Head of Incident Management

This inclusive employer is a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

The British Airways (BA) IT Operations team is part of BA Digital within the International Airlines Group (IAG), one of the world’s leading airline groups and owner of some of the biggest brands in the sky.

Our vision is to become the most trusted digital airline. We seek to delight our customers, enable our colleagues, accelerate business performance, increase shareholder value, and protect our business through the innovative and agile use of technology and data.

To harness our full potential across our customer, operational and colleague journeys, as well as our enabling domains, platforms and programmes, we are changing our ways of working and transitioning into a product-led organisation at scale.

Together, we are building a better BA.

As Head of Incident Mgmt. & Service Ops, you will oversee the operational aspects of IT services with a primary focus on incident management.

You are responsible for leading and managing the processes, teams, and technologies that ensure the effective resolution of incidents, the delivery of high-quality IT services, and the continuous improvement of operational processes. This will involve:

• Delivery of the Global Operations Centre and key ITIL operational processes (Event, Incident, Problem, Change and Release, Service Continuity), the IT Risk Framework and the coordination of service continuity.
• Ownership of all ITIL processes across service operations delivery including event, incident, problem and change, ensuring flawless service delivery (including the Global IT Operations Centre and associated tooling)
• Service restoration for all incidents and degradations in service, reporting on compliance with SLAs. Deployment of activities and operational procedures required to trap and resolve any event, ensuring timely and effective communications to all relevant stakeholders.
• Operational command and control of Change Management execution, working closely with the Head of Problem & Service Management and the Head of Service Delivery & Regional IT

We are looking for individuals able to navigate through uncertainty, with high agility and adaptability that work smarter not harder. The role will require flexibility at times of operational disruption, which may require adaptability in terms of occasional long and unsocial hours – specifically the role requires ability to obtain an airside pass and to be a trained IT member of the BA Crisis Management Team.

This role will require some travel and working from multiple sites/locations within UK and internationally. You must be willing and able to travel to participate in meetings, workshops and other related activities.

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience
• ITIL or similar qualification in Service Management

Skills

• Strong leadership with a proven ability of influencing and persuading internally and externally. Leadership and motivation of virtual teams across different locations and cultures
• Effective senior stakeholder management, balancing and finding compromises between opposing views and opinions.
• Excellent communication skills to convey complex technical information to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Understanding and influencing of business strategy, translating this to accelerate the release.
• In-depth knowledge of incident management processes, methodologies, and best practices
• Comprehensive understanding of service desk management, service level management, and continuous improvement practices
• Problem solving & and understanding of the broader business context (business acumen)
• Systematic and rigorous planning of work and priorities
• Flexibility in a rapidly changing and developing environment, with the ability to work under pressure.
• Innovation - transforming industry trends into practical, cost effective, secure, scalable and supportable solutions.
• Fluent English

Experience

• Senior level IT leadership, gained in a complex global organisation.
• Substantial experience in IT service management, including incident management, service desk operations, and service level management.
• Hands-on experience in managing and coordinating incident responses, including major incidents.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate teams, improving quality and efficiency in a collaborative environment, with experience of building and managing operational and infrastructure teams.
• Senior business partnering, working as a valued partner with senior stakeholders and strategic third parties across a diverse operation. In particular strong communicating & influencing skills (with an operational and / or service delivery bias)
• Experience in managing budgets and making financial decisions related to incident management and service operations Extensive Operational management experience of a shared services operating model.
• Proven understanding of the operational and technical architecture underpinning the IT service landscape in high volume mission critical e-Commerce or similar
• Experience of operating across multiple countries and cultures is desirable, but not essential