Product Service Lead

The Football Association is looking for a Service Product Lead to join our Technology team and play a pivotal role in shaping how IT services are designed, introduced, transitioned, supported, and continually improved across all our Product Teams. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys building structure, improving processes, and driving operational excellence within a complex and evolving environment encompassing our cloud and SaaS estates.

Our current Product Service Management capability is still developing, so we are looking for an experienced professional who can bring clarity, governance, and best practice while building strong relationships across both technical and business teams. You will develop our Service Portfolio lifecycle, ensuring all new and service updates are designed and transitioned effectively into live operation in a controlled, scalable, and low-risk way. You will work closely with all our product teams, suppliers, and stakeholders to ensure services are fully supportable, monitored and aligned to business needs from day one.

With the majority of our support teams operating offshore and many stakeholders based within the UK, this role requires someone who is highly organised, collaborative, and confident communicating across multiple teams and levels of the organisation. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a visible impact within one of the world's most recognised sporting organisations.

• Service Portfolio Management
  • Own and maintain the end-to-end Service Portfolio lifecycle from pipeline through to retirement.
  • Ensure all live services are accurately documented, supported effectively and monitored operationally.
  • Drive service maturity and continual improvement initiatives across the technology function.
  • Ensure services continue to deliver value and remain aligned with evolving business requirements.
• Service Design
  • Lead and coordinate the design of new and changed IT services, ensuring both functional and non-functional requirements are met.
  • Develop clear and effective support models for new and evolving services.
  • Ensure Service Design Packages are embedded within project delivery and contain all operational requirements needed to successfully support services once live.
  • Work closely with technical, operational, and project teams to ensure services are scalable, supportable, and aligned to business expectations.
  • Ensure operational readiness activities are completed before services transition into production.
• Service Transition
  • Lead the successful transition of new and changed services into live operational environments.
  • Develop and manage transition plans to ensure services move into support in a structured and controlled manner.
  • Define and maintain service acceptance criteria.
  • Oversee the creation and validation of service documentation, operational procedures, support models, and knowledge articles.
  • Manage the transition pipeline and coordinate priorities across multiple concurrent initiatives.
  • Identify and mitigate service transition risks and dependencies.
• Stakeholder Management
  • Build strong relationships with project teams, service owners, suppliers, and operational support teams.
  • Act as the key point of coordination between delivery and operational teams.
  • Facilitate effective communication to ensure smooth and seamless service transitions.
• Governance & Reporting
  • Managing and monitoring service operations across our products.
  • Provide regular reporting on service readiness, transition progress, risks, and key performance metrics.
  • Ensure governance standards, controls, and transition processes are consistently applied.
  • Support the ongoing development and maturity of Service Design and Transition practices across the organisation.

What we're looking for:

• A proactive and solutions-focused mindset.
• Strong organisational and planning skills with excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The confidence to challenge existing ways of working and drive positive change.
• The ability to operate effectively within a fast-paced and evolving environment.
• A collaborative approach with the ability to build credibility across technical and non-technical teams.

Skills & experience:

• ITIL 4 Foundation certification.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL Service Design and Service Transition processes and best practice.
• Proven experience transitioning services from project delivery into live operational support.
• Experience working within ITIL-based service management environments.
• Strong understanding of service acceptance, operational readiness, and support model design.
• Ability to produce high-quality service documentation, operational models, and metrics to deliver value.
• Knowledge of ITSM tools and service delivery frameworks.
• Experience working with offshore support teams and third-party suppliers would be advantageous.

What's in it for you?

We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles. To achieve this, we have unique office spaces under the arch of the iconic Wembley National Stadium, which is the home of English Football. We are also delighted to offer a world-class, Elite Performance Centre, St. George's Park in Staffordshire, which is an exceptional setting to develop and inspire high-performing England teams and leaders. We pride ourselves on offering a competitive salary as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role.

But that is not all; we also have a range of exciting benefits, some of which can be found below:

• Access to event day tickets at Wembley Stadium, alongside a host of regular internal events throughout the season, encourages you to connect and learn with your colleagues and look after your mental health and well-being.
• Free, nutritious lunches at Wembley Stadium and St. George's Park.
• Free private medical cover.
• A contributory pension scheme.
• An additional 'Thank You' day's leave, volunteering days, as well as 25 days of annual leave (based on a full-time, permanent contract).
• A hybrid working model which offers greater flexibility.

We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The Football Association actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work. We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.

As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.