Senior Service Manager

NHS England; Leeds, Exeter; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS England is seeking a Senior Service Manager to lead SPR operations, manage supplier performance and ensure service levels across national IT and digital services. The role spans governance, incident management and continuous improvement, with close collaboration across product, delivery, clinical, and commercial teams.

The post requires strong leadership, contract management skills, and experience in IT and digital service delivery.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or equivalent experience.
• ITIL Practitioner or VeriSM Foundation or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuous professional development.
• A recognised management qualification or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead SPR operations with safety, resilience and service standards.
• Coordinate with Service Managers on daily operations and governance.
• Manage incidents, major incidents, problems, changes and releases.
• Ensure support models, documentation, monitoring and escalation for new capabilities.
• Report on service health, risks and improvements for governance.
• Collaborate with product, delivery, technical, clinical, commercial and supplier teams on risks, issues and decisions.
• Prioritise user safety, data quality and user experience.

Skills

Leadership & People Mgmt

Stakeholder Mgmt

Service Level Mgmt

Contract Mgmt

Education

Master's degree or equivalent

ITIL Practitioner or VeriSM Foundation

CPD evidence

Management qualification

Job description

Digital Operations and Service Management (DOSM) sits within the Technology Digital and Data Directorate of NHS England.

The Technology Digital and Data Directorate's vision is to deliver the best care and outcomes for the NHS and people that it serves, by improving population health and patient pathways, rapidly adopting effective technologies, building on insights from data and cutting-edge research, and by transforming the way that care is delivered.

DOSM operates and manages business critical infrastructure, and digital and data services, that underpin the health and social care system. We ensure the highest levels of reliability and availability of national digital and technology services, so that they can be relied upon by the NHS and social care system.

Our aim is to prevent system disruption but, if it does occur, to restore service as quickly as possible. We coordinate complex operational activities across environments, teams and organisations in order to achieve this.

Main duties of the job

As a Senior Service Manager, you will manage suppliers against targets, identify contract negotiation constraints and opportunities, ensure agreed service levels and corrective action, support change and continuous improvement, implement supplier improvements and develop your team for optimum performance.

• Lead safe, resilient, secure SPR operations aligned with NHS England service management standards.
• Work with Service Managers on daily operations, ownership, governance and escalation.
• Manage incidents, major incidents, problems, changes, releases and service transition.
• Ensure new/changed capabilities have ready support models, documentation, monitoring, reporting and escalation.
• Monitor agreed service measures, risks, trends and improvement opportunities.
• Govern supplier/contract obligations, responsibilities, performance issues, risks and escalations.
• Report service health, performance, risks, issues, incidents, changes and improvements for governance.
• Capture and embed lessons to improve quality and reduce recurring issues.
• Collaborate with product, delivery, technical, clinical, commercial and supplier teams on risks, issues and decisions.
• Meet user, clinical and operational needs, prioritising patient safety, resilience, data quality and user experience.
• Help develop and implement frameworks, controls and governance to scale and adopt SPR across NHS England and wider health and care.

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.

Job responsibilities

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Person Specification

Knowledge & Experience

• Specialist knowledge of various methodologies used to manage IT and Digital services and an ability to tailor methodologies and management practices dependant on the characteristics of the service being delivered
• Broad knowledge of techniques and approaches that can be used to deliver value, such as Agile, DevOps and Lean
• Broad understanding of managing products and services across the lifecycle
• Extensive knowledge of evolving and emerging technologies used to deliver IT and Digital Services and ability to adapt management practices to those emerging technologies

Qualifications

• A master's degree or equivalent experience
• ITIL Practitioner, VeriSM Foundation or equivalent experience
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• A recognised management qualification or equivalent experience

Skills

• Leadership and People Management: Demonstrates effective leadership of individuals and teams, creating an inclusive, high-performing environment through clear objectives, appropriate delegation, constructive feedback, coaching and workforce planning.
• Stakeholder Management: Builds trusted relationships with a broad range of stakeholders, manages differing needs and priorities, facilitates constructive dialogue, and effectively addresses risks, issues, conflicts and dependencies.
• Service Level Management: Ensures services meet agreed standards by maintaining clear service definitions, identifying and resolving service delivery issues, and continually reviewing operational processes for effectiveness and efficiency.
• Contract Management: Effectively manages the full contract lifecycle, including supplier relationships, compliance, performance monitoring, contract reviews, renewals, variations and negotiations, within appropriate governance, procurement and regulatory requirements.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Wellington Place - Leeds or Hexagon House - Exeter

Full-time,Part-time,Job share,Flexible working

Reference number

990-TDD-TEC-EC6056-E

Job locations

Wellington Place - Leeds or Hexagon House - Exeter