Senior Service Delivery & Mobilisation Manager Permanent, Full-time Stafford | Hybrid

• Permanent, Full-time
• Stafford | Hybrid

To lead the mobilisation, transition and ongoing service management of a complex managed IT service.

During implementation, the role acts as the client-facing Project and Mobilisation Manager, coordinating technical workstreams, suppliers, risks, dependencies and operational readiness.

Following transition into BAU, the role becomes the accountable Service Delivery Manager, owning service performance, governance, continual improvement and the customer relationship.

This is not a traditional reporting-focused SDM role.

The postholder must be comfortable taking ownership, driving delivery, challenging technical teams and suppliers, and ensuring that technology is genuinely ready to operate as a secure and supportable managed service.

• Own the integrated mobilisation plan, milestones, critical path and delivery governance.
• Maintain the RAID log, action log, decision log, dependencies, acceptance criteria and delivery evidence.
• Coordinate concurrent workstreams across Microsoft 365, Azure, identity, security and SOC, ITSM, endpoints, networking, backup and disaster recovery.
• Chair mobilisation meetings, workstream reviews and readiness checkpoints.
• Coordinate internal consultants, technical leads, operational teams and third-party suppliers.
• Track delivery through Discovery, Design, Build, Test, Go-Live and Early Life Support.
• Manage scope, change, delivery risk and customer dependencies.
• Provide clear reporting to senior customer and internal stakeholders.
• Own go-live readiness reporting and coordinate formal service acceptance.
• 2. Service transition and operational readiness
• Build the operating model alongside the technical implementation rather than leaving transition until the end.
• Coordinate Service Desk mobilisation, support processes, escalation paths and supplier hand-offs.
• Ensure runbooks, knowledge articles, support documentation and technical ownership are in place.
• Confirm monitoring, alerting, security operations and major incident routes are operationally tested.
• Ensure service, asset and configuration information is sufficiently mature for BAU support.
• Coordinate operational acceptance, defect management and Early Life Support.
• Prevent technical completion being mistaken for service readiness.
• 3. Customer and supplier management
• Act as the principal day-to-day contact for mobilisation and ongoing service delivery.
• Build trusted relationships with operational, technical and senior customer stakeholders.
• Translate technical delivery issues into clear business, service and operational impact.
• Coordinate multi-supplier delivery and hold workstream owners accountable without relying on line-management authority.
• Lead difficult conversations on delays, dependencies, risk and readiness in a calm and commercially sensible way.
• Run governance forums, service reviews and supplier performance discussions.
• 4. BAU service management
• Own SLA and KPI performance, service reporting and customer governance.
• Provide oversight of Major Incident, Problem and Change Management.
• Manage service risk, capacity, demand and supplier performance.
• Maintain a prioritised Service Improvement Plan and track agreed outcomes.
• Identify recurring issues, automation opportunities and improvements to user experience and service efficiency.
• Coordinate technical teams and partners to drive corrective actions through to closure.
• 5. Security and assurance responsibilities
• Ensure audit-ready operational evidence is produced and retained through normal service delivery.
• Coordinate evidence owners across identity, endpoint, cloud, vulnerability management, monitoring, incident response, recovery, asset management and supplier interfaces.
• Track security and assurance findings through agreed corrective action to closure.
• Work effectively with requirements and assurance activity associated with ISO 27001, NCSC CAF, Cyber Essentials Plus and other applicable customer obligations.
• Maintain clear accountability boundaries between the managed service, the customer and independent assurance

Experience and skills

• Experience working in a managed services or MSP environment.
• Practical experience taking a service from contract award or project initiation through implementation and into BAU.
• Strong project controls, including planning, RAID, dependencies, governance, change control and acceptance.
• Working knowledge of ITIL service management and Service Desk operations.
• Experience coordinating technical delivery across multiple workstreams and suppliers.
• Confident senior stakeholder management and customer-facing communication.
• Experience of go-live governance, operational acceptance and Early Life Support.
• Ability to challenge constructively, create clarity and drive ownership across teams.
• Highly desirable
• Experience in aviation, defence, utilities, government, financial services or another
• Familiarity with Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, Azure, Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender.
• Experience with Halo ITSM or a comparable ITSM platform.
• Understanding of SOC/SIEM operations, endpoint management, network security, backup, disaster recovery and CMDB practices.
• Experience supporting ISO 27001, NCSC CAF, Cyber Essentials Plus or evidence-based security assurance.

Qualifications

• ITIL 4 Foundation as a minimum, or equivalent demonstrable service-management knowledge.
• PRINCE2 Practitioner, APM PMQ, Agile PM or equivalent practical project-delivery experience.
• Relevant Microsoft, service-management or security qualifications are beneficial but not essential.
• Other Requirements
• Willingness to travel to customer sites when required
• Any offer is subject to the receipt of satisfactory BPSS and credit checks ahead of contract start date and, where required, the ability to obtain Security Clearance funded by the business
• Our employee value proposition

At 848 Group our people are at the heart of everything we do.

Our People Strategy is designed to attract, develop, and retain top talent while fostering an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive in a diverse, engaged, and high-performing workforce where everyone feels valued and empowered to reach their full potential in a safe environment.

People are our spark - the force that drives progress, innovation, and service excellence.

We believe that when our people thrive, so does our business.

Our People Promise is our commitment to creating an experience where you feel supported, valued, and inspired to grow.

Whether you're new to the business or have been with us for years, we want you to feel confident in what you can expect from us, and what we’re building together.

This is more than a strategy. It's how we work, lead, and grow, together.

• Employee benefits
• Private healthcare, including dental, optical, stress counselling, and mental health support
• Unlimited holiday allowance (fair usage policy) + bank holidays
• Gifts for significant life events (getting married, buying first home, becoming a parent)
• 2 paid days a year for volunteering
• Discretionary bonuses
• Work Location: Hybrid remote in Stafford ST18 0WP
• Unlocking potential and driving progress
• "A good feeling that someone is behind the IT that scares so many of us"