Transition Manager - £450 Inside IR35 - London (Hybrid)

Transition Manager

Contract: Inside IR35
Day Rate: £450 per day
Engagement: Contract until March 2027
Location: London (Hybrid)
We are looking for an experienced Transition Manager to join a major technology transformation programme and take ownership of the integrated readiness required to move new and changed Corporate IT services successfully into live operation.
This is an excellent opportunity for a strong Service Transition / Operational Readiness professional who is comfortable coordinating complex releases across multiple technology workstreams, suppliers and operational teams.
You will sit at the centre of the programme's transition activity, providing a consolidated view of whether services are genuinely ready to be deployed, supported, operated and governed.
The Role

As Transition Manager, you will coordinate operational readiness and Acceptance into Service across a complex multi-workstream environment.
You will work closely with project and programme teams, technical delivery teams, suppliers, Service Management, Security, Information Governance and operational stakeholders to ensure all elements required for a successful transition into live service are in place.
Key responsibilities will include:

• Defining and maintaining the Operational Readiness framework.
• Establishing readiness criteria and acceptance requirements.
• Coordinating operational readiness across multiple delivery workstreams.
• Maintaining an integrated release and deployment plan.
• Managing release dependencies, sequencing and cross-workstream impacts.
• Coordinating Acceptance into Service activities.
• Ensuring support teams, Service Management functions and resolver groups are ready for deployment.
• Confirming operational procedures, support arrangements, monitoring and reporting are in place.
• Coordinating deployment, implementation and rollback readiness.
• Supporting CAB and operational change approval processes.
• Leading implementation readiness reviews.
• Coordinating programme go/no-go processes.
• Producing release readiness papers and governance submissions.
• Consolidating assurance positions, risks and outstanding actions.
• Presenting readiness positions and residual risks to senior governance forums.
• Coordinating suppliers, technical teams and operational stakeholders through transition.

What We're Looking For

You will need significant experience in IT Service Transition, Release Management or Operational Readiness, ideally gained within large and complex technology transformation programmes.
You should be able to demonstrate:

• Strong Service Transition / Operational Readiness experience.
• Experience coordinating complex, multi-workstream technology releases.
• Experience operating in multi-supplier environments.
• Strong knowledge of Acceptance into Service and IT Service Management.
• Experience coordinating release and deployment readiness.
• Understanding of change governance and CAB processes.
• Strong risk, dependency and action management.
• Experience producing high-quality senior governance and board-level materials.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• The ability to establish a clear readiness position across multiple delivery teams.

Experience within large public-sector or regulated transformation programmes would be particularly beneficial.
Knowledge or experience of environments involving M365, ServiceNow, Microsoft tenancy and identity, End User Computing or Enterprise Services would also be advantageous.
Experience supporting Day-1 readiness, organisational integration or major technology migration programmes would be highly relevant.
ITIL certification would be beneficial but is not essential.
If you are an experienced Transition Manager with a strong background in Operational Readiness, Acceptance into Service and complex technology releases, we would be keen to hear from you.