Job Description
Senior Service Owner - SC Cleared
Key Notes:
- Location: either London, Scotland or Wales - 4 days per week remote, 1 day per week in the office
- Rate: £800 per day inside IR35
- Contract Duration: 6 months with potential to extend
About the Role
Are you a seasoned service management professional who thrives on driving continuous improvement, cultivating exceptional supplier relationships, and leading multi-disciplinary teams?
As a Senior Service Owner, you will hold end-to-end accountability for the delivery, performance, and strategic roadmap of a critical portfolio of services. Operating within a modern, flexible resourcing model, you will act as the focal point and domain expert for your team. This role blends tactical execution with inclusive corporate leadership-meaning you won't just oversee timelines and maintain Service Level Agreements (SLAs); you will actively champion a culture of service ownership, mentoring colleagues and embedding industry best practices across the organisation.
Key Responsibilities
1. Service Assurance & Management
- Monitor service availability, track improvement actions, and manage user experience to ensure all portfolio services meet strict quality and SLA targets.
- Address and resolve complex service and support model issues.
- Lead the measurement and reporting of service performance, objectively reviewing internal data alongside supplier-provided metrics.
- Support procurement and supplier management teams during contract renewals or new tenders to bake in robust support targets.
2. Relationship & Supplier Management
- Act as the primary focal point and escalation path for customer and business service issues, ensuring a deep understanding of evolving business requirements.
- Own the end-to-end life cycle of key services by chairing formal service reviews with business leaders and third-party vendors.
- Hold external suppliers strictly accountable to their delivery commitments.
3. Strategy & Continuous Improvement
- Develop, iterate, and oversee the long-term service strategy and roadmap, maintaining close alignment with business analysis pipelines and upcoming projects.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives and Business-As-Usual (BAU) upgrades for both services and their underlying technologies.
4. Team Leadership & Professional Development
- Build a supportive, high-performing, and inclusive team environment rooted in trust, transparency, and collaboration.
- Provide expert guidance and ongoing coaching to help team members hit their deliverables while actively supporting colleagues pursuing professional qualifications.
- Take personal ownership of your own continued professional development and champion it for your team.
Core Skills & Expertise
- Operational Management (Expert): Focuses on building scalable, resilient operating models and coordinating operations, policy, digital, and delivery teams. You will remove operational blocks and serve as the ultimate escalation point for major operational issues.
- Stakeholder & Relationship Management (Expert): Focuses on directing the overaching stakeholder strategy, as well as influencing and negotiating with senior leaders to resolve issues and enable progress.
- Strategic Ownership (Expert): Focuses on creating and driving long-term service strategies, supporting and coaching others through strategic decision-making, and ensuring cross-organisational alignment.
- Adapting to Delivery Methodologies (Expert): Focuses on setting and iterating delivery standards, actively promoting collaboration, and experimenting with innovative ways of working to maximize value.
- Applying User-Centred Insights (Expert): Focuses on using user research and insights to drive strategic, user-first design and channel choices, while coaching others to meet diverse user needs.
- Governance and Assurance (Expert): Focuses on implementing proportionate governance aligned with government needs and guiding teams cleanly through formal service assessments.
- Leading Performance & Benefits (Expert): Focuses on using data and metrics to manage and prioritise delivery, inform decisions, and visually demonstrate service value to stakeholders.
- Financial Ownership (Expert): Focuses on securing sustainable funding via strong business cases, managing spending across competing priorities, and handling commercial and supplier risks.
- Life Cycle Management (Practitioner): Focuses on guiding products from discovery to retirement, identifying the right tools for each phase, and using evidence to decide when to pivot, continue, or stop a service line.
Key Outputs and Deliverables
- Define and continuously update the comprehensive service strategy and portfolio roadmap.
- Maintain complete ownership of core service contracts and their associated SLAs.
- Successfully chair regular service reviews, taking full ownership of supplier relationships and accountability loops.
- Proactively map risks, track systemic problems, and execute continuous improvement workflows.
- Provide precise financial forecasting and tracking for all key service spend.
Key Stakeholder Relationships
- Internal: Deputy Director of IT Service Operations; Head of IT Service Management; Head of Digital Performance Enablement; Head of Service Transition; Finance Business Partners; and wider DDSS support teams.
- External: Third-party vendors, managed service providers (MSPs), and peer contacts across other government departments.
Role Criteria
Essential Experience & Qualifications
- Portfolio Management: Extensive, demonstrable track record of owning and managing a diverse portfolio of services. You must bring a deep background in service management roles with a rock-solid understanding of service management frameworks.
- ITIL Mastery: A high level of ITIL framework awareness. You must hold an ITIL Practitioner qualification as a minimum requirement (eg, ITIL Digital and IT Strategy), preferably supported by certifications across Service Management and Service Operations.
- Relationship & Supplier Dynamics: Proven experience driving service ownership through business relationship management, demonstrating a balanced understanding of requirements from both internal users and third-party vendors.
- Process Maturation: Direct experience maturing service ownership practices, including the structural overhaul of service documentation.
Desirable
- Practical experience operationalising brand-new services (eg, implementing ITSM processes like a Configuration Management Database/CMDB).
How to Apply
If you are a collaborative leader ready to shape the future of our service ecosystem, please submit your CV alongside a cover letter detailing your experience against the Essential Criteria outlined above.
