Senior Service Delivery Manager

Hi,

Senior Service Delivery Manager - Application Management Services

FTE

London, UK (Hybrid)

Description:

We are looking for a Senior Service Delivery Manager to lead end-to-end delivery for Application Management Services with a team of approximately 36 resources across development, testing, DBA, Scrum Master, and other technical streams. The role will be responsible for service governance, stakeholder management, KPI/SLA performance, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end service delivery for the Application Management Services engagement.
• Lead, manage, and coordinate a cross-functional team of approximately 36 resources.
• Oversee delivery across development, testing, DBA, Scrum Master, production support, and related workstreams.
• Ensure achievement of contractual KPIs, SLAs, OLAs, quality targets, and customer commitments.
• Monitor service performance, incidents, problems, changes, releases, risks, and dependencies.
• Conduct regular service reviews with customers and stakeholders.
• Prepare and present operational dashboards, performance reports, governance packs, and improvement plans.
• Act as the primary escalation point for critical incidents, delivery risks, and service issues.
• Drive root-cause analysis and ensure timely implementation of corrective and preventive actions.
• Establish effective governance, communication, escalation, and reporting processes.
• Manage resource planning, utilization, capacity, skill development, and succession planning.
• Coordinate with application, infrastructure, security, vendor, and business teams.
• Ensure adherence to ITIL processes, organizational standards, security requirements, and compliance controls.
• Identify opportunities to improve service quality, productivity, automation, stability, and customer satisfaction.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and track benefits realization.
• Support commercial governance, budgeting, invoicing, forecasting, and contract deliverables where applicable.
• Mentor team leads and create a culture of accountability, collaboration, and operational excellence.

Required Skills and Experience

• 12+ years of experience in IT service delivery, application management, or managed services.
• Proven experience managing large, cross-functional application support and development teams.
• Experience leading teams across development, testing, DBA, Agile delivery, and production support functions.
• Strong understanding of ITIL processes, including incident, problem, change, release, request, and service-level management.
• Demonstrated experience managing SLAs, KPIs, OLAs, service credits, and customer governance.
• Strong stakeholder and customer management skills, including executive-level communication.
• Experience managing critical incidents, escalations, risk mitigation, and crisis communications.
• Strong knowledge of Agile, Scrum, DevOps, and application lifecycle management.
• Experience with service reporting, dashboards, trend analysis, and operational metrics.
• Strong people management, resource planning, conflict resolution, and leadership skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and decision-making abilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL 4 Foundation or higher certification.
• PMP, PRINCE2, Scrum Master, or equivalent certification.
• Experience managing distributed or geographically dispersed teams.
• Experience with ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence, Power BI, or similar service management and reporting tools.
• Experience in continuous improvement, automation, Lean, or operational excellence programs.
• Experience managing enterprise applications and customer-facing managed services.

Key Success Measures

• Consistent achievement of contractual SLA and KPI targets.
• Improved application availability, service stability, and customer satisfaction.
• Reduction in repeat incidents, backlog, resolution time, and operational risks.
• Effective delivery of continual service improvement initiatives.
• Accurate and timely governance reporting.
• Optimal resource utilization and team productivity.
• Successful management of escalations, audits, releases, and service transitions.
• Strong customer relationships and positive stakeholder feedback