Service Operations Manager

Join Police Digital Service as a Service Operations Manager. Full time. Permanent. Salary starting at £60,000 per annum.

About Police Digital Service

Working within the strategic direction set by the Head of Technical Operations, you will turn priorities into effective operational practice while helping shape how Service Operations is organised, governed and improved. You will lead the teams responsible for operational support and work across engineering, security, suppliers and policing partners to deliver reliable, responsive and continually improving services.

You can find out more here:
Benefits - Police Digital Service (pds.police.uk)

Key Responsibilities

Operational control and service health

• Own the performance, availability and operational health of live services.
• Maintain oversight of incidents, problems, risks, dependencies and service performance.
• Ensure operational priorities, resources and support activities are coordinated effectively.

Incident leadership and escalation

• Lead the operational response to major incidents and service disruption.
• Act as the senior escalation point for serious and out-of-hours issues.
• Ensure effective communication, recovery, review and completion of follow-up actions.

Service acceptance and operational readiness

• Ensure services are supportable, monitored, documented and resourced before entering BAU.
• Represent operational requirements in projects, change and organisational initiatives.

Performance and Continuous Improvement

• Drive operational improvement using evidence from incidents, service performance, risk and user feedback.
• Maintain and prioritise improvement activity that delivers measurable outcomes.
• Promote automation, efficiency and reduction of recurring operational issues and service requests.

Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement

• Lead and develop the Service Operations team, creating accountability, capability and operational excellence.
• Build effective relationships with stakeholders, suppliers and partner organisations.
• Work with service delivery managers to hold third parties accountable where they impact service performance or user experience.

Reporting and Governance

• Provide clear reporting on service performance, trends, risks, blockers and decisions required.
• Collaborate with Service Management teams to ensure operational governance, controls and processes remain effective and fit for purpose.
• Support financial planning, resource forecasting and operational decision making.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Recruits, interviews, hires, and trains new staff in the department.
• Oversees the daily workflow of the department.
• Provides constructive and timely 1:1s and performance evaluations.
• Handles discipline and termination of employees in accordance with company policy.

What you need to succeed in the role

• Experience: Demonstrable experience with ITSM toolsets such as Service Now, Fresh Service or Jira; A proven record of effective stakeholder management or relatable skill (eg. customer service)
• Knowledge: A good technical understanding of our platforms and tools including common issues; Certified to minimum ITIL v4 Foundation level; A good understanding of common SQL queries and the ability to identify anomalies.
• One Team Mindset: You see beyond individual achievement and work to ensure the whole team succeeds; familiarity with working across disciplines within the public sector; self-motivated and disciplined.
• Communication Skills: Impeccable communication skills, both written and verbal; Ability to communicate technical information to non-technical audiences.
• Discipline: The remote nature of our team means you may find yourself working without a direct line of command present. You need to be able to retain your high standard of work with or without supervision.
• Attention to detail: One thing worse than ?no information' is ?bad information'. In moments of high stress the words we use and the message we send are critical. You are somebody who is careful, clear and consistent.
• Leadership: Strong critical thinking and decision-making skills, with previous experience managing a multi-disciplined operational team, and the ability to adapt processes to align within a set methodology such as ITIL

Diversity, equity and inclusion

We are committed to equal opportunities for all and will not discriminate on any grounds. We encourage applications from people from the widest possible span of experience. All applicants will be considered without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, parental status, nationality, neurodiversity or disability status.

Working Arrangements

This is a remote role with some national travel required to attend meetings.

All applicants must be eligible to undergo NPPV3 (Non Police Personnel Vetting Level 3) and SC vetting clearances. Successful applicants will require NPPV3 clearance to have been cleared before starting with PDS.

Please note, we may choose to close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications for this role so please endeavour to complete your application as soon as possible