IT Service Manager

What We Will Offer
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We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitious firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can gain early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

YOU CAN EXPECT

• A competitive salary and a host of family friendly policies.
• Life assurance, private health and dental care for you and your family.
• A range of flexible benefits including gym discount and retail vouchers.
• Tech, cycle and electric car schemes.
• We support the causes you care about, by giving you one day per year off to volunteer with any charity that you are involved with outside of work.
• A wellbeing strategy that focuses on preventative measures to maintain overall health, and tools and support for when our people experience physical or mental difficulties. The strategy focuses on four pillars: physical, emotional, financial and social aspects.
• We are an equal opportunity organisation, committed to having a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, culture, or any other protected characteristics. We aim to create a culture where everyone can be themselves and is valued for their strengths and unique perspectives.

Team Structure
The IT Service Manager will report directly to the IT Service Delivery Manager and will play a pivotal role in ensuring consistent adherence to IT Service Management (ITSM) policies and processes across the entire department.

This role is responsible for governing service management practices across all IT teams, ensuring that processes are clearly documented, regularly reviewed and effectively communicated to all relevant stakeholders. The IT Service Manager will act as a central point of accountability for maintaining high standards of service delivery, driving process maturity and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Main Responsibilities

• Service Ownership & Strategy.
• Take full ownership of the delivery and performance of IT services, ensuring they meet business requirements and strategic objectives.
• Manage the full lifecycle of IT services, from design and transition through to operation and retirement.
• Lead continual service improvement initiatives across all ITIL processes.
• Represent IT Service Management in strategic planning and cross-functional forums.

INCIDENT & PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

• Ensure proactive problem management is embedded across teams to reduce incident volumes.
• Act as an escalation point for Problem Review meetings and the Biweekly Problem Forum.
• Confirm closure of Major Incidents and Problems, ensuring root cause analysis is completed and risks are mitigated.
• Maintain and review the Problem Management policy annually, communicating updates as required.
• Approve knowledge base articles to support incident resolution and reduce recurrence.

MAJOR INCIDENT & BUSINESS CONTINUITY

• Lead Major Incident resolution when required, coordinating internal and external resources.
• Ensure timely escalation to leadership and adherence to the Major Incident process.
• Attend and lead Major Incident Review meetings, ensuring risks and actions are documented and followed up.
• Maintain the IT Risk Register with risks identified during incident reviews.
• Collaborate with the Business Continuity Manager during BCP events to restore IT services.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• Review Requests for Change to ensure quality, compliance and appropriate risk management.
• Attend and lead CAB meetings, ensuring changes are properly assessed and prioritised.
• Escalate and manage unauthorised changes, documenting breaches and impacts.
• Maintain and review the Change Management policy annually, communicating updates to relevant stakeholders.

CAPACITY & EVENT MANAGEMENT

• Ensure patching SLAs are met and follow up on any non-compliance.
• Mitigate risks arising from missing or misconfigured alerting across systems and services.

SERVICE REPORTING & GOVERNANCE

• Implement best practice processes and tools to consistently meet service level targets.
• Conduct regular process maturity assessments and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Train new joiners on ITSM policies and processes.
• Lead investigations into service issues, producing timelines, supporting evidence and lessons learned.
• Deliver quarterly performance presentations to the COO and Head of IT.

STAKEHOLDER & VENDOR ENGAGEMENT

• Engage with business stakeholders to understand service needs and drive improvements.
• Ensure vendors are held accountable for actions arising from service management activities.
• Collaborate with product owners and vendor managers to ensure service quality and alignment.

TEAM LEADERSHIP

• Line manage a small team, supporting their development, performance and career progression.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.

SERVICENOW PLATFORM OWNERSHIP

• Act as global administrator and owner of the ServiceNow platform and its modules.
• Serve as the technical escalation point for ServiceNow-related issues and enhancements.
• Align ServiceNow capabilities with departmental and business requirements.
• Plan and manage annual ServiceNow upgrades, ensuring thorough testing and communication.

DOCUMENTATION & PROCESS OWNERSHIP

• Create and maintain documentation for ITSM policies and procedures.
• Own the joiner, mover and leaver processes, ensuring smooth execution and continuous improvement.
• Support the development and implementation of new ITSM policies and procedures.

Attributes/Skills Required

• Ability to work flexibly to the demands of the business which may be outside of core hours.
• Strong understanding of IT Service Management (ITSM) tools
• Qualified in ITIL best practice framework.
• Experience in dealing with third party suppliers.
• Previous experience in a legal or other professional services firm / partnership structure desired.
• Experience in preparing documentation and guidance for others.
• Experience with ServiceNow administration across ITSM, Employee Service Centre and custom applications.

This job description is indicative only and does not represent an exhaustive list of responsibilities. The firm reserves the right to alter or change the responsibilities at any time, in line with the firm's strategy and business

About The Firm
Stephenson Harwood is an international law firm, and we're committed to creating 'positive partnerships' with our clients. We represent listed and private companies, institutions and individuals, building lasting relationships to help them succeed in a complex and ever-changing world.

Our focus is on five core sectors: Energy Transition, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Private Capital and Funds, Technology, and Transportation and Trade.

With more than 1,400 people, including 210+ partners, across eight offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, we combine deep legal capabilities and broad commercial expertise. We have also forged close ties with high quality law firms around the world, blending local knowledge with global savvy for clients in over 100 countries.

We understand the power of diversity in delivering that high calibre advice to our clients. We want to attract diverse talent and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented demographics.

Our Brand Strengths
GO FAR, GO TOGETHER
EXPERTS IN MORE THAN LAW
CAN DO PERSONALITIES
ALWAYS READY