Manage major incidents and stakeholder communications.
• Conduct root cause analysis and implement corrective actions.
• Drive continual improvement in service delivery and operational performance.

Security, Backup & Resilience

• Own backup, recovery, disaster recovery, and business continuity processes.
• Conduct regular testing of recovery procedures.
• Identify and mitigate single points of failure.
• Manage access controls, monitoring, logging, and operational security.
• Coordinate penetration testing, Cyber Essentials activities, and security assessments.
• Lead remediation of infrastructure, platform, and application vulnerabilities.
• Support ongoing ISO 27001 compliance activities.

Change & Release Management

• Manage the Request for Change (RFC) process.
• Coordinate and govern all production releases.
• Maintain release schedules and deployment planning.
• Ensure appropriate testing, approvals, rollback procedures, and communications are completed for all releases.
• Collaborate with Development and Operations teams to ensure successful deployments.

Third-Line Support

• Oversee third-line support activities and SLA performance.
• Manage Jira support boards and technical ticketing processes.
• Prioritise incidents, service requests, bugs, and enhancement requests.
• Validate fixes and resolutions before production release.
• Lead regular review and triage meetings with key stakeholders.
• Own governance and administration of Jira, Confluence, and related tooling.
• Maintain workflows, permissions, automations, and integrations.
• Develop operational reporting and dashboard capabilities.
• Drive best practice adoption across the platform.

Internal IT & Infrastructure

• Manage the organisation's IT environment end-to-end.
• Support both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure.
• Maintain Microsoft 365, identity management, endpoint technologies, and security controls.
• Manage supplier relationships, licensing, and IT assets.
• Deliver technology improvements and infrastructure refresh initiatives.
• Develop and maintain the strategic IT roadmap.

Qualifications & Experience

• Relevant IT or technology-related qualifications.
• Proven experience managing IT operations within a technology-focused environment.
• Strong understanding of ITIL service management principles.
• Experience managing change, release, and incident management processes.
• Hands‑on experience administering Jira and Confluence.
• Strong Microsoft 365 and cloud infrastructure experience.
• Experience with security, compliance, backup, and disaster recovery planning.
• Excellent stakeholder, supplier, and vendor management skills.
• Knowledge of IoT platforms, environments, or connected technologies is highly desirable