IT Service Introduction Manager in Wilmslow

This role is a strategic leadership position accountable for developing, implementing and managing a robust service introduction process for the DDaT directorate. This role is responsible for assuring the operational readiness of new projects and services prior to their going live. You will own the end-to-end readiness process and be responsible for ensuring a successful and smooth transition into live service.

Reporting to the Head of IT Operations, this role requires a broad understanding of the various specialisms across the DDaT directorate, as you will be accountable for assuring the successful introduction of new or changed IT services into live operation. This role works closely with Project Managers, Delivery Managers, and Product/Service Owners providing advice, guidance and direction to ensure seamless transition and support for new services in the operational teams within DDaT. You will need a strong customer-focus, to be resilient and adept influencing senior stakeholders, and be an expert at coordinating service transition activities across multiple teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Acts as the authority and primary point of contact for all service introduction and transition activities across the DDaT directorate – including all new products, services and projects delivering a solution into the live environment.
• Design, implement, and continuously improve the Service Introduction processes as part of a broader IT governance framework.
• Provide advice and guidance to project and product teams to assure that their service readiness.
• Coordinate and manage service acceptance activities including testing, training, handover and go/no go decisions.
• Review and revise existing service operational documentation (Service Definition Documents) in conjunction with wider organisation.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of support documentation sets: including runbook templates, support model templates, and escalation procedures.
• Facilitate workshops and meetings to gather requirements and feedback.
• Lead the establishment of KPIs and metrics to measure service introduction success.
• Identify and manage risks associated with new services.
• Acts as the single point of contact for senior stakeholders, building strong relationships and ensuring effective engagement to support service delivery to live services.
• Evaluate and ensure current and future needs are met.
• Ensure compliance with internal governance and audit requirements.

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

• Experience working in IT Operational / Service team with multiple stakeholders.
• Proven experience in IT Service Management, ideally within a Service Introduction Transition or Delivery role.
• Experience with liaising with external third-party support partners.
• Strong understanding of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) practices, particularly Service Transition and Service Operation.
• A demonstrable systematic, disciplined and analytical approach to work.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to form effective working relationships at all levels.
• Excellent standard of literacy and effective written communication skills for writing documentation and reports and meeting notes.
• Good intellectual and analytical ability in order to assimilate often complex data or technical information and apply it to the operational activities of the ICO.
• Strong time management, organised and delivery focused, good planning skills and process driven.
• Ability to step up when needed and offer support even when outside normal hours if required.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks.

Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme. As part of the ICO’s commitment to our EDI objectives and creating a workplace that represents the communities and societies we serve, we guarantee an interview to candidates who declare they identify as belonging from an ethnic minority background and who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy.

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk.

Closing Date

Please submit your CV and cover letter by 23:59 on Sunday 5th July 2026. Your cover letter should be no more than 1,000 words and should clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria for the role. We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. To ensure your application is considered, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact us at recruitment@ico.org.uk.

In the event of a high volume of applications, we may not be able to invite all candidates who meet the minimum criteria to interview. However, we encourage you to stay in touch and apply for future roles that match your interests. All candidates who meet the minimum criteria and apply in-line with our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled and ethnic minority applicants will be interviewed.

Clearance Required for this role: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).