Incident Manager in Newcastle upon Tyne

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) is a new arm’s-length body set up, at unprecedented pace, to administer compensation to people whose lives have been impacted by the infected blood scandal. IBCA will ensure payment is made in recognition of the wrongs experienced by those who have been infected by HIV, Hepatitis B or C, as well as those who love and care for them. They have been frustrated and distressed by the delays in achieving proper recognition, and we must help put this right. We are committed to putting the infected and affected blood community at the centre of every decision we make and every step we take to build our organisation to deliver compensation payments. IBCA employees will be public servants. If successful in this role you will be appointed directly into IBCA, on IBCA terms and conditions as a public servant. Successful applicants will join the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Please note that the mission of IBCA means that it is likely to be operational for a period of approximately 5 to 7 years. When IBCA\’s work begins to wind down, IBCA employees will receive support and practical guidance to find a new role, whether in the Civil Service, another Arms Length Body (ALB), or an external employer. Are you driven and ready for an exciting opportunity which will make a real impact? This is a challenging and fulfilling role that requires pace, impact, sensitivity, and compassion.

Team Priorities

• To create a user‑centred, empathetic end‑to‑end service at the heart of IBCA;
• To provide the means of paying compensation to those eligible;
• To iterate our service through starting small and scaling fast, through a test and learn approach.

A rare opportunity to play a key role within a newly formed IT Service Management team across a public service making a real difference. Joining IBCA early in the service lifecycle allows the Incident Manager to help shape the incident management support processes, effectively establishing the function within the organisation. Utilising industry best practices, and working within a dedicated team of ITSM professionals, the Incident Manager will play a key role in driving the success of the service management strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape and manage IBCA’s incident management strategy.
• Define the incident management framework and processes across public and internal facing digital products, data, and multiple channels.
• Deliver processes to ensure service availability, performance and process maturity managed to meet IBCA’s requirements and user needs.
• Establish policies and standards for incident management aligned with organisational goals.
• Test and continuously improve incident management processes and procedures, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Provide leadership during major incidents, coordinating cross‑functional teams and external partners.
• Analyse metrics and reports on the performance of the incident management process.
• Lead the development of organisational capabilities for incident management.
• Promote organisational collaboration and ensure incident management processes are understood and adopted across the organisation.

Additional Responsibilities

• Design and implement incident handling processes for major incidents, information or security incidents, complex incidents, and low impact incidents.
• Establish incident response teams, including security incident response teams.
• Enhance preparedness through regular testing, training, simulations, and incident response plans and playbooks.
• Restore service to users as quickly as possible, prioritising service continuity over permanent solutions.

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• Manage unplanned interruptions to a service or reductions in service quality.
• Coordinate root cause analysis reports and create Post Incident Review reports, ensuring the audience is understood and maintained.
• Responsible for the management and completion of actions resulting from PIRs.
• Route requests for help to appropriate functions for resolution.
• Monitor resolution activity and ensure compliance with regulations and data privacy requirements.
• Use automation and data‑driven tools for earlier and faster incident detection and resolution.
• Inform users, customers and key stakeholders of progress towards service restoration.
• Look for opportunities to collaborate and improve processes, communicating with both technical and non‑technical people.
• Act as an expert contributor in ITSM service discussions under constrained timelines.

Behavioural Assessment

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

We will assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: Changing and Improving; Communicating and Influencing; Working Together; Managing a Quality Service; Delivering at Pace.

Required Experience

You will have experience of working within multi‑disciplinary teams and of Agile methodologies, as well as an awareness of ‘health checks’ and the role they play within those methodologies. You will operate effectively in a fast‑paced, transparent, multi‑discipline environment. You will be an ITIL Foundation certificate holder, or hold equivalent expert experience of leading on Incident Management in an agile, multi‑disciplinary organisation.

Qualifications & Skillset

• Proven experience in an Incident Management lead role, showing a thorough understanding of technical concepts (including ITIL), and ability to explain how these fit into the wider Service Lifecycle within an agile delivery environment.
• Working as part of a multi‑disciplinary team to jointly implement a Service Management framework which delivers outcomes aligned with business needs, with a particular specialism in the incident/major incident space.
• Practical knowledge of modern cloud‑first architectures, leveraging cloud capabilities to design secure, scalable applications, while mitigating security risks in public cloud environments.
• Can communicate technical concepts for multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders, ensuring mutual understanding and fostering strong relationships, particularly with operational colleagues.
• Demonstrates an ability to successfully guide cross‑discipline teams through an incident lifecycle and act as a lead communicator to a range of different stakeholder audiences and agendas.
• A strong team ethos, showing a willingness to assist and support colleagues within a newly formed and evolving team.

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge and experience in the problem management process, and an understanding of the links between incident and problem, would be desirable.

ITIL Foundation

Legal and Eligibility

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre‑settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre‑settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

You will have experience of working within multi‑disciplinary teams and of Agile methodologies, as well as an awareness of ‘health checks’ and the role they play within those methodologies. To be successful, you will also need to operate effectively in a fast‑paced, transparent, multi‑discipline environment. You will be an ITIL Foundation certificate holder, or hold equivalent expert experience of leading on Incident Management in an agile, multi‑disciplinary organisation.

Benefits

• Premium allowance paid monthly after probation
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%
• 32.5 days of paid annual leave plus 8 bank holidays
• Family friendly policies to support you and your everyday responsibilities
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave, up to 12 months shared parental leave

Recent changes in skilled worker visa eligibility mean that a Skilled Worker must have a job offer in an eligible skilled occupation from a Home Office‑approved sponsor. From 22 July 2025, the job must normally be skilled to level 6 (graduate level) on the Regulated Qualifications Framework for England and Northern Ireland, or the equivalent level in Wales or Scotland, or be included on either the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List. Please be aware that if the role is not eligible for a skilled worker visa that we will be unable to provide sponsorship.