Senior Service Delivery Manager - Mainframe & Hybrid Cloud

Ensono; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job description

Who are we?

At Ensono, our purpose is to be a relentless ally, disrupting the status quo and enabling our clients to Do Great Things. As a trusted technology adviser and managed services provider, we help clients navigate continuous change and embrace innovation.

We deliver world-class hybrid cloud, Infrastructure, mainframe transformation, data, IDAM, and cloud-native solutions, simplifying complex business challenges and creating new pathways to success. Headquartered in the USA and backed by private equity, Ensono has a strong track record in the UK and Europe, with growth plans built on trusted partnerships and deep industry expertise.

About the role:

As an Expert Service Delivery Manager, you will own the end-to-end service relationship for one or more of Ensono's most strategic, mainframe-centric clients. You'll be the executive face of Ensono to CIO/CTO-level stakeholders, orchestrating delivery across z/OS, distributed and cloud platforms, and driving continual service improvement across a highly complex, multi-tower estate. This is a senior, client-facing role for someone who is equally comfortable in an ITIL governance forum, a Sev-1 mainframe incident bridge, and a boardroom QBR.

Key responsibilities

• Acts as a client advocate and a point of escalations for client service delivery needs, including Sev-1/Sev-2 mainframe incidents.
• Assigned to Strategic mainframe and hybrid-platform accounts with high profile client visibility and demand for executive stakeholder engagement.
• Coordinates internally across Ensono with cross-functional teams including Mainframe Operations, z/OS Systems Programming, Storage, Network, Security, and Cloud, to ensure the relationship and services levels are achieved. Provides guidance within Ensono's operational teams to ensure clients have an exceptional experience with the technology solutions we provide and that contractual obligations are met.
• Actively identifies, captures, and communicates operational risks, insights, opportunities, and efficiencies. Develops and executes improvement plans from discoveries including MIPS/MSU optimisation, mainframe software cost takeout, DR posture, and mainframe-to-cloud modernisation opportunities.
• Partners with assigned Ensono support resources to capture important client data and conducts analyses to identify issues and track progress against the client's business outcomes. This may include analysing the health/wellness of the client's environment, data on incidents/SLAs.
• Educates the operational team in understanding how clients utilize Ensono services in support of their business.
• Provides technical support or training on Ensono products (i.e., client portal) by coordinating with internal SMEs and support organizations.
• Builds relationships across the client's organization to confirm the right level of participation across IT and the business to drive success and achieve the client's outcomes.
• Maintains and improves CSAT through optimizing service quality and end-to-end client experience.
• Uses operational health and KPIs to identify and communicate risks and insights to the client and Ensono senior leadership.
• Provides executive level communication for critical business impacting events, account updates, and service improvement plans.
• Delivers, executes, and monitors continual service improvement plans across all aspect of Ensono delivery.
• Collaborates with the Client Engagement Partner (Sales) to build a strategic account plan and coordinates to effectively manage client relationships, strategic outcomes, opportunities, and manages the client's overall contractual relationship including identifying opportunities for mainframe modernisation, hybrid cloud extension, and platform consolidation.
• Manages critical client issues/incidents via an ITSM based approach. communicating the client's expectations, and ensuring coordination across the Ensono team to deliver.
• Assesses account performance through Ensono's Client Health Dashboard and works across Ensono teams to manage client challenges and deliver high quality service to each client.
• Acts as a product advocate and provides guidance and recommendations to clients, strengthening the relationship as well as exceeding expectations.
• Establishes and leads operational meetings focused on ITSM governance and SLA adherence.

We want all new Associates to succeed in their roles at Ensono. That's why we've outlined the job requirements below. To be considered for this role, it's important that you meet all Required Qualifications. If you do not meet all of the Preferred Qualifications, we still encourage you to apply.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of IT Service Management experience in a client-facing role, with meaningful exposure to mainframe (z/OS) managed service environments.
• Executive-level client relationship management experience
• Operational ability in diverse, large-scale, multi-platform, outsourced environments spanning mainframe, distributed, and cloud.
• In-depth knowledge of escalation procedures, incident management, and other disciplines related to service delivery
• Proficient understanding of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) principles
• Demonstrated understanding of any of the following technologies: Mainframe (z/OS, CICS, Db2, IMS, MQ, JCL/batch), Open Systems, Virtualization, Databases, Cloud Computing, Middleware, or Networking
• Willing to travel as required (e.g., client service reviews at client site)

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as an SDM, Client Executive, or Delivery Lead on a mainframe-as-a-Service account (financial services, insurance, retail, public sector, or logistics preferred).
• ITIL 4 Managing Professional (or equivalent) certification.
• Familiarity with mainframe modernisation patterns — re-host, re-platform, re-factor, and hybrid cloud integration.
• Exposure to mainframe software optimisation (e.g., BMC AMI, Broadcom, IBM software stack rationalisation) and MLC/OTC cost levers.
• Understanding of mainframe DR, resilience, and cyber-resilience (including air-gapped/cyber vault concepts).
• Experience working alongside hyperscale partners (Microsoft, AWS, GCP, IBM) on hybrid estates.
• Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience.

What you will bring to Ensono

• A calm, credible executive presence in high-pressure situations — including major incidents on mission-critical mainframe workloads.
• Deep instinct for service ownership: you don't wait to be asked; you spot risks, drive improvement plans, and hold cross-functional teams to account.
• The ability to translate mainframe technical detail into business outcomes for non-technical execs — and business outcomes back into operational priorities for engineering teams.
• A modernisation mindset: you see mainframe not as legacy, but as a strategic platform that can be optimised, integrated with cloud, and extended for decades to come.
• Genuine client empathy and a relentless-ally mentality that fits our culture.

What we can offer you:

We are a people-first business, which means people are at the heart of everything we do here. We offer our associates a safe environment where learning, knowledge sharing, and open communication is encouraged. Whether at one of the internal events, such as socials, competency meet-ups, hackathons or as part of one or more of our global Community Groups, such as Beautiful Brains (for the neurodiverse and curious), HERO (helping to education regarding orientation), E-Vets (Ensono veteran community), Women Connected (women in IT) and many more as we strive to build a business where everyone feels welcomed, included, and valued.

Our core benefits include:

• Competitive base salary & bonus plan
• The ability to work from a range of flexible locations
• Prestigious sales and broader team recognition with Annual Presidents Club
• Starting with 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) – accruing to 30 days based on length of service
• 1/2 day leave on your birthday
• A day of leave to use to volunteer with a charity of your choice
• Sabbatical options at 5 & 10 years' service
• 5 days study leave
• Generous company pension
• Private healthcare for you and your family
• Salary sacrifice charity giving scheme
• Salary sacrifice electric car scheme
• Enhanced family leaves
• Equity appreciation program plan
• Life and income protection
• Additional perks such as discounted gym memberships, cycle scheme, EAP and more!