IT Operations Lead (SC cleared)

We are looking for a hands-on IT Operations Manager to help keep the service stable, secure, resilient and performing effectively.

This is not a traditional service desk role. You will take ownership of day-to-day live operations, work closely with engineering and delivery teams, and improve the processes, monitoring and controls that underpin a reliable production service.

Key Responsibilities

• Own live-service operations across incident, problem, change and release management.
• Act as an escalation point for operational issues and major incidents, driving resolution within agreed SLAs and ITIL-aligned processes.
• Improve service-management practices including incident prioritisation, ticket ageing, reporting and operational governance.
• Monitor the health and performance of a custom-built data platform, including data pipelines, availability, capacity and system performance.
• Investigate technical issues and coordinate resolution with Software, Data, Platform and DevOps teams.
• Own production readiness and release governance, ensuring changes are appropriately tested, controlled and safe to deploy.
• Identify and implement service improvements across automation, resilience, documentation, support processes and operational efficiency.
• Manage operational access and security-related support activity.
• Provide clear updates on service health, incidents, risks, performance and releases to clients, delivery teams, senior stakeholders and suppliers., * Work effectively with Data Engineers, Software Developers, Platform Engineers and DevOps specialists.
• Understand software delivery, production environments and the balance between technical change, reliability and operational risk.
• Challenge technical teams constructively on monitoring, resilience, maintainability and production readiness.
• Identify operational risks and inefficiencies and introduce sustainable processes and controls.
• Take ownership of operational decisions and escalate appropriately

An experienced, technically capable IT Operations professional who is comfortable working with complex software-based services and getting into the detail of how production environments operate.

• c. £400/day
• Outside IR35
• Fully remote, UK based
• Initial contract through to Feb 2027
• Good chance of extension
• Current SC assumed for now