Head of Service Design & Transition in Watford

Right across infrastructure, there’s a requirement to not only maintain, but also renew and reimagine. Whatever stage you’re at in your career, with us you’ll have an opportunity to grow and develop. Delivering essential infrastructure services for life, while being safety first, and client and customer centric in a friendly, fun and respectful environment where you are encouraged to thrive.

As an organisation, there is little we don’t do and plenty to get involved in. Our Group Support roles are vital in making sure we can help over 11,000 people deliver essential infrastructure seamlessly across water, energy, transport and telecom.

We’re looking for a Head of Service Design & Transition who can bring clarity, structure, and strong leadership to how technology services are introduced and supported across M Group Services. In this role, you’ll help shape how our services are designed, prepared, and delivered, ensuring they are stable, supportable, and aligned with the needs of the business.

You’ll influence decision-making at senior levels, guiding teams through a period of major transformation as we move toward more standardised and mature ways of working. You’ll balance rapid delivery with operational reliability, helping the organisation make smarter choices about how services are introduced and supported. If you’re someone who enjoys creating order, improving processes, and building confidence in how change is delivered, this role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact.

In this role, you’ll take ownership of how services move from concept to reality, guiding every stage so that what we deliver is robust, supportable, and fit for long-term use. You’ll bring teams together early in the lifecycle, helping them shape service designs that are clear, consistent, and fully aligned with operational needs. As services progress through delivery, you will be the anchor point that ensures nothing is left to chance—overseeing readiness activities, coordinating testing and validation, and making sure operational teams receive the knowledge and clarity they need to support the service from day one.

You’ll act as the steward of our standards, strengthening our design and transition practices through thoughtful governance, insight, and continuous improvement. When challenges arise, you’ll be the calm, structured voice that brings options, clarity, and direction. You’ll work closely with partners across architecture, cyber, engineering, the SPMO, and our MSPs to keep service integrity at the centre of every project decision. And through strong, visible leadership, you’ll build a team that operates with confidence, accountability, and pride—one that becomes a trusted advisor across the business and a key enabler of stable, high-quality technology services.

What you’ll bring:

• Proven experience building or leading a Service Design & Transition function in a similarly complex organisation.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, balancing delivery pace with operational readiness and risk.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain the impact of change on live services with clarity and confidence.
• Solid project planning and delivery discipline—able to establish structure, milestones, and dependencies across multiple teams.
• Hands-on experience owning service readiness and acceptance processes for major changes or project go-lives.
• Experience establishing and governing a scalable release management framework.
• A proactive, self-starting approach with the ability to identify gaps and implement effective improvements.

What’s in it for you?

We offer a range of benefits designed to support your life in and out of work, some of which include:

• Matched or contributory pension scheme
• Online GP service, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Employee assistance programme
• My Rewards portal, access to 1000s of retail discounts
• Life assurance
• Cycle to work, salary finance and give as you earn schemes
• Enhanced maternity, paternity leave and adoption leave
• Reward and recognition scheme

In addition, this role offers:

• Company car (or allowance) and fuel card with a range of EV and hybrid vehicles to choose from
• My Car Choice our salary sacrifice EV/ Hybrid car scheme
• Private health care and health care cash plan for you (and your family)
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Recommend a friend get rewarded for introducing people to us!

We want to be an employer of choice and a great place to work, attracting diverse and talented people, who join us and make a difference. We’re one of the Top 100 UK companies actively supporting and recruiting army veterans. Our ENABLE inclusion networks bring together people who have a shared passion, to help create an environment where everyone belongs.

Our values help to shape our culture and how we work with one another. We recruit with these values in mind, to ensure your aspirations, and ways of working, align with ours.

We’re responsible and go further for our people, clients, communities and the planet.

We’re open and seek new and better ways of exceeding expectations.

We’re together and as one team; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

We’re ambitious and embrace opportunity, to lead essential infrastructure services for life.

Whether you’re a trainee, apprentice or graduate, or progressing through your career, our people benefit from industry recognised programmes, training and development. It’s an exceptional time to be a part of M Group.

Please note: Occasionally, job adverts might be closed before the stated closing date. Do apply as soon as possible to ensure your application is considered. For certain roles, successful candidates will be subject to 3rd party background checks as part of the hiring process. Some roles require drug and alcohol testing as part of induction and onboarding.