Head of IT Enterprise Service Engineering

Ricoh are currently recruiting for a Head of IT Enterprise Service Engineering based in London who will be accountable for establishing and leading core service engineering functions—including release and deployment management, testing and data migration, service transition and enablement, environment management and quality assurance—across the enterprise IT landscape. This is a new role which will ensure that IT services are delivered reliably, efficiently, and in alignment with business growth objectives, while mitigating operational risks and safeguarding business continuity. The successful candidate will define and implement the strategy, frameworks, teams, and tools and will lay the foundation for how services are engineered, transitioned, and run in production.

What you will be doing:

• Define the vision, operating model, and roadmap for the IT Service Engineering function aligned with the company’s transformation goals.
• Build and lead cross-functional teams responsible for each core capability area.
• Establish best-in-class, standardised, automated, and auditable release management strategy and practices across applications and platforms.
• Partner with Engineering teams, PM/PMO, Cybersecurity, I&O, System Integrators and Business stakeholders to enable fast and safe IT delivery at scale.
• Build centralized capabilities for test coordination, test data management and complex data migrations to support modern digital-native and legacy platforms.
• Ensure testing and data migration strategies are aligned to Agile and CI/CD delivery pipelines and promote automation.
• Design and operationalize service transition frameworks that ensure services are production-ready and supportable from day one.
• Lead service onboarding, support model definition, and operational readiness assessments.
• Own the design, governance, and rollout of a comprehensive service catalogue that supports self-service, clarity, and accountability.
• Develop a centralised approach to managing pre-production and production environments across cloud and on-prem.
• Ensure availability, stability, and cost-effective provisioning of environments needed for continuous delivery.
• Establish service-level monitoring, alerting, and performance benchmarking for all IT solutions.
• Drive end-to-end quality engineering practices that support resilient and auditable systems.
• Develop and deploy dashboards and reporting mechanisms to provide visibility into service performance, quality metrics, and operational KPIs.
• Implement controls and assurance mechanisms to reduce the risk of service failure in production environments and ensure continuity of critical business operations.
• Define service standards, taxonomies, and ownership models.
• Implement modern IAM practices that support secure, seamless access control aligned to Zero Trust principles and digital workforce needs.
• Partner with Cybersecurity to integrate identity into DevSecOps and product lifecycle.

You will ideally have:

• Education to at least bachelor’s or master’s degree level, or equivalent professional qualification, with preference to studies in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Certifications in ITIL v4, PMP, SAFe or cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, GCP) plus experience with tools like ServiceNow, Azure DevOps, JIRA or equivalent would be a distinct advantage.
• Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks and process automation within shared service environments and knowledge of digital security best practices and compliance requirements for customer-facing and enterprise applications are highly desired for this role.
• Proven experience in standing up new operational or engineering capabilities in a fast-moving digital or technology-driven environment.
• Substantial experience in IT service management, engineering, operations, or DevOps leadership roles, across complex hybrid environments (Cloud, on-prem, SaaS).
• A deep understanding of ITIL, DevOps and Enterprise service management principles.
• Strong leadership skills, with experience in building and managing cross functional teams in ambiguous, high-growth environments.
• Extensive experience working with business sponsors and stakeholders to translate requirements into IT services that drive both customer and operational improvements.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with a track record of delivering secure, scalable, and high-performing IT services.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work cross-functionally and present complex ideas to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

In return for your commitment, you can expect:

• A competitive salary package.
• Industry leading benefits.
• Career development opportunities.
• A fast-paced environment within a thriving organisation.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a global company where you can truly capitalise and build on your own experience.