Head of IT Services (Contract, Temporary) in London

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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.

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.

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. Ensure services are designed, transitioned and operated to contractually committed performance, quality and end-to-end outcome standards (SLA, XLA and business-outcome metrics).

Govern MSP performance against SLA, XLA (Experience Level Agreement) and end-to-end outcome frameworks across ServiceDesk, ITSM, Application Support, Cloud Infrastructure Operations, Network Operations Centre (NoC) and Security Operations Centre (SoC). 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.

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.

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. Act as the bridge between the business, IT teams and managed service providers; serve as the senior service-experience voice in Exec, Group leadership and Providence-facing forums.

• 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; 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; Service Management and Governance: SLA, XLA (Experience Level Agreement) and end-to-end outcome frameworks; commercial and contractual familiarity with multi-vendor governance.
• AI / agentic AI / GenAI augmentation; 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).
• 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 experience of in-venue networking solutions such as Cisco Meraki, Fortinet FortiGate, or PaloAlto.

ATG Entertainment’s values set the tone for how we work, how we treat one another, and the culture we continue to build across the UK and the wider organisation.

• Inclusion: Committing to creating and upholding a positive, inclusive culture that nurtures potential and supports well-being.
• Next Generations: Encouraging the next generation in live entertainment by contributing to our outreach and training programmes, including mentoring students and trainees, and supporting our Creative Learning and Community Partnerships work.

You will help us uphold a positive culture around meeting our obligations, by having a positive attitude to health and safety, legal and insurance requirements and take care to understand our policies and procedures. Everyone at ATG Entertainment is expected to be flexible and adapt as the needs of the business change, taking on new or different responsibilities as the need arises.

Our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Mission Statement - A Stage for Everyone. We are passionate about the pursuit of true diversity and equality. We strive to make our venues beacons of these ideals in our communities. 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.