Senior Service Assurance Manager in Manchester

The Senior Service Assurance Manager is a key role within D&T responsible for Service Management delivery assurance across their assigned D&T product, platform or infrastructure Tribe(s). Assigned to and embedded within the D&T Tribes, you will provide the primary link between Service Management practices and Tribe members; this role ensures that Service Management practices are fully embedded, complied with and that the IT Services provided by the Tribe(s) are meeting the Service Levels required by the Business operations and its Stores.

As an ambassador for Service Management, you will promote ITIL4, DevOps, and SecOps as complementary frameworks, working with the various product and platform owners, squad leaders and their teams to support them to effectively balance velocity and throughput needs with the standardisation, risk reduction and operational stability achieved through adherence to the Service Management Practices. This role will proactively monitor performance levels, identifying trends, risks and issues and will work collaboratively with the relevant Tribe leaders and its members to develop insights, establishing root causes, and planning and tracking the implementation of required improvement initiatives and interventions. The Senior Service Assurance Manager is accountable for the performance achieved by the assigned Tribe(s) and will be able to demonstrate the increased performance and maturity over time. This role requires regular engagement with Tribe leadership and key business stakeholders to understand current challenges and risks and to reinforce the value of Service Management practices ensuring alignment, buy-in and sponsorship for improvements.

What you'll do:

• Assure the quality, performance and consistent adoption of Service Management practices across assigned Tribe(s), ensuring service levels and business objectives are met.
• Coach, train and support Tribe members on Service Management processes, procedures and SLA requirements, acting as an accessible point of contact for guidance.
• Monitor compliance, throughput and performance trends, identifying risks, issues and improvement opportunities through insight-led analysis.
• Lead root cause analysis and drive remediation actions for performance gaps, ensuring risks, issues and corrective actions are tracked through to completion.
• Provide clear reporting and stakeholder communication, including Tribe leadership reviews, Service Management alignment, Major Incident updates and Post-Incident Review follow-through.

Who you are:

• Strong Service Management expertise, with practical knowledge of ITIL4, DevOps and SecOps practices; retail experience would be a distinct advantage.
• Proven experience improving Service Management processes, governance and compliance, with the ability to identify risks, root causes and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills, including monitoring service performance, SLA compliance, trends and operational risks.
• Excellent communication, reporting and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence senior leaders, manage challenging conversations and secure buy-in for change.
• Solid understanding of IT infrastructure, operations and service management tools such as ServiceNow/Helix, Jira and Power BI, with the adaptability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation.
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.

Everyone's welcome. We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.