Senior Service Manager - Home Office Cyber Security Operations Centre

Manchester Digital; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 47,000 - 57,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service Pension

25 days annual leave

Public holidays plus 1 day

Hybrid/Office and remote working (60%+

Job summary

Home Office is seeking a Senior Service Manager for the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC). You will liaise with senior stakeholders and manage internal and external suppliers to deliver secure, high-quality services for critical government operations.

You will mentor junior staff and contribute to career development within IT Operations and cyber communities, shaping professional practice and governance across the department.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable passion for Service Management and agile/project methodologies.
• Ability to engage with diverse audiences and adapt communication approaches.
• Understanding CSOC/HOCS contexts to identify problems and opportunities.
• Experience using commercial agreements to maximise supplier value.
• Ability to monitor service costs within budget and flag financial risks.
• Drive continual service improvements via metrics and feedback.
• Familiarity with SIAM, Lean, Agile, and DevOps in a product-centric model.

Responsibilities

• Ensure CSOC customer satisfaction and service quality from CSOC and suppliers.
• Collaborate with internal/external stakeholders and manage expectations across levels.
• Communicate effectively with non-technical and technical stakeholders and suppliers.
• Maintain knowledge of projects and change programs within the customer organisation.
• Lead initiatives to improve services and protect existing service integrity.
• Review supplier financial performance and identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Represent customers in Service Readiness reviews and risk escalation.

Skills

Service Management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Contract management

Budget awareness

Continuous improvement

SIAM/DevOps concepts

Education

ITIL v3/v4 foundation (desirable)

Job description

About The Job

Job summary

Home Office Digital designs, builds and develops services for the rest of the department and for government. Every year our systems support up to 3 million visa applications, checks on 100 million border crossings, up to 8 million passport applications and deliver 140 million police checks on people, vehicles and property. Home Office Cyber Security (HOCS) is the team that ensures all this is done safely and securely, by mitigating and minimising disruption due to cyber incidents.

As a Senior Service Manager within the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), you will liaise with internal and external, senior and 3rd party stakeholders who are involved in some of the most cutting-edge skills and topics within information technology.

You will have a strong background and experience in IT Service Management, enjoy working in a fast-paced environment and be proactive and adaptable. Using your strong knowledge and expertise, you will effectively influence change within one of the largest government organisations and have the opportunity to manage national critical services.

You will interface with HOCS Colleagues, Service Architecture & Transition, Service Operations & Programme Portfolios to assure the delivery of the service(s) you are responsible for, ensuring the quality of the service being delivered meets the business needs.

Where business needs allow some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.

Job Description

As a Senior Service Manager with the CSOC your main day to day responsibilities will be:

• Ensuring that the customer receives the highest level of service from the CSOC and HOCS teams and managed suppliers, promoting a culture of customer satisfaction.
• Managing and working effectively with stakeholders at all levels both internally & externally, managing stakeholder expectations and showing flexibility to adapt to reach consensus.
• Effectively communicate and collaborate with non-technical and technical stakeholders, 3rd party and internal suppliers across government teams to ensure alignment.
• Maintaining a working knowledge of projects and change programs both in the pipeline and in delivery with respect to the specific customer organisation.
• Identifying and leading initiatives to drive continuous improvement across customer services, whilst protecting the integrity of existing services.
• Reviewing supplier financial performance including invoice validation to identify cost reduction opportunities.
• Representing customers in Service Readiness reviews and assessments, identifying, managing and escalating service risks appropriately.

You will also be expected to mentor more junior members of the Service Management community, undertaking line management responsibilities, if required. As well as participating and supporting collaboration initiatives and career development within the IT Operations and cyber communities, building in-house capability via a professional community of practice.

Person specification

Essential Skills

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Service Management, with the following skills or strong experience in:

• Understanding Service Management and agile and other project methodologies and models.
• Using your understanding of the different communication channels and formats to effectively engage with various audiences, adapting your approach where required.
• Understanding how your current work fits into broader CSOC and HOCS contexts and strategies so that deeper underlying problems and opportunities can be identified.
• Using commercial agreements to manage suppliers and ensure that we get the most out of the contract in order to deliver value.
• Ensuring actual costs of running a service are within budget, highlighting any financial risk due to overspend or opportunities due to underspend.
• Driving continual service improvements through the measurement and challenge of services and processes, tools and capability.
• Understanding of SIAM Lean, Agile and DevOps principles within a Product-centric delivery model

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) version 8 is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of alllevels in the Home Office.This is a link to the capability framework:All skills A - Z English (sfia-online.org).

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Use the SFIA levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skills listed below.

Strategy and Architecture

• Advice and Guidance
  • Specialist Advice (TECH) – level 3
• Strategy and Planning
  • Financial Management (FMIT) – level 3
• Governance, Risk and Compliance
  • Risk Management (BURM) - level 3

Delivery and Operation

• Service Management
  • Service Level Management (SLMO) – level 3

Relationships and Engagement

• Stakeholder Management
  • Supplier Management (SUPP) - level 3
  • Stakeholder Relationship Management (RLMT) – level 3

Qualifications

ITIL v3 / v4 foundation is desirable but not essential for this role and should not prevent application.

Behaviours

• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

• Specialist Advice (TECH) – level 3
• Financial Management (FMIT) – level 3
• Risk Management (BURM) - level 3
• Service Level Management (SLMO) – level 3
• Supplier Management (SUPP) - level 3
• Stakeholder Relationship Management (RLMT) – level 3

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,850, Home Office contributes £14,441 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Why work for us...

Find out more information at: Benefits - Home Office Careers, but some of the primary ones are:

• A Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
• 8 days of public holidays, plus 1 additional privilege day.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office.