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Location
York (UK), London (UK)

Role Overview
ioko is a managed service provider specialising in high-end application and infrastructure management. We are looking for a professional technical manager to take responsibility for the service delivery of one of our most important managed service accounts.

This is a senior management role that requires experience, energy and gravitas and a strong track-record in commercial IT service provision. Applicants will need a 15+ years IT career spent in large enterprises.

You will have started your career in a large corporate and highly technical setting (sys admin, dba etc but not desktop). Your hands-on technical days need to be from a client/server or enterprise web background: mainframe or legacy alone is not sufficient. You will have a predominantly infrastructure oriented background but also have a good understanding of applications and application development – you will have experience of managing the whole stack. The platform is predominantly Unix and Java so a background in these technologies will be very helpful.

You will have over 5 years' experience in a senior hands-on technical management role and have a blend of technical, process and management skills. You will have experience of service delivery management in a commercial context which will typically be from an external supplier role but could also be from an internal background providing that context is commercial and service-driven in nature.

You need to have a good up-to-date understanding of enterprise web application management and technologies (e.g. enterprise CMS, portal etc). You do not need to be a hands-on techie but you will need enough technical knowledge to be able to work constructively with highly technical people. You need to have a passion for technology and not find it a chore to keep your technical awareness bang up to date.

You will be a very confident communicator with presence and "gravitas" and be used to working at the CTO level. However, you will also be equally capable of dealing with engineers and technical specialists.

The successful applicant will be committed to giving customers the very best in IT service management and customer care. You will enhance customer satisfaction by working closely with them in order to become familiar with their business environment, strategy, plans, requirements, constraints, priorities, hopes and fears and to align ioko’s response accordingly.

Relationship building will be one of your prime skills (and interests) and your constant engagement and collaboration with the client will have a hugely positive impact on the quality of our service delivery and the customer's perception of ioko. The customer will come to see you as a trusted advisor who they naturally want to involve in their day-to-day business, not someone who just turns up once a week for a review meeting.

You will lead and manage the ioko teams providing services into this client, setting tasks and priorities. You will ensure the team is capable of supporting the customer’s platform(s) and that they are highly motivated to do so. You will also enjoy mentoring and developing the more junior people in your team.

You will work closely with ioko’s operational and technical leadership team and will quickly become part of the senior management team, contributing your own particular skills, experience and interests to enhance our strategy, policies and processes.

You will be an energetic though highly organised person. You will know how to be flexible and accommodating but also when to stand firm. You will be savvy and assertive enough to be able to appreciate, fairly represent and balance the needs of both the client and the supplier. You will be a forward looking person and able to make and manage both short and long term plans. You will be able to understand the details as well as see the big picture and make decisions appropriately.

You will have experience of pricing and financial management and control of multi-million pound systems and be able to estimate accurately and manage and work within budgets as well as developing and presenting back business models and commercials to senior audiences.

You will see yourself as a professional IT manager who thrives on action and challenge and you will be excited at the prospect of managing cutting-edge technology solutions in a fast paced environments where agility and "proper IT" must blend together.

ITIL Managers certification would be an advantage but experience, skills and knowledge will count for more than just theory.

Key Responsibilies and Duties

Provide Professional Service Delivery and Management

• Co-ordinate a set of services to a specific customer who is of both very high value and strategic importance to the company
• Deliver services in accordance with SLA(s)
• Combine technical awareness with commercial understanding and context
• Maintain a high level of quality for service delivery
• Manage the commercials and maintaining service profitability and the overall financial performance of the team
• Deliver utilisation targets
• Work as part of the senior operations team to identify the strategic objectives of managed service provision in ioko
• Responsibility for accurate and timely service reporting
• Regular on-site attendance at the customer and chairing meetings
• Key emphasis on service availability and capacity management to meet customer requirements
• Provide accurate and timely service reporting
• Ensure that SLAs are adhered to and maintained
• Ensure that all incidents are managed to successful resolution in line with SLA targets
• The ideal candidate will also undertake the pro-active aspects of Problem Management (trend analysis, incident prevention etc)
• Ensure that Change Management is implemented successfully, limiting disruption to the service and managing risk
• Constantly seek and refine approach to create operational efficiencies
• Drive through Service Improvement actions

Day-to-Day Line Management of ASG Technical Staff

• All aspects of day-to-day team management
• Participate in a technical and managerial escalation process, ensuring that escalation procedures are maintained and adhered to in accordance with the agreed service requirements
• Establish and maintain a feedback mechanism on the performance of the team, which will help them to identify, agree and address service improvement opportunities that will add value to the customer and potentially incremental business to the company

Attributes

• Knowledge/Skills and Experience. Must have come from a technical service delivery background
• Ability to communicate effectively at all levels
• Strong customer service and client relationship building skills
• Applied understanding and working knowledge of the ITIL methodology
• May be called on to project manage internal and/or smaller external projects
• Able to lead and motivate a team of deeply technical staff
• Based in York or London and able to spend 2-3 days per week on the other site

Travel Requirements
Countrywide

Contact
If you are interested in this position, please send your CV to: Human Resources, ioko, Innovation Close, York Science Park, York, YO10 5ZD, ENGLAND. Or phone +44(0) 1904 438 000 for email details.

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