Service Delivery Manager in Peterborough

Location: Central Office - Peterborough

Basis: Full Time

United Learning is a large, and growing, group of schools aiming to offer a life‐changing education to children and young people across England. Central Office staff work closely with schools, offering a wealth of expertise to underpin schools' own knowledge. Our specialist departments – including HR, finance, technology, strategy, performance, estates and marketing – work alongside dedicated school improvement teams. By joining us, you will provide ongoing support to schools, ultimately improving the outcomes of our pupils.

United Learning is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All positions are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and shortlisted candidates will be subject to an online check. We always appoint on merit, and we are open to discussing flexible working options.

Salary: £65,000 – £70,000 per annum

Contractual hours: 37.5

Region: Peterborough

Job category/type: Support Staff

Date posted: 03/03/2026

Job reference: REQ003810

Purpose of the role:

We are excited to be growing our IT Department team to add a Service Delivery Manager to lead and transform our IT support delivery across our trusts schools and academies. The IT Department oversees and substantially directs all technical operations and support to both our schools and central office. As part of growth, we are continually looking to make greater use of our scale, and this position will be instrumental in supporting this.

Flexible working out of our Head Office location in Peterborough is supported. An expectation of working 2 to 3 days per week at Peterborough should be held, with the use of TEAMS when working from home as the primary communication platform. Travelling in person to our offices in London when required, with a potential of a small amount of work at our school sites across the length and breadth of England.

Whilst you will work primarily with the IT Department team and especially the school facing Technology Specialists, you will also be heavily involved with our Transformation Department as we work together to transform our central IT operations. You will oversee the IT support relationship with our key stakeholders, who are our schools and academies, where through your work, you will significantly impact all of our schools and their delivery of high quality education to over 75,000 students.

You will have an eye for technical detail and an understanding of IT processes and systems that can best support an organisation with a national footprint. As an expert in ITIL, we expect that you will bring a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience and be able to apply the principles to improve our current ways of working. We work primarily in cloud systems under the Microsoft technology stack Azure/Entra with a focus on Microsoft Teams as our primary platform for communication across the organisation and in TEAMS use by schools supporting teaching and learning.

About you - knowledge, skills, and experience required:

• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to turn complex concepts into simple language.
• Effective problem‐solving skills.
• Excellent planning skills, including the ability to develop a structured plan with limited initial information.
• Ability to work autonomously or as part of a team.

Desirable:

• Experience in MAT/SAT/school technical operations including cloud based platforms, in particular Azure/Entra environments.
• Experience of working in education or with young people.

Personal Attributes:

To be successful in this role, you will be intellectually curious, with an openness to learning and an ability to innovate to achieve results. As an expert user of technology, you will be open to learning about the software and systems our central office and schools are using. You will have an analytical mindset, capable of capturing, breaking down and simplifying complex information for our stakeholders. You will be a critical thinker able to translate an idea or business case into a coherent project plan and ensure links to other projects are identified at the outset.

You will need to be a self‐starter, focused and willing to learn and work as part of a team. You will be willing to maintain an up‐to‐date knowledge of the education system and best practices within the sector. You will be communicating directly with school colleagues from our trust and beyond, so you will need excellent communication skills. You will be excited by the prospect of working on a range of projects which improve the experience of staff and pupils in our schools.

Behaviours:

• Analytical thinking.
• Curiosity.
• Attention to detail.
• Working collaboratively.
• Communicating and influencing.

Rewards and Benefits:

• Competitive salary.
• Contributory pension scheme.
• 26 days holiday.
• Occupational sick pay, protecting you and your family.
• Competitive maternity, paternity, and adoption benefits.
• Group Life Insurance Scheme.
• Westfield Health cash plan and extensive range of employee benefits for eligible staff.
• Continuous Professional Development options that will be tailored to your needs.
• A supportive team across the country.
• We are open to requests for flexible working; and we encourage open and regular conversations about work‐life balance.

This vacancy closes at midnight on the 14th April. Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive a large volume of applications.

For a confidential discussion about this role or the process, please contact: phil.sugars@unitedlearning.org.uk.

If you are applying internally, please apply via your ESS account (Internal Vacancies page). You will be required to submit a personal statement with a summary of your experience that makes you suitable for this role. There is a character limit of 4000 characters (roughly one and a half to two sides of A4).