Job Overview
Head of the IT Service Management function for Group IT, reporting to the Director of Group IT and sitting on the IT Leadership Group. Work closely with Architecture, Infrastructure & Operations, Delivery & Change, Procurement, NA and ATGE Europe teams, managed service providers, software platform vendors, and venue and business‑unit IT customers across the UK, North America, Germany and Spain.
Key Responsibilities
* Develop and communicate a strategic vision for IT Service Management in a hybrid‑sourced operating model, ensuring alignment with Group business objectives and the Executive’s “run it like you own it” ethos.
* Own the Service Integration and Management (SIAM) operating model across ATG’s managed service providers – governing Service Integration and Delivery, Service Operations and IT Asset Lifecycle Management, Service Management and Governance, and the technology platform that integrates them.
* Govern MSP performance against SLA, XLA and outcome frameworks across ServiceDesk, ITSM, Application Support, Cloud Infrastructure Operations, Network Operations Centre (NoC) and Security Operations Centre (SoC). Drive contractually committed business outcomes, change success rate, CMDB accuracy and cross‑provider collaboration metrics, initiate corrective action and contractual remediation where required.
* Own the Group ITSM platform direction – a centralised SIAM dashboard with single‑source‑of‑truth visibility across all providers (ticketing, service catalogue, CMDB, problem / change / release / configuration management) – integrated with supplier platforms, augmented by AI / GenAI and experience‑management tooling, underpinned by ITIL 4 process maturity.
* Lead service reporting to the IT Leadership Group and business stakeholders – uptime, customer experience, vendor accountability and service‑quality KPIs.
* Act as the Group escalation point for major service incidents and vendor performance failures; lead post‑incident review, root‑cause analysis and continuous improvement plans.
* Own service management for in‑Venue technologies – Audio‑Visual, Accessibility, ePOS and other front‑of‑house and back‑of‑house venue technology – and manage the Group IT relationship with Venue Operations Business Directors as the primary internal customer for venue‑tech service performance.
* Design and stand up Group out‑of‑hours service capability – deciding on sourcing (follow‑the‑sun in‑house, MSP overflow or hybrid), owning ongoing governance, SLA and cost.
* Position ATG’s IT service model as a deliberate shift from a primarily outsourced posture to a partial‑insourced hybrid model; lead the build and ongoing maturity of the internal ITSM capability – process, tooling, governance, performance management and continuous improvement – augmented by GenAI (MS CoPilot & Claude) and automation.
* Lead the Application Support function operationally – the Application Support Manager team – driving the AI‑native, technically adept redesign of Application Support in line with the Group capability strategy.
* Manage the service‑line Opex envelope, coordinate FinOps with Infrastructure & Operations on managed‑service cost, and contribute to Group IT financial accounting and budget planning.
* Establish and maintain robust ITSM frameworks (ITIL 4, SIAM, ISO 20000‑aligned where appropriate) and ensure best practice is followed across regions.
* Act as the bridge between the business, IT teams and managed service providers; collaborate with venue, theatre and corporate stakeholders at all levels and serve as the senior service‑experience voice in Executive, Group leadership and Providence‑facing forums.
Key Experience and Qualifications – Essential
* Proven track record supporting a complex IT estate in a senior service delivery, service management or service integration leadership role.
* Strong strategic leadership designing and operating hybrid IT operating models and multi‑vendor SIAM ecosystems, including SIAM advisory, mixed managed services and build‑operate‑transfer (BOT) contracting models.
* Governance of service integration and delivery across multiple managed service providers; design, transition, exit and reintegration of MSP arrangements; cross‑provider collaboration, ecosystem performance and risk‑indexed multivendor oversight.
* Service Operations and IT Asset Lifecycle Management: ITSM platform direction, ITIL 4 process maturity, change success rate and CMDB accuracy as primary operational metrics.
* Service Management and Governance: SLA, XLA and end‑to‑end outcome frameworks; contractually committed business outcomes versus traditional SLAs; commercial and contractual familiarity with multi‑vendor governance.
* Enhance delivery through technology – build & operate a centralised SIAM dashboard and observability with single‑source‑of‑truth visibility across all providers, AI/GenAI augmentation, integration with supplier platforms and automation initiatives across service operations.
* Service‑experience design – translating Executive‑level service expectations into measurable, customer‑facing service standards (uptime, CSAT, XLA, business‑outcome metrics) across multi‑region service delivery.
* Out‑of‑hours service design (follow‑the‑sun, NOC‑style or hybrid MSP / in‑house models) and Group‑wide major incident management.
* Operational familiarity with cloud‑first IT estates, FinOps disciplines and GenAI / automation augmentation in service operations (MS CoPilot, Claude or equivalent).
* Operational experience of PCI DSS‑relevant environments and customer‑facing transactional service uptime (ticketing, hospitality, payments).
* Stakeholder management at all levels – comfortable in executive, business, technical and external supplier audiences.
* Certification in ITIL 4 (Foundation essential; Managing Professional or Strategic Leader desirable), SIAM Foundation / Professional or other relevant service‑management frameworks.
* Degree educated in a relevant technology / computer science subject (or equivalent on‑the‑job experience).
Key Experience and Qualifications – Desirable
* Experience of venue‑based IT service operations (live entertainment, sports, events, conferences) in a multi‑site, customer‑facing environment.
* Agile Delivery Methodology (Scrum / Kanban) or Scaled Agile (SAFe) training and experience.
* Operational FinOps experience in Azure.
* Specific experience in live entertainment, sports, hospitality or other venue‑led industries, and a passion for the arts and creative industries.
#J-18808-Ljbffr