IT Service Design & Transition Manager

IT Service Design and Transition Manager

• Contract Duration: 6 months
• Pay Range: £650.00 - £750.00 per day (Inside IR35)
• Location: Central London (Hybrid - 1-2 days per week onsite)
• Start Date: ASAP

The IT Service Design & Transition Manager is responsible for ensuring that new and changed IT services are designed, introduced and assured in a controlled, sustainable and operationally ready way. Working across technology, operational teams, service providers and business stakeholders, the role protects live service quality, supports effective technology adoption and ensures services align with the organisation’s IT strategy and target operating model.

The role will work across Digital Transformation programmes and complex technology environments, including ServiceNow-based services, Contact Centre Platform migrations, cloud services, APIs and integrations, and third-party/supplier integrations. The successful candidate will be able to understand and document the technical solution from Service Design through Transition into BAU, ensuring that all operational requirements and service acceptance criteria are met before go-live.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the controlled introduction of new and changed IT services into the live environment, ensuring services are fully operationally ready before go-live.
• Define and assure service designs that align with the IT strategy, target operating model, technical architecture and operational requirements.
• Take and document solutions through Service Design, Service Transition and into BAU handover, ensuring appropriate ownership, support models and documentation are established.
• Identify, capture, document and validate IT Service Operations Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) and ensure these are met before go-live.
• Ensure operational NFRs cover areas such as availability, supportability, monitoring, alerting, security, resilience, backup, disaster recovery, capacity and service continuity, with appropriate stakeholder review, validation and sign-off.
• Assess service and operational readiness and determine whether services are ready for go-live, identifying and managing any outstanding risks, gaps or dependencies.
• Ensure key Service Design & Transition (SD&T) artefacts are produced, reviewed, validated and approved throughout the transition process.
• Oversee and validate key transition artefacts including Service Models, Incident Flows, HLD/LLD, Test Strategies/Plans, Operational Support Models, Runbooks, Early Life Support (ELS) Plans, Service Acceptance Criteria (SAC), support processes and operational readiness assessments.
• Assess transition risks and coordinate actions to protect the quality and continuity of live services.
• Plan and oversee hyper-care, Early Life Support and transitional support arrangements following implementation.
• Work with service providers, operational teams and other stakeholders to ensure each service has an effective and sustainable support model and clear BAU ownership.
• Verify operational readiness, including support processes, ownership, reporting, documentation, knowledge, monitoring, incident management and service acceptance criteria.
• Lead cross-functional teams through service transition, go-live and technology adoption activities.
• Work across technical teams and suppliers to understand applications, infrastructure, cloud services, integrations, APIs and technical dependencies, ensuring these are reflected in the service design and operational support model.
• Use performance data, reports and dashboards to monitor outcomes, identify issues and support informed decisions.
• Build strong stakeholder relationships and communicate progress, risks and decisions clearly to peers and senior leaders.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of functional strategy and continuous service improvement.

Skills & Experience

• Significant experience in IT Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operations or Operational Readiness, ideally within large-scale Digital Transformation programmes.
• Strong technical grounding with the ability to understand how technology works, not just coordinate delivery at a programme level.
• Proven experience taking technical solutions from Service Design through Transition and into BAU, including the development of operational support models and service acceptance criteria.
• Strong understanding of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) and their application to IT Service Operations, including availability, supportability, monitoring, alerting, security, resilience, backup, disaster recovery, capacity and service continuity.
• Experience identifying, documenting, validating and obtaining stakeholder sign-off for operational NFRs before go-live.
• Proven experience assessing service and operational readiness and determining whether a service is ready to go live.
• Experience producing, reviewing and validating Service Design & Transition artefacts, including Service Models, Incident Flows, HLD/LLD, Test Strategies/Plans, Operational Support Models, Runbooks, ELS Plans, Service Acceptance Criteria and operational readiness assessments.
• Experience working on Digital Transformation programmes involving ServiceNow-based services.
• Experience of Contact Centre Platform migrations or transformation, with an understanding of the associated technology, integrations and operational requirements.
• Strong understanding of APIs, data integrations, interfaces, system dependencies and supplier integrations, including their operational impacts.
• Experience working with cloud-based technologies, with exposure to AWS being highly desirable.
• Knowledge of enterprise applications, including Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• Experience with ServiceNow or comparable IT Service Management platforms.
• Good understanding of IT infrastructure, including servers, networks and supporting technologies.
• Experience of telephony and contact centre technologies is desirable.
• Awareness of hardware and end-user devices, with the ability to support services spanning software, infrastructure and physical technology.
• Ability to translate technical solutions into robust operational support models, including support processes, ownership, incident management, knowledge articles, monitoring and operational readiness criteria.
• Experience managing teams that support operational service delivery and technology adoption in a retail or field-service environment.
• ITIL Foundation certification or an equivalent service management qualification.
• Proven experience managing hyper-care, Early Life Support or transitional support phases.
• Strong data-driven decision-making skills, including proficiency with reporting tools and dashboards.
• Excellent communication, leadership and people-management capabilities.
• Ability to lead and motivate cross-functional teams in a fast-paced operational environment.
• Experience working with service teams and supporting technology adoption at scale.
• Proven ability to collaborate with peers and senior managers to shape and deliver functional strategy and business objectives.
• Substantial experience establishing successful cross-functional stakeholder relationships.
• Strong stakeholder management and collaboration skills.