Operational Readiness Lead

Sanderson Recruitment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Recruitment seeks an IT Service Operational Readiness Lead to ensure new or changed IT services are prepared for operational support before deployment into live environments. This role bridges project delivery, service management, operations and support, ensuring readiness activities are completed, documented, and approved.

The incumbent collaborates with project delivery and support teams, follows ITIL-aligned processes, and drives continuous improvement in readiness and transition

Qualifications

• 5 years in IT Service Management (ITSM) and Service Transition.
• Strong understanding of ITIL principles and frameworks.
• Experience managing operational readiness or service transition activities.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience working with infrastructure, cloud, application, and support teams.
• Strong risk management and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to coordinate multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Active DV Clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead Operational Readiness Reviews (ORR) for new or updated services.
• Develop and maintain operational readiness frameworks, processes, and governance.
• Ensure all operational acceptance criteria are met before service go-live.
• Coordinate service transition activities across project and operational teams.
• Act as the operational readiness authority for project deployments.
• Define and maintain Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) requirements.
• Facilitate readiness assessments and go-live reviews.
• Identify and manage operational risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Ensure service support requirements are documented and approved.
• Ensure support documentation, runbooks, and knowledge articles are created and maintained.
• Coordinate knowledge transfer sessions between delivery and support teams.
• Verify service desk and resolver groups have information to support the service.
• Validate support structures, escalation paths, and service ownership.
• Ensure monitoring, alerting, backup, recovery, and support tooling are operational.
• Work with technical teams to confirm operational support capability and capacity.
• Assess resource and training requirements for support teams.
• Partner with project managers, service owners, architects, engineers, and support teams.
• Provide readiness status reporting to senior leadership and governance boards.
• Communicate risks, mitigation plans, and deployment readiness recommendations.
• Identify opportunities to improve service transition and operational readiness processes.
• Support ITIL best practices and organisational service management initiatives.
• Analyse post-implementation reviews and lessons learned to improve future readiness activities.

Skills

ITIL

Stakeholder management

Communication

Project coordination

Risk management

DV Clearance

Tools

Cloud

DevOps

ITSM

Job description

Salary: £50,000 - 50,000 per year

Requirements:

• We require 5 years experience in IT Service Management (ITSM) and Service Transition processes.
• We require a strong understanding of ITIL principles and frameworks.
• We require experience managing operational readiness or service transition activities.
• We require excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• We require experience working with infrastructure, cloud, application, and support teams.
• We require strong risk management and problem-solving capabilities.
• We require the ability to coordinate multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• This role requires active DV Clearance.

Responsibilities:

• We lead Operational Readiness Reviews (ORR) for new and updated services.
• We develop and maintain operational readiness frameworks, processes, and governance.
• We ensure all operational acceptance criteria are met before service go-live.
• We coordinate service transition activities across project and operational teams.
• We act as the operational readiness authority for project deployments.
• We define and maintain Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) requirements.
• We facilitate readiness assessments and go-live reviews.
• We identify and manage operational risks, issues, and dependencies.
• We ensure service support requirements are documented and approved.
• We ensure support documentation, work instructions, runbooks, and knowledge articles are created and maintained.
• We coordinate knowledge transfer sessions between delivery and support teams.
• We verify service desk and resolver groups have the information required to support the service.
• We validate support structures, escalation paths, and service ownership.
• We ensure monitoring, alerting, backup, recovery, and support tooling are operational.
• We work with technical teams to confirm operational support capability and capacity.
• We assess resource and training requirements for support teams.
• We partner with project managers, service owners, architects, engineers, and support teams.
• We provide readiness status reporting to senior leadership and governance boards.
• We communicate risks, mitigation plans, and deployment readiness recommendations.
• We identify opportunities to improve service transition and operational readiness processes.
• We support ITIL best practices and organisational service management initiatives.
• We analyse post-implementation reviews and lessons learned to improve future readiness activities.

Technologies:

• Cloud
• Support
• ITIL
• ITSM
• DevOps

More:

We are seeking an IT Service Operational Readiness Lead to ensure new or changed IT services are fully prepared for operational support before deployment into live environments. In this role, we act as the bridge between project delivery teams, service management, operations, and support functions to ensure operational, technical, and business readiness activities are completed, documented, and approved. We offer a collaborative environment with a strong focus on partnership, ITIL-aligned service management, continuous improvement, and inclusive working practices. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives, and we are committed to supporting reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process.

last updated 38 week of 2026