Service Operations Manager | London, UK

Application Deadline: 18 July 2025

Department: IT

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Home United Kingdom

Reporting To: Gayle Evans

Compensation: £51,000 - £76,500 / year

Our vision

Davies is a community of outstanding people. We welcome different perspectives, support each other's ambitions and grow together. In a fast-changing business environment, we adapt and look ahead. We succeed because we are multi-talented: in the skills of our teams, specialisms, and sector expertise. Working together, we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Our Values

• We are Connected: United under one mission and believe in our collective power to make a difference; together we are greater than the sum of our parts.
• We are Dynamic: We adapt with the environment, striving for what is next. Relentlessly seeking more for our business, clients, colleagues, and communities.
• We are Innovative: We are solution focused with an entrepreneurial mindset, empowered to discover new paths.
• We Succeed Together: We support each other to grow and value different perspectives, ideas, and experiences - making an impact on our communities.

Key Responsibilities

• Team performance: Provide leadership to service-aligned support teams, ensuring consistent operations, adherence to defined SLAs/OLAs, and high-quality user experience.
• Review operational health metrics including ticket volumes, backlog (especially aged tickets), and performance trends, identifying areas for improvement and driving corrective action.
• Champion and embed a service catalogue-based approach to operations - ensuring services are clearly defined, supported, and understood by the team.

• Team Management and Development: Develop and lead a motivated team of individuals with a service-based approach.
• Promote a culture of problem-solving within the support teams with a proactive mindset.
• Develop an automation-first mindset, identifying opportunities to automate processes and reduce manual intervention.
• Manage resource and ensure the team have the skills and tools needed to be successful.

• Customer Satisfaction and relationship management: Act as a point of escalation for complex customer service issues.
• Maintain strong relationships with customers, working with the divisional business teams to ensure we understand and support their requirements.
• Work closely with other teams and business areas to maintain and improve the service operations frameworks.
• Regularly assess the quality of the service delivered and its impact on customer satisfaction.

• Process Ownership: Develop, implement, and oversee IT service processes and procedures.
• Ensure the service delivered is compliant with these processes, with a continual improvement approach to ensuring efficiency.

• Supplier Management: Undertake regular service reviews with suppliers key to the delivery of the service, ensuring their performance is measured against agreed contractual metrics.

• Risk Management and Security: Implement strong risk management and security processes into all aspects of service delivery.
• Ensure the team are equipped to identify, assess and mitigate potential risks effectively.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in service operations, with a significant portion in customer facing roles.
• Proven experience managing service operations in a service-aligned model, using a service catalogue approach.
• Clear evidence of establishing, improving, or operating within service-based team structures with defined responsibilities and accountabilities per service.
• Strong understanding of ticket management best practices, especially in relation to aged ticket backlogs - including demonstrated ability to turn around underperforming areas through process improvement and team engagement.
• Demonstrated ability to analyse performance data and implement recommendations to improve throughput, ownership, and accountability.
• Experience working in an ITIL environment, with practical application of incident, request, and problem management processes.
• Proven track record of leading teams and implementing process improvements and automation in a service environment.
• Strong understanding of customer service principles and practices, with an emphasis on problem solving.
• Exceptional leadership and people management skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage and influence at all levels.
• Excellent conflict management skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Be able to demonstrate experience of working with service management accreditations such as ISO20000.
• Experience of agile processes an advantage.

Soft Skills

• Have the ability to inspire, motivate and guide a team to achieve their goals.
• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Be competent in identifying, addressing, and resolving conflicts in a calm and constructive manner.
• Be able to remain calm and level-headed under pressure retaining a sound judgement in complex situations.
• A strong focus on customer satisfaction, recognise their needs and ensure communication to meet/or exceed these.
• Have an excellent ability with problem solving, involving a proactive approach to foresee potential issues and address them before escalation.
• Natural communicator who can challenge constructively, provide thoughtful recommendations, and doesn't rely on direction to act.

Job Benefits

Davies are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome candidates of all genders, gender identity and expression, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality, and belief (or lack thereof). Davies benefits and employee policies are ever-evolving. Currently some of our highlights include:

• Reward platform - discounts for over 800 retailers
• 25 days holiday (rising with service)
• EAP with virtual GP
• 2 x paid volunteering days
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave policies
• Fostering friendly and fertility support employer
• Pension - matched contribution at 5%
• Life Assurance (4 x basic salary)
• Development, training, and professional qualifications where applicable