Service Delivery Manager

About the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a place where ideas become actions and impact meets integrity. We are driven by a spirit of progress and a commitment to social responsibility. Our campus brings together people from all over the world, creating a vibrant, inclusive community dedicated to learning, discovery, and innovation. Our IT Services team plays a crucial role in enabling this mission, supporting the technologies that underpin teaching, research, and everyday University life. We’re reimagining service delivery for a digital-first future and we’re looking for someone who can help us shape that journey.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Service Delivery Manager who thrives on collaboration, communication, and building strong, trusted relationships. In this role, you’ll work at the heart of the University’s IT Services, ensuring our IT services are not only reliable and effective but also responsive to the evolving needs of our students, staff, and researchers. You will be a key figure in overseeing the performance, availability, and continuous improvement of services across their lifecycle. Just as importantly, you’ll be the person who connects the dots: listening to stakeholders, aligning services with real-world needs, and ensuring we deliver meaningful outcomes. This is more than a technical role, it’s a people-first opportunity. You’ll be engaging with stakeholders across academic faculties, professional services, suppliers, and technical teams to foster open dialogue, manage expectations, and advocate for the value and impact of IT services. Whether facilitating service reviews, managing major incidents, leading continuous improvement initiatives or mentoring team members, your ability to lead with empathy, clarity, and purpose will be central to your success.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Service Leadership: Take ownership of IT services across their lifecycle - from initial transition through to retirement, ensuring quality, consistency, and alignment with business needs.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Build authentic and productive relationships with colleagues across the University. Lead regular service reviews, facilitate feedback, and turn insight into action.
• Continuous Improvement: Champion and coordinate service enhancements based on performance data, user feedback, and collaboration with product teams.
• Incident & Problem Management: Support service resilience by leading responses to major incidents and driving effective problem resolution.
• Line Management: Mentor and motivate team members, supporting their development and fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning.
• Strategic Contribution: Align service delivery with broader IT and University strategies, helping shape future service offerings and roadmap priorities.

What We’re Looking For

We’re not expecting candidates to tick every box - we’re more interested in your mindset and approach than a checklist of skills. If you’re someone who brings energy, empathy, and a strong sense of service, we want to hear from you. You may have:

• Experience managing or coordinating IT or digital services in a complex organisation.
• A track record of building strong relationships across business and technical teams.
• An ability to make sense of service performance data and turn it into meaningful improvement plans.
• Confidence facilitating conversations about service level expectations, business impact, and user experience.
• An interest in service frameworks such as ITIL or ITSM, and a curiosity about how to apply them in a real-world, people-focused setting.

These might come in handy, but they’re by no means expected – bring what you have, and we’ll support the rest:

• Have worked in higher education, research, public sector, or similarly complex settings.
• Bring experience managing teams or mentoring others in a service environment.
• Have familiarity with tools, methods, or certifications such as ITIL, Agile Service Management, or Continual Service Improvement.

Why Join Us?

At Manchester, we believe great work comes from feeling valued, supported, and empowered to grow. That’s why we offer:

• A highly flexible, hybrid working culture
• Generous annual leave, including Christmas closure
• Pension scheme membership and family benefits
• Access to world-class sport and well-being facilities
• Learning and professional development support
• Season ticket loans, staff discounts, and more

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and a Stonewall Top 100 Employer, and we actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. If you share our values and believe in the power of collaboration and inclusivity, you’ll fit right in.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit. Our University is positive about flexible working.

Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.