IT Manager

Role Overview:

Standalone UK IT Manager for Wilderness Group, supporting three travel/safari brands (Wilderness, Yellow Zebra, Jakarta) under a PE-backed group. Wilderness Group has grown quickly via acquisition and operates safaris primarily in Africa; UK headcount is ~230 across sales, operations, marketing, finance, etc. Current state: No formal UK IT function; IT currently run out of South Africa plus an outdated third-party provider and ad hoc office manager support. This is the first dedicated UK IT hire.

Reporting lines: Functional reporting into the Wilderness IT team in South Africa (CTO and/or senior IT lead), with a local dotted line into Matt (UK Finance Director).

Role mandate: Build and own the UK IT function day-to-day - assess current environment, introduce structure and process, drive cost efficiencies and security, and become the go-to IT contact across the three UK offices.

Key Requirements:

• Experience level & type: Standalone / small-team IT leadership experience, ideally as an IT Manager or very strong senior engineer stepping into ownership of IT for an SME/multi-site environment. Proven track record of coming into a relatively greenfield or unstructured IT landscape, assessing the environment, and defining/implementing improvements (process, tooling, vendors, security). Comfort acting as both hands-on support and strategic owner (designing processes, making tech/vendor recommendations, driving cost savings).
• Technical environment & skills: Experience supporting a mixed Microsoft / Google environment preferred: Wilderness uses Microsoft stack (Teams, Office 365, likely Azure/AD etc.). Yellow Zebra & Jakarta use Google Workspace. Comfort with both Windows and Mac endpoints; environment is predominantly Windows but marketing and some teams use Macs. General SME infrastructure skills: endpoint build and provisioning, user account management, basic networking/Wi-Fi, printers, office moves/changes, etc. Ability to select, implement, and run an IT ticketing system from scratch, plus automation of common support flows (onboarding, provisioning, password resets, etc.).
• Vendor management skills: Review and rationalise current outsourced provider and any other suppliers. Propose more cost-effective models (e.g., reducing external hours, leasing vs buying hardware, alternative support vendors).
• Security mindset: Implement and/or validate endpoint and account security; must be capable of introducing basic controls and working with the SA team on policies (including AI policy, etc.).
• Stakeholder & collaboration: Able to liaise closely with the South African IT/tech leadership for alignment on group standards, architecture, and policies. Comfortable working with non-technical stakeholders (HR, Finance, office managers, sales leaders) and explaining decisions in plain language.
• Self-starter: Minimal local IT guidance; must be able to independently assess the "lay of the land," prioritise, and drive change.
• Soft skills & culture fit: Personable, approachable "face of IT" across UK offices – someone people are happy to walk up to with issues. Clear, proactive communicator; able to manage expectations and communicate constraints and priorities. Enjoys a non-corporate, relaxed and flexible culture (travel industry vibe), but can still bring structure and discipline to IT. Comfortable being the only dedicated IT person in the UK and owning end-to-end outcomes.

Nice-to-haves / Potential future: Experience in travel, hospitality or similar multi-brand consumer environments is not required and not a priority. Any experience with marketing/digital tooling (e.g. HubSpot, which has just been rolled out) would be a bonus but not core.

Location: Base: London, with responsibility for three UK offices: Yellow Zebra: Kingston (South West London). Jakarta: Old Street (East London). Wilderness: London Bridge. Hybrid: Standard pattern is 3 days in-office / 2 days remote, but company is very flexible on which days - driven by business need (e.g. large onboarding cohorts). Travel: Candidate must be willing and able to travel between the three London offices as needed; no separate travel expenses currently paid for intra-London commuting.