Service Management Architect

Mishcon de Reya LLP; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Job summary

Mishcon de Reya LLP is adopting a central role for technology services, spanning cloud, SaaS, on-premises and modern workplace technologies across multiple global locations. The Service Management Architect shapes how services are designed, transitioned, governed and operated to deliver measurable business value.

The role focuses on improving service maturity, governance and automation, with a strong emphasis on ITIL, TOGAF, and enterprise architecture practices within a large professional

Qualifications

• ITIL v4 and TOGAF understandings applied to service design and architecture.
• Ability to translate business needs into governed, mature technology services.
• Experience designing services in cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end service architectures for new and existing technology services.
• Establish clear service ownership, accountability and governance throughout service lifecycles.
• Translate requirements into service models, SLAs, KPIs and operational processes.
• Collaborate with Architects, Product Owners, Platform Owners, Service Managers and Engineering teams.
• Drive standardisation of service design documentation and templates.
• Lead operational readiness assessments for new or changed services and provide Go/No-Go recommendations.
• Partner with stakeholders to align services to business capabilities and priorities.
• Conduct gap analyses and propose improvements or innovations.
• Participate in governance forums and design reviews as the architecture authority.
• Contribute to continual improvement of service design and management frameworks.

Skills

ITIL v4

TOGAF

Service architecture

Service design

Governance

Cloud/hybrid/on-prem

Stakeholder management

Documentation

Education

ITSM/Architecture certifications

Tools

Freshworks

BMC Helix

Job description

The Department

Our Technology team continues to go from strength to strength, playing a vital role in firm-wide innovation, operational excellence, and business strategy. Far from being a traditional support function, Technology is central to the firm's growth agenda and is backed by strong leadership engagement and sustained investment across platforms, infrastructure, cyber security, data, AI, and digital transformation initiatives.

Our Technology team continues to go from strength to strength, playing a vital role in firm-wide innovation, operational excellence, and business strategy. Far from being a traditional support function, Technology is central to the firm's growth agenda and is backed by strong leadership engagement and sustained investment across platforms, infrastructure, cyber security, data, AI, and digital transformation initiatives. The Technology organisation supports a global user base across multiple international locations including the UK, UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong, delivering business-critical services within a highly demanding professional services environment. The estate issubstantialand complex,comprisingover 350+ servicesoperatingacross apredominantly cloud-firstMicrosoft ecosystem, including Azure, Microsoft 365, enterprise platforms, collaboration technologies, identity services, and business-critical legal applications.

As the firm continues to modernise its technology landscape, there is significant focus on improving service maturity, operational governance, automation, and platform reliability. This includes investment in cloud transformation, modern workplace technologies, service management capabilities, AI-enabled operational tooling, and the ongoing evolution of enterprise architecture and engineering practices.

The Service Management function plays a critical role within this environment, ensuring that technology services are designed, transitioned, operated, and continuously improved in a structured, scalable, and supportable way. The Service Management Architect will therefore operate at the heart of the firm's technology transformation agenda, helping shape how services are delivered and managed across the organisation.

• Designing scalable and supportable service models for new and evolving technology platforms
• Improving operational readiness, governance and service transition processes, including robust readiness assessments and Go/No-Go recommendations for production releases
• Supporting the evolution of the service catalogue, CMDB, and ITSM capabilities
• Driving greater standardisation, automation, and consistency across technology services
• Ensuring services are designed with resilience, security, supportability, and user experience in mind

This role will work closely with business stakeholders, Architecture, Engineering, Service Management, Product and Platform teams to ensure technology services are aligned to business capabilities, organisational priorities, operational best practice and effective governance.

Over time, there is also an ambition to further modernise service operations through increased automation, improved operational insight, and AI-driven service management capabilities. As such, this role will play an important part in helping shape the future operating model for technology services across the firm.

The Role & Opportunity

Mishcon's Technology function is undergoing significant transformation, with increasing focus on platform maturity, operational excellence, automation, and scalable service delivery across a growing global technology landscape. Supporting business-critical services across the UK, UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong, the Technology organisation operates within a complex, highly integrated environment spanning cloud, SaaS, on-premises, and modern workplace technologies.

As the firm continues to modernise and scale its technology capabilities, there is an increasing need for well-defined, supportable, and operationally mature technology services. The Service Management Architect will play a key role in shaping how technology services are designed, transitioned, governed, and operated across the organisation.

This role offers the opportunity to work at the centre of large-scale technology and operational transformation initiatives, helping define the standards, frameworks, and service models that underpin the firm's global technology operations.

The role requires a strong understanding of the firm's business functions, legal operations and strategic priorities to ensure technology services are aligned to business needs, have clear ownership, are appropriately governed, and continue to deliver value throughout their lifecycle.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end service architectures for new and existing technology services, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, scalability, and operational effectiveness.
• Work with business and technology stakeholders to establish clear service ownership, accountability and governance for technology services throughout their lifecycle.
• Translate business and technical requirements into clear service models, defining support models, SLAs, KPIs, and operational processes.
• Collaborate with Solution Architects, Product Owners, Platform Owners, Service Managers, and Engineering teams to ensure services are designed with full lifecycle supportability.
• Drive the standardisation of service design documentation and templates across the organisation.
• Lead the operational readiness assessment for new or changed services prior to production, providing a clear Service Management recommendation into Go/No-Go decisions and identifying any risks, gaps or conditions that must be addressed before go-live.
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand business capabilities, processes and priorities, ensuring technology services are designed, governed and continually improved to support evolving business requirements.
• Conduct gap analyses between proposed services and existing capabilities, recommending improvements or innovations where needed.
• Participate in governance forums, change advisory boards, and design reviews as the service architecture authority.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of service design and management frameworks (e.g., ITIL, TOGAF).
• Support the development and evolution of the service catalogue and CMDB architecture.

Essential

Skills and Experience

• Proven experience in IT service architecture, service design, or ITSM roles in complex enterprise environments.
• Proven experience with Service Transition
• Demonstrated ability to understand business capabilities and translate business requirements into well-governed, operationally mature technology services that deliver measurable business value.
• Deep understandingand experienceof ITIL v4 principles and their practical application in service design and operations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF.
• Demonstrated experience designing services in cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
• Ability to define clear, actionable service models including roles, processes, metrics, and governance structures.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Proficient in creating high-quality documentation and service design artefacts.

Desirable

• ITIL v4 certification and/or TOGAF certification.
• Experience with tools such as Freshworks, BMC Helix, or other ITSM platforms.
• Familiarity with Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD principles.

Qualifications

• Relevant professional certifications in ITSM or Architecture frameworks.

Please note that this job profile is not an exhaustive list of duties but merely an outline of the key components of the role. You may be required by your line manager to take on additional responsibilities when requested.

About

About Mishcon de Reya Group

The Mishcon de Reya Group is an independent, international professional services business with law at its heart, employing over 1400 people with over 650 lawyers. It includes the law firm Mishcon de Reya LLP and a collection of leading consultancy businesses that complement the firm's legal services.

Mishcon de Reya LLP is based in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE. The firm services an international community of clients and provides advice in situations where the constraints of geography often do not apply.The work the firm undertakes is cross-border, multi-jurisdictional and complex, centred around three increasingly entwined and connected sectors: the Innovation Economy, Private Wealth and Capital, and Real Estate. The firm is known as a disputes powerhouse with a formidable capacity firmwide for dispute resolution.

The Mishcon de Reya Group includes consultancy businesses MDR Discover , MDR Mayfair (in London, Singapore and Dubai), MDR ONE , and MDRi (in Hong Kong). The Group also includes MDR Lab , which invests in the most promising early stage legaltech companies as well as the Mishcon Academy, its in-house place of learning and platform for thought leadership.

In 2024, the Group announced its first strategic acquisition in the alternative legal services market, flexible legal resourcing business Flex Legal. It also acquired a majority stake in Somos, a global group actions management business.

We strive to create a fully diverse and inclusive workplace where all our people are empowered to fulfil their potential. We are proud of our agile working culture and are always happy to talk flexible working. Hybrid