Technical Operations Manager

nttlimited; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,700,000; Full time

Job summary

NTT DATA in Johannesburg is seeking a Technical Operations Manager to oversee managed services, ensuring IT infrastructure uptime and adherence to SLAs across client accounts.

You will lead cross-functional teams across infrastructure, security, cloud, and networks, drive process improvements, manage risks and incidents, and report to executives on performance and recovery planning.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, CS, engineering or related field.
• ITIL Foundation certification required.
• ITIL Intermediate/Managing Professional is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end operational service delivery across the accounts.
• Act as the primary operational lead for all day-to-day client engagements, governance forums, and escalation management activities.
• Drive operational excellence across multiple technology towers: Infrastructure, Security, Backup, End User Computing, Cloud, Network and Managed Services.
• Manage operational risks, incidents, service degradation and client escalations with executive communication.
• Coordinate and govern service delivery teams, ensuring accountability and timely resolution of incidents, requests and changes.
• Maintain oversight of operational backlogs, ageing incidents, SLA performance and service improvement initiatives.
• Ensure clients receive regular updates on incidents, service requests and projects.
• Participate in client strategy and transformation discussions to align with business outcomes.
• Own service reporting, trend analysis and development of recovery plans when delivery challenges or SLA risks are identified.
• Coordinate internal and external technical resources for delivery and stability.

Skills

Operational leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

ITIL governance

Incident management

Service delivery

Analytical reporting

People leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree in IT/CS/Engineering

ITIL Foundation Certification

ITIL Managing Professional (advantageous)

Tools

ITIL

ServiceNow

ITSM platforms

Job description

Make an impact with NTT DATA Join a company that is pushing the boundaries of what is possible. We are renowned for our technical excellence and leading innovations, and for making a difference to our clients and society. Our workplace embraces diversity and inclusion - it's a place where you can grow, belong and thrive.

Your day at NTT DATA

The Technical Operations Managers is a management role, responsible for ensuring managed service is provided to all clients, to ensure that their IT infrastructure and systems remain operational. This is done through proactively managing, overseeing, monitoring, investigating, and resolving escalated technical incidents and problems to ensure the restoration of these services to the clients to ensure compliance to the agreed service level agreement. The primary objective of this role is to ensure contracted Managed Services outcomes are delivered to the client and assists with the planning, building and supporting of delivering managed services to meet business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end operational service delivery across the accounts, ensuring all contracted services are delivered in accordance with agreed SLAs, OLAs, contractual obligations and client expectations.
• Act as the primary operational lead for all day-to-day client engagements, operational reviews, service review meetings, governance forums, and escalation management activities.
• Drive operational excellence across multiple technology towers, including Infrastructure, Security, Backup, End User Computing, Cloud, Network, Collaboration and Managed Services.
• Manage operational risks, issues, service degradation, major incidents and client escalations, ensuring timely remediation and executive communication
• Coordinate and govern service delivery teams, ensuring accountability, timely resolution of incidents, requests, problems and change activities.
• Maintain oversight of operational backlogs, ageing incidents, SLA performance, ticket quality, client communications and service improvement initiatives.
• Ensure clients receive regular, meaningful updates on incidents, service requests, projects, risks and operational activities.
• Participate in client strategy, service model, transformation and service improvement discussions to ensure operational alignment with business outcomes.
• Own service reporting, trend analysis, operational reviews and the development of recovery plans where delivery challenges or SLA risks are identified.
• Coordinate internal and external technical resources to ensure successful delivery of operational and project-related activities impacting the customer environment.
• Govern Backup, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity and Recovery Testing activities, ensuring operational readiness and contractual compliance.
• Act as the operational owner for service continuity, backup governance, recovery processes and infrastructure resilience initiatives.
• Ensure operational compliance with security, audit, access management and governance requirements across client environments.
• Drive continual service improvement initiatives, process optimisation, automation and operational efficiencies to improve service quality and client satisfaction.
• Lead, mentor and develop operational resources while fostering a culture of accountability, ownership, client centricity and service excellence.
• Provide executive-level operational feedback, reporting and recommendations to client stakeholders and NTT DATA leadership teams.
• Ensure operational readiness for audits, service reviews, DR exercises, continuity testing and governance assessments.
• Coordinate third-party vendors and internal support teams to ensure successful service restoration, delivery and platform stability.

Knowledge and Attributes

• Strong service delivery and operational management expertise.
• Excellent stakeholder and client relationship management skills.
• Strong understanding of Managed Services governance, ITIL and operational frameworks.
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of service contracts and delivery obligations.
• Proven ability to manage client escalations and critical operational incidents.
• Strong analytical and reporting capabilities.
• Excellent communication, presentation and executive engagement skills.
• Strong people leadership, coaching and mentoring abilities.
• Ability to operate effectively across multiple technology domains and service towers.
• Strong focus on operational excellence, client satisfaction and continual service improvement.

Academic Qualifications and Certifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering or related field.
• ITIL Foundation Certification (required).
• ITIL Intermediate / Managing Professional (advantageous).
• Service Management, Project Management or Operational Governance certifications advantageous.

Required Experience

• Minimum 8-10 years' experience in Managed Services, IT Operations or Service Delivery environments.
• Proven experience managing ent