IT Service Operations Manager

Role overview

The Manager, IT Service Operations will oversee the day-to-day operational engine for the Infrastructure & Cybersecurity team. This position is responsible for service desk leadership, incident handling, change governance, monitoring, and field support across the organisation. It is a practical leadership role aimed at strengthening ITIL-based ways of working and improving the overall quality of IT service delivery.

Key responsibilities

• Take full ownership of the IT service management framework and ensure dependable support across every location.
• Set up a clear first-line and second-line support structure with disciplined ticket assignment and routing.
• Use performance data, service metrics, and stakeholder feedback to continuously improve service quality.
• Lead the major incident process, including escalation rules, incident commanders, bridge-call structure, and executive updates.
• Make sure root-cause analysis is completed for all P1 and P2 incidents within the required timelines.
• Strengthen ticket-priority management and work toward incident volumes that align with industry standards.
• Improve early issue detection through effective monitoring practices.
• Own the ITIL-based change management process, including CAB and TAB governance.
• Ensure business or application owners present changes with complete documentation, impact analysis, and rollback planning.
• Enforce multi-level approvals and structured control over changes.
• Direct 24/7 service desk activity and regional field support.
• Maintain consistent tools, working standards, and service quality across all sites.
• Create and maintain a strong knowledge base to preserve operational know-how.
• Introduce self-service options that help reduce overall ticket volumes.
• Bring monitoring and alerting into a single, centralised operational team.
• Develop dashboards that give leadership clear visibility into operations.
• Publish weekly operational reports with consistent KPIs such as SLA performance, MTTR, incident volumes, and change success rates.
• Lead, coach, and develop the service desk, field support, and operations teams.
• Foster a team culture built on professionalism, ownership, and service excellence.
• Support employee growth through certification, mentoring, and clear development paths.

Requirements

• 8 to 12 years of progressive experience in IT service operations, ITSM, or infrastructure operations.
• At least 3 to 5 years in a leadership role managing service desk, operations, or ITSM teams.
• Proven track record of introducing or improving ITIL-aligned practices, especially incident, change, and problem management.
• Practical experience using enterprise ITSM platforms.
• Prior experience with a multinational company is required.
• Strong background in monitoring and observability tools.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• ITIL v4 Foundation certification is required; Managing Professional is preferred.
• Strong verbal and written English communication skills.

Additional information

This role is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is offered as a full-time onsite position. No stipend or salary amount was provided in the source. The role is focused on professionalising IT operations, building measurable service improvements, and strengthening enterprise support processes.