IT Manager in Swindon

Oak Furnitureland is a beloved British furniture retailer with a passion for helping people create their dream homes. We are committed to providing exceptional quality and stylish furniture at accessible prices. As we continue to grow and evolve, we're looking for an experienced IT Manager to lead our operational IT teams.

This is a hybrid role with in-person working from our Swindon Head Office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

ROLE PURPOSE

The IT Manager leads and develops Oak Furnitureland's core operational IT delivery functions, holding direct accountability for both the IT Support team and the Field Services team. This newly established role ensures high-performing, secure and resilient user and site technology services across our Head Office, retail showrooms, distribution depots and warehouses, while optimising commercial value across supplier contracts and operational budgets.

In this role, you will manage six direct reports across 1st Line, 2nd Line and Field Services. You will act as the operational bridge between daily service delivery and strategic technology leadership, working closely with the Head of Technology, Head of IT Transformation, Cyber Governance and Risk Manager, Procurement, Legal and HR. You will establish strong team performance frameworks, structured training paths and proactive resource planning to build operational capacity and reduce key-person dependencies.

You will own the IT service management processes and be the single front door for IT support, including our business applications. Beyond team management, you will hold operational ownership of site networking services, working within the architecture and standards set by the Head of Technology, as well as vendor contracts, IT procurement, expense routing and operational service continuity. You will lead the delivery of new showroom and depot rollouts, lead the operational response to major infrastructure incidents, maintain site disaster recovery procedures, and drive continuous improvement across all user-facing and location-based IT services.

Direct reports: 2 x 1st Line Service Desk Analysts, 2 x 2nd Line Support Engineers, 2 x Field Services Engineers

Out-of-Hours: Monitoring of major incident communications and participation in the out-of-hours rota.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Line manage the IT Support (1st Line and 2nd Line) and Field Services teams (six direct reports), holding regular 1:1s and Partnering for Performance (P4P) reviews, and setting clear individual performance objectives.
• Handle team performance and workplace issues in close collaboration with HR.
• Mentor and develop team members, building structured training plans to upskill 1st Line staff and reduce operational reliance on 2nd Line engineers.
• Conduct regular skills matrix evaluations and coverage assessments across the team.
• Lead resource planning, succession planning and recruitment for team vacancies to maintain a healthy talent pipeline and eliminate single points of failure.
• Manage working rotas, including the Saturday support rota, holiday and absence cover, and the team's contribution to out-of-hours support arrangements established jointly with the Head of Technology.
• Oversee the regional distribution and cross-coverage model for Field Services Engineers.
• Track and drive improvement in operational KPIs, including First Contact Resolution (FCR), ticket ageing and SLA achievement.

Service Management

• Own the IT service desk and the incident, problem, change and release management processes, embedding and maturing them across the team.
• Lead root cause analysis on major and recurring incidents and drive the implementation of permanent fixes.
• Prepare and coordinate the Change Advisory Board (CAB) agenda and content.
• Own the starters, movers and leavers process for IT.
• Govern the knowledge base so that guides and technical articles stay accurate and current.
• Establish and monitor service levels with the business and SLAs with the Cloud Platform team for escalations and change requests.
• Analyse ticket trends to identify training needs, working with our Organisational Development team to improve user capability and confidence.

Business Application Support

• Own the support model for our business applications, including our ERP, warehouse management, fleet routing and ecommerce systems.
• Ensure all application issues are logged and triaged through the service desk, resolved at the first point of contact where possible, and escalated through clear routes to 2nd Line, Field Services, the Cloud Platform team or the relevant Product Owner.
• Lead the transfer of application support into the IT Support team, including runbooks and a support catalogue covering vendors, contracts and escalation routes.

Assets & Licences/Subscriptions

• Own the ITSM system as the single source of truth for IT services and assets, and maintain the hardware asset register.
• Manage the hardware and software lifecycle, including end-of-life reviews, upgrade proposals and hardware replenishment planning.
• Maintain the standard equipment list.
• Manage software and platform licences/subscriptions, including Microsoft and Google licensing.
• Approve team IT purchases within designated limits, escalating purchases exceeding personal limits to the Head of IT Transformation for second-line authorisation.
• Oversee purchase requests, raise licence and subscription POs, and manage expense approval routing workflows.
• Partner with the Procurement and Legal teams to negotiate strong commercial terms and robust contractual positioning for new and renewing vendor agreements.
• Source, onboard, offboard and manage resellers, hardware vendors and service providers.
• Manage data lines, telephony, mobile SIMs and collaboration contracts, verifying and reconciling invoices against usage and active contracts.
• Track and forecast spend against the central IT budget, proactively identifying cost-saving opportunities such as decommissioning redundant connectivity.
• Own and maintain the central IT contract register, monitoring supplier performance and SLA compliance.
• Own vendor relationships and contracts for end-user hardware, managed print services, site access control, footfall tracking, CCTV, handheld scanning terminals, field engineering suppliers, cloud hosting platforms and site networking.
• Involve relevant Heads of Department and business managers in contract reviews and service escalations.
• Evaluate the business value of systems with key stakeholders before renewal, obtain competitive market quotes, and complete contract finalisations or exit strategies on time.
• Ensure supplier accounts and portal administration are held under team ownership, with shared mailboxes and designated backup leads.
• Oversee the performance of our international managed service provider, reviewing monthly support and security metrics and taking part in quarterly governance reviews.

Operations & Service Continuity

• Act as Incident Manager for major incidents that disrupt IT services, taking charge of the response, coordinating the IT Support, Cloud Platform and Development teams on resolution, and keeping stakeholders informed until service is restored.
• Monitor major incident communications outside of business hours, responding and mobilising the team where needed in line with the out-of-hours support arrangements.
• Work alongside the Head of Technology, who acts as Incident Commander for cyber security incidents, and the Cyber Governance and Risk Manager during security-related incidents.
• Lead post-incident reviews, identifying root causes and driving forward the actions and solutions that will prevent similar issues from happening again.
• Write up major incident reports covering impact, timeline, root cause, resolution and preventative actions, and share them with the Head of IT Transformation and relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain the Head Office disaster recovery procedure and operational continuity plans for user and site services.
• Act as the primary escalation point for WAN and network connectivity faults, leading service restoration efforts.
• Hold operational ownership of site networking, overseeing the core network monitoring routines, pre-peak reboot schedules and physical server room facilities managed by the IT Support team.
• Schedule network firmware rollouts and infrastructure changes through the CAB.
• Ensure meeting room AV and technology remain fully operational, overseeing weekly setup checks carried out by the IT Support team.
• Maintain low-tech business continuity workaround kits to keep sites trading during extended outages.

Site Rollouts & Projects

• Lead the end-to-end IT delivery of new showrooms and depots, from planning and ordering through installation, testing and handover.
• Own and continuously improve the new showroom and depot playbook, including timelines, setup checklists, equipment lists and contract agreements.
• Deliver hardware refreshes, payment device rollouts, Wi-Fi upgrades and other infrastructure projects, keeping one central schedule for site work.

Security & Compliance

• Work with the Cyber Governance and Risk Manager to implement security governance and controls that minimise the risk of malicious attacks on Oak Furnitureland.
• Ensure the team applies device profiles, patches and security settings in line with security policy.
• Remediate IT gaps identified through compliance evaluations and cyber security reviews.
• Keep team credentials, alerts and supplier contacts under shared team ownership so no knowledge sits with one person.
• Ensure personal data handled by the IT team is processed in line with company policies, procedures and regulatory requirements.
• Identify automation opportunities and work with the Development team to implement them.
• Research new technology and build business cases through our architectural, security and budget approval processes.
• Partner with department leads to understand business objectives and upcoming technology needs.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Proven experience in an IT operational management or leadership role, supervising multi-site IT support and field service engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of ITIL-aligned service management, including incident, problem, change and release management, and Change Advisory Board (CAB) governance.
• Demonstrated hands-on and operational knowledge of cloud-managed networks, such as Meraki or Unifi.
• Solid understanding of multi-site network infrastructure, WAN and LAN concepts, cloud platform subscriptions, telephony and hardware lifecycle management.
• Experience supporting business applications, such as ERP or warehouse management systems, including managing escalations to vendors and development teams.
• Direct experience managing team operating budgets, purchase order processing, invoice reconciliation and cost-optimisation initiatives.
• Strong vendor management background, with practical experience negotiating supplier terms, monitoring SLAs and running formal supplier reviews.
• Experience implementing and managing operational rotas and out-of-hours support structures, and driving key service desk metrics (FCR, ticket turnaround and SLA performance).
• Practical experience acting as a major incident manager, including post-incident reviews and reporting, infrastructure continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Experience delivering IT infrastructure projects, such as new site setups or hardware rollouts, to fixed deadlines.
• Strong people development skills, with a track record of coaching technical staff, conducting performance reviews and creating clear progression pathways.
• Excellent cross-departmental communication and stakeholder management skills, including working with HR, Procurement, Legal and senior leadership.
• Experience in a multi-channel retail environment with showrooms, depots or warehouses.
• ITIL Foundation or higher.
• Experience with ITSM platforms such as Jira, and mobile device management platforms such as Intune or SOTI.
• Understanding of PCI-DSS, UK GDPR and cyber security good practice.
• Experience with access control, CCTV or footfall systems.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Customer-focused, with a genuine commitment to keeping colleagues productive.
• Organised and process-driven, able to balance day-to-day operations, projects and suppliers.
• Calm and decisive under pressure, especially during major incidents.
• Collaborative, building strong working relationships across technology, security and business teams.
• Commercially aware, always looking for value and cost savings.
• Employee discount: amazing discounts available on all Oak Furnitureland products after successful completion of probation
• Life assurance: free cover of a minimum of two times your annual salary up to the age of 65
• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Birthday: an additional day off for you to celebrate your birthday
• Pension: 5% employee contribution with 4% employer contribution
• Employee Assistance Programme: gives all employees access to both telephone and face-to-face counselling services
• My Rewards Programme: offers discounts on everything from restaurants and supermarkets, to entertainment and holidays

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