IT Manager

Tourism NI is undertaking a significant transformation of its IT and Digital Services function, informed by the Digital Maturity Review. We are continuing to grow the IT team within Tourism NI and are looking for a talented and experienced IT professional to deliver excellence within the Tourism sector.

The IT Manager is a post that sits at the heart of this transformation. Reporting to the Head of IT & Digital Services, the Job Holder will lead the ICT team, build a mature, ITIL-compliant service management function, and provide the technical oversight and governance that the organisation requires to operate a secure, resilient, and cost-effective cloud-first IT estate.

Main Duties

Working alongside the Head of IT & Digital Services the Job Holder will be responsible for the following areas and activities:

ICT Service & Operations Management

• Lead Tourism NI’s IT service management (ITSM) processes in line with ITIL 4 best practice, taking ownership of the service desk and ensuring effective incident, problem, service request, change and knowledge management processes are in place and consistently applied.
• Oversee incident and problem management, ensuring service issues are diagnosed, communicated, and resolved against agreed service levels, root causes are addressed, and recurring issues are eliminated.
• Provide change and release governance, ensuring changes to live services are properly assessed, authorised, and implemented in a controlled, low-risk manner.
• Maintain accurate configuration and asset data, ensuring a reliable configuration management database (CMDB) and asset register underpin service decisions and lifecycle management.
• Provide regular management reporting on ICT service performance, contract status, asset lifecycle, and budget position to the Head of IT & Digital Services.
• Monitor service availability and performance against agreed service levels and key performance indicators (KPIs), and report regularly on service performance to the Head of IT & Digital Services.
• Drive continual service improvement (CSI) initiatives, using performance data, user feedback and post-incident learning to raise process maturity and the quality-of-service delivery.
• Provide clear management reporting on service, supplier, and improvement activity to support executive oversight and assurance.

Service Transition & Early Life Support

• Support projects and programmes during service transition, ensuring new and changed services are operationally ready before they are introduced into live service.
• Provide Early Life Support for newly introduced services, ensuring they are stabilised, documented, and safely transitioned into business-as-usual support.
• Ensure operational acceptance criteria, support models and knowledge articles are in place ahead of go-live.

Cloud Infrastructure and Technology Platform

• Provide technical oversight and governance of Tourism NI’s Azure IaaS environment, ensuring the platform remains secure, compliant, and cost-effective. Manage the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.
• Oversee the Microsoft 365 platform, including Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Intune endpoint management, ensuring high availability, appropriate security configuration, and adoption all staff.
• Plan and manage the adoption of the Microsoft AI roadmap (Copilot, Agent 365) within the M365 platform, developing a phased adoption schedule that balances organisational readiness with the strategic opportunities presented.
• Provide technical input and oversight to ensuring ICT infrastructure implications of any project transition are properly assessed and managed.
• Manage the ICT elements of a mixed vendor estate by ensuring the Azure infrastructure foundation supports both the Microsoft strategic platform and the vendor-agnostic application layer reliably and securely.

Cyber Security Management

• Maintain and optimise Tourism NI’s network detection and response solution, ensuring the platform is appropriately configured, alerts are triaged effectively by the ICT team, and the licence is reviewed as part of overall contract rationalisation.
• Oversee the production and delivery of quarterly security posture reports to the Head of IT & Digital Services for onward reporting to the Board and Audit Committee, ensuring the executive has independent, accurate visibility of the organisation’s security position.
• Lead patch management and endpoint security across all devices, ensuring compliance with NCSC guidance and Tourism NI’s security policies.
• Manage ICT-related risks and maintain the ICT elements of Tourism NI’s business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

Procurement and Contract Management

• Lead the procurement and management of ICT contracts and managed services, ensuring all supplier relationships deliver value for money and are managed in accordance with Tourism NI’s financial and governance procedures.
• Manage the ICT contract portfolio, conducting annual reviews against value, performance, and strategic fit and recommending renewals, renegotiations, or replacements as appropriate.
• Contribute to the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement renewal process, providing technical and commercial input to the benchmarking exercise and negotiation.

Governance and Wider Responsibilities

• Provide briefing material and technical input to the Head of IT & Digital Services, Director of Corporate Services, and Board as required, including contribution to the quarterly operational report and the quarterly security report.
• Maintain, store, and dispose of unit records in accordance with Tourism NI’s policies, including use of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint as the designated record management systems.

Employee Management

• Conduct regular performance reviews and agree development objectives for the ICT Service Desk & Operations Lead (SO), IT Executives x2 (EO1), and Administrative Officer (AA), ensuring the team is well-led, properly supported, and developed.
• Support with managing, motivating and developing the team to ensure that key activities are undertaken professionally in an efficient and effective manner.
• Support and direct employees by ensuring that the Team is managed efficiently and that strategic objectives are communicated to and understood by all employees.
• Support management to ensure that Unit activities are managed in line with Tourism NI Policies and Procedures and values and behaviours.

Resource Management

• Take a lead role in the management and maintenance of unit and project budgets ensuring value for money.
• Ensure resources are used effectively and all payments made in accordance with Tourism NI’s financial policies and procedures.
• Support the Head of IT & Digital Services with the procurement and supplier management of IT products and services.
• Maintain systems and processes for the accurate management of IT equipment.

Additional Duties

• Contribute to the delivery of project work within the Team and across Tourism NI including representation at working groups and meetings.
• Contribute to the development of the Unit Plan, the achievement of targets and promote corporate values and behaviours within the team and across the organisation.
• Provide cover for Management within your Division to include decision making and attending meetings in their absence.
• Attend training as and when required and keep abreast of current developments in your area of work. Keep abreast of developments in ICT service management, cloud technology, and cyber security relevant to the role.
• Ensure Unit records are maintained, stored and disposed of in accordance with Tourism NI’s Policy making appropriate use of record management systems including Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
• Plan, prioritise and deliver across multiple workstreams in line with agreed timescales and budget.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade as required by Tourism NI.