IT Service Manager in London

Reporting to: Head of Infrastructure & Operations

Location: Paddington, London

6 month Fixed Term Contract

About Us

The Azzurri Group is one of the UK's largest and most successful hospitality investment platforms. We operate two leading national Italian full service brands, Zizzi and ASK Italian; the UK's leading quick-service Italian, Coco di Mama; Ireland's renowned fast-casual Mexican chain, Boojum; and most recently the world famous, 'mind-blowing' fried chicken brand, Dave's Hot Chicken. We also own Openr, an innovative tech start-up providing a product, pricing and order management technology platform. We employ over 5,000 people and serve over 20 million meals per year. We're on a mission to build better food businesses that sustain happy, healthy lives – serving better, with food businesses that nourish the needs of our people, our customers, our partners, and our planet.

Purpose of the Role

Working in the Infrastructure and Operations team, you will take sole responsibility for the IT Service at the Azzurri Group. As the IT Service Manager your role is to support and ensure the effective, reliable, and business-aligned delivery of all IT services within the organisation. We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced IT Service Manager to lead the IT service delivery team and ensure the provision of high-quality, reliable, and user-focused IT services to all our employees, restaurants, and partners. This is a 6 month fixed-term contract to cover maternity leave.

Scope of the Role

In this role, you'll be instrumental in ensuring our IT Support Service run smoothly across the entire Azzurri Group. Your responsibilities will include:

• Service Delivery and Operations: Oversee the day-to-day operations and performance of all IT services, ensuring they meet agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Team Management: Lead, mentor, and manage the IT Support team, strengthening a culture of customer service, accountability, and operational excellence.
• ITIL Process Management: Champion and manage key ITIL processes, including:
• Incident Management: Ensure quick and effective resolution of all service disruptions.
• Problem Management: Analyse root causes of recurring incidents and implement permanent solutions to prevent future occurrences.
• Request Fulfilment: Streamline the process for fulfilling user service requests.
• Service Level Management (SLM): Monitor and review the IT services provided, and the agreements made with the business.
• Communication: As the primary point of contact for service-related issues, communicating clearly and professionally with the business and partners on the service status, planned outages, and improvement initiatives is imperative to the role.
• Supplier/Partner Management: Manage relationships and performance of third-party suppliers and service providers, ensuring partners deliver their agreed-upon services efficiently, securely, and in alignment with our IT Service Strategy and Azzurri core values, which is critical to our delivery of service.
• Continuous Improvement: Evaluate service performance and apply best practices to enhance quality, speed, and user experience.
• Reporting: Produce comprehensive reports on a weekly and monthly basis, detailing the status and performance of the IT service.
• Automation: Implement initiatives from our strategy to drive automation, process improvement, and operational efficiency.

Key Skills & Qualifications

• Strong leadership and team management experience.
• In-depth knowledge of ITIL frameworks and service management principles.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven ability to manage suppliers and drive continuous improvement.

The Candidate

The ideal candidate will be:

• Collaborative: We are a people first organisation, prioritising people & interaction over processes and tools. You will enjoy building warm & close relationships with teammates across the group & 3rd parties and facilitating collaboration.
• Detail Orientated: You enjoy getting into the detail of work to understand what's really going on.
• Driven: You love getting things completed and have a natural drive to get things done at pace and high quality.
• Entrepreneurial: You regularly use your initiative to do what it takes to get stuff done.

The ideal candidate will have the following experience:

• 5+ years experience in IT Service Management.
• 3 years experience in a leadership role.
• Experience within the retail and/or Hospitality sector.
• Experience using the IT Service Management frameworks (ITIL v4 preferred).
• Developing and mentoring teams.

The Location

We have a great office designed by our own in-house creative team, located in Central London, just opposite the Edgware Road Circle line tube stop. As you might expect from an Italian restaurant company, we have great, free espresso and barista training is part of your induction! A free Coco di Mama breakfast is provided every Tuesday & Thursday and free fruit and soft drinks are available all day, every day. We regularly order in pizza, pasta and salads for lunch. Although based in London, the role will require travel within the UK as you visit the locations for our new openings.

What We Can Offer You:

• Competitive salary
• Employer pension contribution
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Income Protection & Life Assurance
• Access to WeCare wellbeing services and online GP for you and your family
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Interest free travel loan
• Eye care & flu vaccination vouchers
• 50% discount at ASK Italian, Coco di Mama, Dave's Hot Chicken and Zizzi