Head of IT Service Management

Role Overview

You will report to the Director of Group IT and sit on the IT Leadership Group. You will head up the IT Service Management function for Group IT. You will work closely with Architecture, Infrastructure & Operations, Delivery & Change, Procurement, NA and ATGE Europe teams, as well as managed service providers, software platform vendors, and the venue and business‑unit IT customers you serve. You will partner closely with the Head of IT Delivery & Change on the IT Change Management process and the service‑transition handoff into operational service.

You will be an experienced Head of IT Service Delivery, Head of Service Management, or senior Service Delivery leader with a proven track record across hybrid IT operating models, multi‑vendor SIAM, ITSM platform direction and managed service performance – within a mid‑ to large‑enterprise environment. You will ensure the end‑to‑end service performance of Group IT in a hybrid‑sourced operating model – owning service standards, vendor accountability, ITSM and the customer‑facing service experience across the UK, North America, Germany and Spain. You will have proven experience in leading multi‑vendor service operations, designing and governing SLA / XLA frameworks, and translating executive‑level service expectations into measurable, customer‑facing service standards.

This is a senior leadership role responsible for the service‑management spine of Group IT – translating the Executive's 'run it like you own it' intent into a durable, accountable and customer‑experience‑led service organisation. You will operationalise the IT Service Management strategy, design and govern the SIAM model across ATG's MSPs, and lead the build of out‑of‑hours service capability across the Group. Experience of SIAM governance, multi‑vendor MSP management and modern ITSM platform ownership is essential. You must be a self‑starter, comfortable in a fast‑paced and dynamic environment, and able to carry the Exec‑facing service narrative – uptime, customer experience, and vendor accountability – as well as operate it day‑to‑day. You will be a confident communicator across executive, business, technical and external supplier audiences, mindful of different communication styles for different audiences. Specific experience in live entertainment, sports, hospitality or other venue‑led industries, and a passion for the arts and creative industries, would be an advantage in your application.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership: Develop and communicate a strategic vision for IT Service Management in a hybrid‑sourced operating model, ensuring alignment with Group business objectives and the Exec's 'run it like you own it' service ethos.
• Service Management & Vendor Governance: Own the Service Integration and Management (SIAM) operating model across ATG's managed service providers – governing Service Integration and Delivery, Service Operations and IT Asset Lifecycle Management, Service Management and Governance, and the technology platform that integrates them. Govern MSP performance against SLA, XLA and end‑to‑end outcome frameworks across ServiceDesk, ITSM, Application Support, Cloud Infrastructure Operations, Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Security Operations Centre (SOC). Drive contractually committed business outcomes, change success rate, CMDB accuracy and cross‑provider collaboration metrics; initiate corrective action and contractual remediation where required. Own the Group ITSM platform direction – a centralised SIAM dashboard with single‑source‑of‑truth visibility across all providers (ticketing, service catalogue, CMDB, problem / change / release / configuration management) – integrated with supplier platforms, augmented by AI / GenAI and experience management tooling, and underpinned by ITIL 4 process maturity. Lead service reporting to the IT Leadership Group and business stakeholders – uptime, customer experience, vendor accountability and service‑quality KPIs. Act as the Group escalation point for major service incidents and vendor performance failures; lead post‑incident review, root‑cause analysis and continuous improvement plans. Own service management for in‑Venue technologies – Audio‑Visual, Accessibility, ePOS and other front‑of‑house and back‑of‑house venue technology – and manage the Group IT relationship with Venue Operations Business Directors as the primary internal customer for venue‑tech service performance.
• Out‑of‑Hours Service & Capability Build: Design and stand up Group out‑of‑hours service capability – making the sourcing decision (follow‑the‑sun in‑house, MSP overflow, or hybrid) and owning ongoing governance, SLA and cost. Position ATG's IT service model as a deliberate shift from a primarily outsourced posture to a partial‑insourced (hybrid) model. Lead the build and ongoing maturity of the internal ITSM capability – process, tooling, governance, performance management and continuous improvement – augmented by GenAI (MS CoPilot & Claude) and automation, so that Group IT increasingly owns the service‑management spine end‑to‑end.
• Team, Application Support & Financial Management: Lead the Application Support function operationally (the Application Support Manager team), with matrixed delivery into Delivery & Change for change‑driven work. Drive the AI‑native, technically adept redesign of Application Support in line with the Group capability strategy. Manage the service‑line Opex envelope, lead FinOps coordination with Infrastructure & Operations on managed‑service cost, and contribute to Group IT financial accounting and budget planning. Establish and maintain robust ITSM frameworks (ITIL 4, SIAM, ISO 20000‑aligned where appropriate) and ensure best practice is followed across regions.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Act as the bridge between the business, IT teams and managed service providers; collaborate with venue, theatre and corporate stakeholders at all levels; serve as the senior service‑experience voice in Exec, Group leadership and Providence‑facing forums.

Essential Skills, Qualities, and Experience

• A proven track record of experience supporting a complex IT estate in a senior service delivery, service management or service integration leadership role.
• Strong strategic leadership with a proven track record designing and operating hybrid IT operating models and multi‑vendor SIAM ecosystems, including SIAM advisory, mixed managed services and build‑operate‑transfer (BOT) contracting models.
• Service Integration and Delivery: governing the integration and delivery of services across multiple managed service providers; designing, transitioning, exiting and re‑integrating MSP arrangements; cross‑provider collaboration, ecosystem performance and risk‑indexed multivendor oversight.
• Service Operations and IT Asset Lifecycle Management: ITSM platform direction (ticketing, service catalogue, CMDB accuracy and integrity, problem / change / release / configuration management); ITIL 4 process maturity; change success rate and CMDB accuracy as primary operational metrics.
• Service Management and Governance: SLA, XLA (Experience Level Agreement) and end‑to‑end outcome frameworks; contractually committed business outcomes versus traditional SLAs; incentives and penalties tied to cross‑resolver‑group outcomes; commercial and contractual familiarity with multi‑vendor governance.
• Enhance Delivery Through Technology: build & operate a centralised SIAM dashboard and observability with single‑source‑of‑truth visibility across all providers; AI / agentic AI / GenAI augmentation; integration with supplier platforms; automation initiatives across service operations.
• Service‑experience design – translating Exec‑level service expectations into measurable, customer‑facing service standards (uptime, CSAT, XLA, business‑outcome metrics) across multi‑region service delivery.
• Out‑of‑hours service design (follow‑the‑sun, NOC‑style or hybrid MSP / in‑house models) and Group‑wide major incident management.
• Operational familiarity with cloud‑first IT estates, FinOps disciplines, and GenAI / automation augmentation in service operations (MS CoPilot, Claude or equivalent).
• Operational experience of PCI DSS‑relevant environments and customer‑facing transactional service uptime (ticketing, hospitality, payments).
• Stakeholder management at all levels – comfortable in executive, business, technical and external supplier audiences.
• Certification in ITIL 4 (Foundation essential; Managing Professional or Strategic Leader desirable), SIAM Foundation / Professional, or other relevant service‑management frameworks.
• Degree educated in a relevant technology / computer science subject (or equivalent on‑the‑job experience).

Desirable Skills

• Experience of venue‑based IT service operations (live entertainment, sports, events, conferences) in a multi‑site, customer‑facing environment.
• Agile Delivery Methodology (Scrum / Kanban) or Scaled Agile (SAFe) training and experience.
• Operational FinOps experience in Azure.
• Operational experience of in‑venue networking solutions such as Cisco Meraki, Fortinet FortiGate, or PaloAlto.
• Operational experience with VoIP solutions (8x8 experience preferred).

EEO Statement: We are a Disability Confident Committed Employer, which means that we are taking action to ensure that people with disabilities and long‑term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will offer an interview or recruitment event to disabled candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they best meet the essential criteria for the role. Where we receive more applications than we are reasonably able to interview for any given role, we will retain applications for the next available interview opportunity wherever possible. We recognise that we do not have all the answers; but we strive to listen, to learn and to change in order to ensure ATG Entertainment becomes a truly inclusive organisation. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from individuals from the widest possible range of backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from those currently underrepresented in our workforce.