At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the delivery of critical IT services and ensure operational excellence.
- Company: Join UKRI, a leader in research and innovation with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible working hours, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Hybrid working available with excellent career advancement opportunities.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on service delivery in a dynamic and diverse environment.
- Qualifications: Extensive experience in IT service delivery and strong leadership skills required.
The predicted salary is between 70752 - 70752 £ per year.
UKRI Salary: £70,752 per annum. Band: UKRI Band G. Contract Type: Open ended. Hours: Full-time/ Part Time (minimum 0.8 FTE) (flexible working available). Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available. Closing Date: Sunday 2nd August 2026.
About the role
The Head of Service Delivery is a senior leadership role with accountability for the performance, resilience and governance of live IT and business-critical services across corporate hub and most UKRI head office functions. Operating across a complex, federated, multi-supplier environment, the role provides strategic direction and operational leadership to ensure that services are stable, secure, responsive to business need and aligned to organisational priorities. The postholder will lead the development of a high-performing service delivery function, bringing together service management, supplier governance, operational assurance and continual improvement.
Your responsibilities:
- Provide senior leadership for the end-to-end delivery of live IT and business-critical services, ensuring clear service ownership, strong performance management and effective operational governance.
- Establish and maintain a robust service delivery framework that supports resilience, service quality, risk management and continuous improvement across a diverse technology and supplier landscape.
- Lead the organisational response to major service issues, providing strategic oversight, clear decision making and effective communication during high-impact incidents and service recovery activity.
- Oversee change, release and service transition governance, ensuring that new and changed services are introduced in a controlled manner with appropriate operational readiness and minimal disruption to users.
- Drive strong supplier and partner management, holding internal and external providers to account for delivery, performance, compliance and service improvement outcomes.
- Provide governance and assurance for critical enterprise and research funding platforms, ensuring that services supporting corporate operations and the research community remain reliable, supportable and aligned to business priorities.
- Lead service reporting and performance insight, using data, trend analysis and service metrics to inform decision making, support assurance and drive measurable improvements in user experience and service effectiveness.
- Provide leadership on service risk, continuity and disaster recovery, ensuring that critical services are resilient and that recovery arrangements are tested, understood and fit for purpose.
- Contribute to the wider strategic leadership of Digital services, shaping service management standards, organisational capability and the maturity of service delivery practices across UKRI.
- Lead and develop teams and specialist functions within the service delivery area, fostering accountability, collaboration and a culture of high performance.
- Provide executive-level service assurance and governance reporting, ensuring senior leaders have clear visibility of operational risk, service health, compliance and strategic improvement activity.
- Provide executive leadership for operational resilience, disaster recovery and service continuity arrangements, ensuring critical services are recoverable, regularly tested and aligned to organisational risk appetite.
- Lead cross-supplier service integration and act as part of the intelligent customer function, ensuring end-to-end accountability across interconnected service providers and platforms.
Technology and Process experience and delivery
- Significant experience of leading IT service delivery in large, complex, federated organisations with multiple suppliers, diverse partners and a broad portfolio of live operational services.
- Solid understanding of service management disciplines, including incident, major incident, problem, change, release, transition and service level management, with the ability to embed proportionate governance and good practice.
- Demonstrable experience of delivering services within enterprise and SaaS environments, including business-critical platforms such as ERP, corporate applications, cloud-based services and user-facing digital platforms.
- Experience of establishing service performance frameworks, including the use of SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, dashboards and management information to drive accountability and improvement.
- Solid understanding of supplier governance, commercial oversight and contract performance management, with the ability to lead constructive challenge and ensure delivery against agreed outcomes.
- Experience of service continuity, operational resilience, disaster recovery planning and audit or assurance activity in a complex service environment.
- Understanding of service asset, software licensing and configuration management processes, with an appreciation of their role in service stability, compliance and cost control.
- Ability to translate technical and operational issues into practical business impact, supporting senior leaders to make informed decisions on service priorities, risk and investment.
- Evidence of leading service delivery transformation, including evolving operating models, governance, capabilities and ways of working, beyond the optimisation of existing services.
Head of Service Delivery employer: UKRI
The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment that fosters professional growth and collaboration. With a strong commitment to employee development, the LMB provides comprehensive training opportunities and encourages continuous learning, making it an ideal place for HR professionals looking to make a meaningful impact in the scientific community. Located in the vibrant Cambridge Biomedical Campus, employees benefit from a supportive culture that values innovation and teamwork, ensuring a rewarding career path in Human Resources.
