Senior IT Service Manager

A public sector organisation is seeking an experienced Senior IT Service Manager to join its Service Management function, supporting the delivery of secure and business-critical technology services. This is an exciting opportunity to work within a highly complex environment that underpins the operations of the UK Government across the UK and internationally. As the Senior IT Service Manager, you will provide operational leadership across multiple services and platforms, ensuring service availability, performance and continual improvement while maintaining exceptional customer satisfaction levels. Working closely with customers, technical teams, project managers, architects and service delivery stakeholders, you will act as a key point of leadership in driving service excellence and strengthening long-term customer relationships. This is an initial 6-month contract position based in Milton Keynes with hybrid working available (3 days per week in the office, 2 days working from home) and a day rate up to £580 per day via an Umbrella company (inside IR35). Due to the nature of the work the successful candidate must be eligible or have SC Clearance (must be a British Citizen or hold dual nationality). Key Responsibilities • Lead the successful delivery of IT services across a complex service environment. • Act as the primary escalation point for service issues, incidents and operational risks. • Drive customer satisfaction and ensure service performance meets agreed targets and KPIs. • Coordinate service delivery teams to resolve incidents, manage change and deliver effective service improvements. • Build and maintain strong relationships with customer stakeholders and technical specialists. • Lead service review meetings and provide meaningful management information to support decision-making. • Identify opportunities to optimise processes, improve service performance and enhance customer outcomes. • Support change initiatives and service transitions, working alongside Project Managers, Product Owners and Technical Architects. • Ensure adherence to Incident, Problem, Change and Request Management processes. • Maintain compliance with ISO9001, ISO20000 and ISO27001 standards. • Advise senior stakeholders on technical issues, operational risk and mitigation strategies. • Contribute to commercially viable service solutions and customer proposals. Essential Skills & Experience • Extensive experience working within large-scale, complex IT service delivery environments. • Strong background in IT Service Management and operational service leadership. • Hands-on experience with Service Management tools such as ServiceNow. • ITIL 4 Managing Professional certification. • Broad technical understanding across IT infrastructure, applications and services. • Strong knowledge of service design and service delivery lifecycle principles. • Experience managing multiple stakeholders and competing priorities. • Excellent communication, leadership and problem-solving capabilities.