The IT Service Manager is a key leadership role responsible for the end-to-end planning, delivery, performance, and continual improvement of IT services across the organisation. This position ensures that IT services are reliable, efficient, secure, and fully aligned with business objectives and user needs. Working closely with technical teams, business stakeholders, and external vendors, the IT Service Manager drives operational excellence, manages service levels (SLAs/OLAs), oversees incident/problem/change processes, and fosters a customer-centric IT culture. The role has a strong emphasis on service strategy, operations, and continuous improvement. This is a strategic and hands-on position that bridges technology and business ,ensuring high availability, minimal downtime, and optimal value from IT investments.
Key Responsibilities
Service Strategy & Delivery: Develop, implement, and maintain IT service strategies, policies, and processes. Design and improve services to meet evolving business requirements while aligning with organisational goals.
Incident, Problem & Change Management: Oversee the full lifecycle of incident,problem, request, and change management. Ensure timely resolution of issues, rootcause analysis, and prevention of recurring problems to minimise business impact.
Service Level Management: Define, negotiate, monitor, and report on Service LevelAgreements (SLAs) and Operational Level Agreements (OLAs). Track key performanceindicators (KPIs) such as uptime, Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR), customersatisfaction (CSAT), and service availability.
Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and develop IT support teams(including service desk, operations, and technical specialists). Manage staffing,training, performance, and resource allocation to maintain a high-performing,customer-focused team.
Budget & Resource Management: Manage IT service budgets, vendor contracts, andprocurement. Optimise costs while ensuring quality service delivery and compliance
Vendor & Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with
internal stakeholders, business units, and external service providers. Act as the primary
point of escalation and ensure vendors meet contractual obligations.
Continuous Service Improvement : Identify opportunities for process optimisation,
automation, and innovation. Implement improvements using ITIL practices to enhance
efficiency, reduce costs, and elevate service quality.
Compliance, Security & Risk: Ensure all IT services comply with relevant regulations
(e.g., POPIA in South Africa), security standards, and organisational policies. Oversee
data protection, risk management, and audit readiness.
Service Catalogue & Knowledge Management: Maintain an up-to-date service
catalogue, knowledge base, and configuration management database (CMDB) to
support efficient operations.
Reporting & Communication: Produce regular performance reports and dashboards
for senior management. Communicate effectively with all levels of the organisation on
IT service matters, changes, and improvements.
Monitoring and Alerting: Design, implement, and continuously improve proactive
monitoring and alerting systems across the entire IT environment.
This includes:
- Deploying and managing enterprise monitoring tools for infrastructure, networks,
servers, cloud services, applications, and end-user experience. - Establishing real-time alerting mechanisms (email, SMS, Teams/Slack,
automated tickets) with appropriate thresholds and escalation paths. - Ensuring 24/7 monitoring coverage and rapid detection of performance
degradation, outages, or anomalies. - Integrating monitoring systems with the ITSM platform for automatic incident
creation. - Conducting regular reviews of monitoring effectiveness, reducing false positives,
and driving proactive issue resolution. - Supporting capacity planning, trend analysis, and performance reporting through
monitoring data.
Security and Vulnerability Management: Own and drive the organisation’s IT security
posture within the service management framework. This includes:
- Leading vulnerability scanning, assessment, prioritisation, and remediation
activities. - Overseeing patch management processes for servers, endpoints, applications,
and network devices. - Ensuring timely mitigation of identified vulnerabilities and security risks.
- Coordinating with cybersecurity teams on threat intelligence, penetration
testing, and security incident response - Embedding security controls into service design, transition, and operation
(Security by Design). - Monitoring and reporting on security compliance, vulnerability trends, and risk
exposure to senior leadership.
Qualifications & Experience
Education: Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business
Information Systems, or a related field.
Experience: Minimum 5–7 years of progressive experience in IT operations or service
management, with at least 3 years in a leadership or managerial capacity. Experience in
a multi-vendor or enterprise environment is highly advantageous.
Local Context (South Africa): Familiarity with South African regulatory requirements
(e.g., POPIA, cybersecurity frameworks) and experience working in dynamic industries
such as finance, telecoms sector is a plus.
Essential Skills & Competencies
Leadership & People Management: Proven ability to lead, motivate, and develop highperforming teams.
Communication & Interpersonal: Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders.
Analytical & Problem-Solving: Strong analytical mindset with the ability to diagnose
complex issues and drive data-informed decisions.
Technical Knowledge: Solid understanding of IT infrastructure, networks, cloud
services, cybersecurity, and common ITSM tools (e.g., Jira, Remedy).
Business Acumen: Ability to align IT services with business priorities and demonstrate
ROI.
Customer Focus & Adaptability: Strong customer-service orientation and comfort
working in fast-paced, changing environments.
Project Management: Familiarity with project management principles (e.g., Agile,
Prince2).
Preferred Certifications
ITIL 4 Foundation (or higher – e.g., ITIL 4 Managing Professional or Strategic Leader)
Project Management Professional (PMP), CAPM, or PRINCE2.
Certifications in security or risk (e.g., CISSP, CISM, CRISC).
AWS
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