Service Management Team Leader

Role Overview

This role leads a 24/7 Service Operations Centre, directly responsible for ensuring enterprise IT services remain available, performant, and stable at all times. Day to day, the incumbent drives operational excellence by owning incident and problem management, strengthening monitoring and observability, and enforcing robust service management practices. The position is critical to building cross-functional collaboration, improving service resilience, and developing a team that can deliver secure, customer-focused IT operations in a high-stakes environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct the daily activities of the Service Operations Centre, including shift coordination, escalation handling, and ensuring round-the-clock coverage for all critical systems.
• Own the end-to-end incident and problem management process, from initial detection through root cause analysis and final resolution, ensuring minimal disruption to business services.
• Continuously enhance monitoring and observability capabilities using platforms such as Prometheus, Instana, Grafana or equivalent tools to build transaction health dashboards and detect anomalies proactively.
• Produce and regularly update operational reports and metrics, including daily dashboards, SLA compliance summaries, and executive-level performance reviews for IT leadership.
• Manage relationships with internal infrastructure, cybersecurity, and application support teams, as well as external vendors, to resolve issues quickly and maintain service quality.
• Establish and enforce governance practices aligned with ITIL frameworks, ensuring adherence to SLA/OLA commitments and regulatory requirements specific to financial institutions.
• Develop the SOC team’s technical and process skills through coaching, training, and performance management to build a high-functioning, resilient operations unit.
• Participate in business continuity and disaster recovery planning and exercises to validate that critical services can be restored under adverse conditions.

Requirements & Qualifications

• First degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a closely related field.
• ITIL Foundation or Intermediate certification strongly preferred.
• 3–4 years of experience in IT operations, with a focus on service operations centre environments, including at least one year in a supervisory or team lead capacity.
• Demonstrated success leading a 24/7 Service Operations Centre that ensures stability, availability, and reliability of enterprise IT services.
• Solid understanding of how different IT disciplines (infrastructure, applications, security, networking) interconnect and depend on each other.
• Proven ability to analyse operational statistics, interpret trends, and create clear reports and presentations for diverse audiences.
• Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Prometheus, Instana, Grafana, or equivalent platforms to maintain health dashboards and proactively detect anomalies in transactional systems.
• Strong vendor and cross-functional coordination skills, including managing relationships with third-party providers and internal support groups to resolve incidents and sustain service levels.
• Background in fast-paced, mission-critical environments, preferably within banking systems operations covering core banking platforms, payment gateways, transaction monitoring, and regulatory compliance systems.
• Experience producing operational reports and metrics, including daily dashboards, SLA compliance reports, and executive summaries for IT leadership.
• Knowledge of governance and compliance in financial services, including ITIL frameworks, SLA/OLA commitments, and applicable regulatory requirements.