Senior Manager, Service Operations

SITA Group; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flex Week

Flex Day

Flex Location

Employee Wellbeing

Professional Development

Competitive Benefits

Job summary

SITA Group is seeking a Head of Service Operations for the Passenger Processing portfolio. You will own the operational health, service outcomes and lifecycle execution across a global, multi‑region organization, engaging senior stakeholders to resolve priorities and drive investments.

This senior leadership role balances 24x7 BAU with modernization, guiding deployment, technical debt reduction and lifecycle management across the full stack to ensure reliable airport and airline operations

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in technology service operations.
• Experience leading a global, multi-region organization (40+ people).
• Proven ownership of high-availability services and complex customer environments.
• Strong experience across incident, problem, change, service request and deployment lifecycle management.
• Ability to influence senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Be accountable for BAU operational performance and service outcomes across the Passenger Processing portfolio.
• Own IT service management processes including incidents, problems, changes, requests and work orders.
• Manage operational technical debt and lifecycle risk across infrastructure, OS, databases, middleware and endpoints.
• Ensure deployment readiness and production acceptance of new services within agreed SLAs.

Skills

Leadership

ITIL

Stakeholder engagement

Service operations

Governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT, Engineering, Business, Operations Management

Job description

Overview

WELCOME TO SITA

At SITA, we keep airports moving, airlines flying smoothly, and borders open. Our technology and communication innovations power the success of the global air travel industry.

You'll find us in 95% of international airports, working closely with over 2,500 transportation and government clients. Each partnership brings unique challenges, and we thrive on delivering fresh solutions and cutting-edge tech to keep operations running like clockwork. We don't just move the world forward-we're proud to be recognized as a Great Place to Work® by 79% of our employees and certified in most of our growing locations. Here, we feel empowered, supported, and inspired to grow.

Are you ready to love your job?

The adventure begins right here, with you, at SITA.

ROLE MISSION

Own the operational health, service outcomes and lifecycle execution of the Passenger Processing portfolio, ensuring reliable day-to-day operations while driving disciplined modernization across the full technology stack.

PURPOSE

The Head of Service Operations is the senior operational leader for the Passenger Processing portfolio. Reporting directly to the Director, Portfolio Service Operations - PAX, the role converts portfolio strategy and the Head of Service Operations Role Charter into consistent execution across global service operations, deployment and lifecycle activities.

The position leads an internationally distributed organization of approximately 40-50 people. Success therefore requires strong multicultural leadership, the ability to operate across regions and time zones, and confidence engaging senior stakeholders across SITA to resolve priorities, risks, dependencies and investment decisions.

Portfolio Context and Scale

• Lead service operations for a broad, mission-critical Passenger Processing portfolio supporting airport and airline operations across international environments.
• Manage a distributed organization of approximately 40-50 employees and leaders across multiple countries, cultures, technical disciplines and operating locations.
• Operate across application, platform, infrastructure, operating system, tooling, network and airport endpoint layers, with accountability for the operational outcome across the full stack.
• Engage extensively with senior stakeholders across Portfolio Service Operations, Product, Technology & Engineering, SRE, Service Architecture, DCO, PFS/field services, CSO/GEO teams, security, suppliers and customers.
• Balance 24x7 BAU service delivery with lifecycle modernization, operational technical-debt reduction, deployment demand and transformation priorities.

Leadership Mandate

• Provide visible leadership to managers, technical leads and operational specialists, creating one portfolio-wide Service Operations capability rather than separate product silos.
• Set clear accountability, priorities, performance expectations and decision rights across the organization.
• Build an inclusive, high-performance culture that values ownership, operational discipline, transparency, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Develop succession, capability and workforce plans; coach leaders and specialists; and ensure resource capacity is aligned to portfolio risk and demand.
• Lead effectively across cultural and geographic boundaries, adapting communication and engagement while maintaining common standards and outcomes.

Key Accountabilities

1. Operational BAU Performance and Service Outcomes

• Own overall BAU operational performance across the Passenger Processing portfolio, ensuring services meet agreed SLA/SLO, availability, quality and customer commitments.
• Establish portfolio-wide performance governance, dashboards, operating reviews, escalation routes and corrective-action tracking.
• Ensure operational risks, service degradation, recurring failures and capacity constraints are visible, owned and addressed.
• Act as the senior escalation point for material service issues and remove cross-functional roadblocks to restore service and protect customers.

2. IT Service Management Execution

• Own the effectiveness and operational discipline of Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request and Work Order processes within the portfolio.
• Ensure major and critical incidents receive decisive leadership, effective cross-team coordination, timely stakeholder communication and structured follow-through.
• Drive backlog health, ageing reduction, update quality, closure discipline and prioritization across all operational queues.
• Ensure changes are risk-assessed, operationally ready, scheduled with appropriate controls and reviewed for outcome and learning.
• Maintain timely and predictable fulfilment of service requests and work orders, including governance of readiness, dependencies, throughput and delivery commitments.

3. Operational Technical Debt and Lifecycle Management

• Own and maintain the portfolio operational technical-debt register, ensuring risks are quantified, prioritized, funded, assigned and tracked to closure.
• Maintain a full-stack lifecycle view covering infrastructure, operating systems, databases, middleware, tooling, applications and airport endpoints.
• Drive supported-version compliance, patching, upgrades, maintenance and remediation plans; require explicit, time-bound exceptions where target standards cannot be met.
• Translate lifecycle and technical-debt exposure into clear operational, security, resilience, customer and financial impact for senior decision-makers.
• Coordinate with SRE, Service Architecture, Product and Technology & Engineering to determine which gaps are engineered out, modernized, automated or temporarily absorbed operationally.

4. Deployment and Operational Readiness

• Be accountable for portfolio deployment execution, including software rollout, patching, application upgrades and airport activation activities within the agreed operating model.
• Ensure work orders are planned, readiness-checked, prioritized and delivered within committed timelines and quality standards.
• Accept or reject services into operation against agreed Build-to-Run and readiness criteria, escalating unresolved risk where required.
• Ensure new and changed services have adequate support models, documentation, monitoring, skills, capacity, recovery procedures and lifecycle ownership before production acceptance.

Qualifications

Senior Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide concise, evidence-based reporting to the Director and senior leadership on operational performance, major risks, customer impact, technical debt, lifecycle exposure and investment needs.
• Influence priorities across SITA where accountability is shared, ensuring decisions are translated into named owners, milestones and measurable outcomes.
• Represent Passenger Processing Service Operations in executive reviews, portfolio governance, customer escalations, audit and risk forums, and transformation programmes.
• Create constructive challenge where delivery, product, architecture or engineering decisions introduce unacceptable operational risk or insufficient supportability.

Performance Measures

• SLA/SLO achievement, service availability, operational stability and reduction of customer-impacting incidents.
• Major incident response quality, MTTR improvement, RCA completion and sustained remediation of recurring causes.
• Problem, incident, service-request and work-order backlog health, ageing, throughput and delivery predictability.
• Change success, emergency-change control, deployment quality and reduction of change-related incidents.
• Lifecycle compliance, patch and version currency, reduction of unsupported technology and closure of operational technical debt.
• Build-to-Run readiness, successful transition into operations and completeness of support documentation, monitoring and ownership.
• Team capability, engagement, succession strength, cross-location collaboration and effective capacity utilization.

Experience

• 12+ years of progressive experience in complex technology service operations, including substantial leadership accountability in a global or multi-region environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading a sizeable, distributed and multicultural organization, ideally 40+ people through managers and technical leads.
• Proven ownership of operational performance across business-critical, high-availability services and complex customer environments.
• Strong experience across Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request, Work Order, deployment and service-lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated management of operational technical debt, lifecycle risk, patching, upgrades, platform currency and modernization programmes.
• Experience influencing senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders where outcomes depend on shared accountability rather than direct authority.
• Excellent record of leading major escalations, translating technical complexity into business impact, and driving durable corrective action.

Knowledge and Skills

Strategic and operational leadership: Portfolio operations; operating-model execution; governance; risk-based prioritization; financial and capacity awareness; transformation leadership.

Service management: Strong command of ITIL practices, SLA/SLO management, major incident governance, problem management, change control, request fulfilment and continual improvement.

Technology lifecycle: Practical understanding of infrastructure, OS, network, database, middleware, tooling, applications, monitoring, resilience, security and end-of-support risk.

People leadership: Leading through managers; multicultural team leadership; coaching; succession; performance expectations; conflict resolution; organizational change.

Stakeholder influence: Executive communication; negotiation; customer assurance; cross-functional decision-making; vendor and supplier engagement; clear escalation and decision framing.

Data and execution discipline: Operational metrics; dashboards; trend analysis; risk registers; action tracking; benefits realization; evidence-based decisions and measurable outcomes.

Education and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Operations Management or a related discipline; equivalent senior operational experience may be considered.
• ITIL certification is strongly preferred. Lean Six Sigma, project/programme management, cloud, infrastructure, network, security or reliability qualifications are advantageous.
• Demonstrable leadership development and experience operating in international, customer-facing technology environments.

WHAT WE OFFER

We're all about diversity. We operate in 200 countries and speak 60 different languages and cultures. We're really proud of our inclusive environment. Our offices are comfortable and fun places to work, and we make sure you get to work from home too. Find out what it's like to join our team and take a step closer to your best life ever.

Flex Week: Work from home up to 2 days/week (depending on your team's needs)

Flex Day: Make your workday suit your life and plans.

Flex-Location: Take up to 30 days a year to work from any location in the world.

Employee Wellbeing: We have got you covered with our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), for you and your dependents 24/7, 365 days/year. We also offer Champion Health - a personalized platform that supports a range of wellbeing needs.

Professional Development: At SITA, we believe growth fuels innovation. Our learning ecosystem offers access to world-class platforms and programs designed to help you thrive. From LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft's Enterprise Skills Initiative, and Airport Council International -available to all employees-to specialized solutions like Pluralsight for technology upskilling, Harvard Business Publishing for people leadership, Stanford for strategic development and many others, we align learning opportunities with your Development Plan and our business priorities. Your development journey is supported every step of the way.

Competitive Benefits: Competitive benefits that make sense with both your local market and employment status.

SITA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value a diverse workforce. In support of our Employment Equity Program, we encourage women, aboriginal people, members of visible minorities, and/or persons with disabilities to apply and self-identify in the application process.