Head of IT Service Management (IT Operations) - National Crime Agency - G6

Location

Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester, London, Normanton, Warrington

About the job

Job summary

Enterprise Services provides and manages the enterprise IT capabilities that support the NCA and its partners in delivering operational outcomes across the Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) system. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round, the team ensures services are reliable, resilient, and available when they are needed most.

Working in partnership with suppliers, Enterprise Services maintains a strong focus on delivering cost-effective, high-quality services that meet current organisational needs while supporting ongoing transformation. The team leads the introduction of new services into live operation, ensuring they are implemented smoothly and deliver tangible value across the estate.

Enterprise Services plays a critical role in managing and driving the supply chain, enabling the NCA to remain agile and responsive, while building and sustaining a future-ready technology environment.

The Head of IT Service Management – IT Operations is a senior leadership role responsible for defining and delivering the organisation’s IT service management strategy, ensuring processes are effectively governed, owned, and continuously improved. The role leads a high-performing team to deliver secure, reliable, and customer-focused IT services in a 24/7 operational environment, while acting as a key escalation point and trusted advisor to senior stakeholders. It holds accountability for service performance, availability, and security, as well as the successful transition of new services into live operation. Working closely with suppliers, the role ensures high-quality service delivery, strong performance management, and value for money within agreed budgets.

Job description

Are you ready to shape how IT services operate within a complex, fast‑paced environment? This is an excellent opportunity to join the National Crime Agency (NCA) at a key point in its technology evolution. You will be part of a passionate team that is building strong momentum around modern ways of working, balancing the demands of a critical legacy estate while adopting product and platform approaches that leverage cloud‑native capabilities to support the Agency’s mission.

The environment is demanding and challenging but highly rewarding, offering a genuine opportunity to play a pivotal role in sustaining this pace of change and delivering the IT Service Management strategy. As a senior leader within the Digital, Data and Technology Enterprise Services function, you will ensure the large and diverse technology landscape operates reliably every day (24/7/365), while driving continuous improvement in how services are managed and delivered. This role is about maintaining stability while enabling progress, ensuring that change is delivered without compromising service performance.

You will lead a team, work closely with internal colleagues and external partners, and have accountability spanning service desk operations, corporate IT services, incident and problem management, change control, service performance, and supplier management. This is a leadership role that requires you to set clear direction, support and develop your people, and ensure that services are delivered in a way that meets the needs of the organisation.

Person specification

Leadership - Accountable for setting and delivering the strategic direction for IT Service Management, ensuring it supports business objectives and drives operational excellence. Responsible for embedding and championing ITIL-aligned best practices, leading the continuous improvement, governance, and optimisation of service management processes to enhance service quality and user experience. Provide leadership and direction to the service management function, developing and sustaining a high-performing team with the appropriate skills, capacity, and culture to deliver resilient, customer-focused services at scale.

Service Delivery & Operational Excellence - Responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of IT services in a 24/7 operational environment, maintaining a strong focus on end user experience and alignment to business outcomes. Maintain oversight of service availability, performance, and security, ensuring systems are resilient, up to date, and fit for purpose. Act as the senior escalation point for critical service issues and major incidents, providing decisive leadership to minimise disruption and restore services in line with agreed service levels. 

Lead organisational changes - Responsible for driving increased digital take up across the organisation, embedding agile ways of working while effectively managing legacy technologies alongside modern platforms and products. Working in a multi-supplier landscape, ensuring work is allocated appropriately across the supply chain including to the right internal teams or external partners to maximise value, increase accountability and performance across the entire supply chain. Oversee the successful introduction of new functionality without compromising the stability, performance, or integrity of existing services whilst keeping that important focus on customers and end users.

Stakeholder & Supplier Management - Responsible for representing the IT Service Management function at a senior level across the organisation, providing leadership and clear direction on service delivery and operational performance. Build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders, acting as a trusted advisor to ensure services align with organisational needs and priorities. Manage relationships with third-party suppliers and service providers, ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality, reliable services. Monitor and drive supplier performance against agreed service levels and contractual obligations, while maintaining oversight of financial performance to ensure services are delivered within budget, balancing cost efficiency with quality and outcomes.

Lead, coach, and develop the IT Operations teams - Responsible for leading, coaching, and developing the IT Operations team to achieve high performance and a culture of continuous improvement. Drive capability development and digital adoption, fostering a customer-centric mindset that balances agility with the effective management of legacy environments. Enable the team to embrace modern ways of working while maintaining operational excellence, resilience, and a strong focus on delivering value to the business and end users.

Person Specification  

Leadership - Proven ability to set and deliver IT Service Management strategy aligned to business objectives, championing ITIL best practice and driving continuous improvement. A highly engaging, service-driven leader with experience in coaching and developing high-performing teams to deliver resilient, customer-focused services at scale.

Service Delivery & Operational Excellence - Strong track record in delivering reliable, secure IT services within a 24/7 environment, with accountability for service availability, performance, and major incident management. Skilled in balancing legacy and modern platforms while driving service maturity, stability and to meet end user focused outcomes.

Stakeholder & Supplier Management - Demonstrated experience operating at a senior level, building trusted relationships with stakeholders and managing complex multi-supplier ecosystems. Effective in driving supplier performance, ensuring value for money, and aligning service delivery with organisational priorities. 

Essential Criteria

You must meet the essential criteria and evidence this within your application to be considered for the role.

Entry Requirements  

Candidates will be required to evidence the below essential criteria on their CV at application stage.

We will be assessing previous experience and how it demonstrates candidates’ ability to manage IT services across the full lifecycle, from design and transition through to live operation and continuous improvement. This includes evidence of involvement in key service management disciplines such as incident, change, and service management, as well as their understanding and application of best practice frameworks (e.g. ITIL). We will be looking for clear examples of the impact the candidate have delivered, along with their ability to work effectively with teams, stakeholders, and suppliers to ensure reliable, high-quality services.

Please ensure your CV consists of no more than two pages, using a minimum font size of 11. Please note that only the first two pages of your CV will be reviewed; any additional pages will not be considered.  

In the event of a high number of applications, we may operate a longlist. Applicants must successfully meet the CV requirements and achieve the minimum pass mark on their CV to progress to the full sift stage, where the additional experience criteria will be assessed via the Statement of Suitability.

Qualifications, Membership and Licences  

ITIL 4 Foundation qualification 

Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress.

Qualifications

ITIL 4 Foundation qualification