Regional Service Director – North America

Location

North America (Manhattan, New York)

Permanent

Head of Global Operations, Infrastructure & Support (UK Based)

The North America Service Director is a strategically important role responsible for the delivery of the IT support service within a region, serving users across multiple entities (Dual, Broking and Howden RE). This senior leadership position ensures that the regional hub team provides a high quality, compliant service to all customers. The Service Director balances competing priorities of multiple executive stakeholders (COOs, CIOs, CEOs and HGS).

The Service Director represents the regional businesses’ requirements to Group IT services, ensuring Group IT delivers against SLAs and the hub delivers Group standard IT support.

• IT leadership:
  Lead a team of IT professionals to deliver compliant IT infrastructure and support services to all users regionally, balancing the competing priorities of the regions’ business units and country‑specific requirements to deploy resources efficiently.
• Support the Group CISO (New York) by maintaining and promoting awareness of emerging cyber security threats and the risks they pose to IT infrastructure and support services. Support Group‑led strategic initiatives such as implementing the new Target Operating Model for technical services and compliance readiness programmes including SOC2 and US SOX.
• Relationship management:
  Build relationships in each business and entity served by the regional hub, ensuring a deep understanding of the nuances of each business and their requirements while striving for consistent service delivery. Serve as the go‑to person for all businesses in the region, representing them into Group and ensuring all resources within the hub share a unified strategy for IT support.
  
  Act as an escalation point for urgent requirements and issues.
• Demand planning:
  Work with the business on demand planning and project requirements for the coming year, anticipate growth expectations so the infrastructure team can plan accordingly, and play a key role in annual budgeting and forecasting.
• Decision making:
  Act as a trusted partner to the business, making decisions that best support and balance region‑wide requirements. Facilitate the regional business in the Architecture Review Board for new projects and in Change Advisory Boards to ensure regional impact is considered.
• Team leadership & development:
  Build and inspire a high‑performing IT technical services team, lead talent acquisition, coaching and career development initiatives, and ensure diversity, innovation and technical excellence.

• Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (MSC preferred).
• ITIL v4 certification required; PMP, CISSP or equivalent credentials strongly preferred.
• Cloud certifications (AWS, Azure or GCP) desirable.
• 10+ years in technology roles, with 5+ years in leadership.
• Track record of operating across a complex international environment supporting a business across multiple divisions, regions and countries.
• Proven track record in regulated industries, preferably insurance or financial services.
• Strong technical thought leadership with excellent communication skills to drive forward change agendas with non‑technical senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to establish relationships and partnerships with senior executives, divisional CEOs, COOs and CIOs.
• Experience with Supplier Performance Management including contract management.
• Demonstrable record of execution and delivery in a complex multi‑business‑line or product environment.
• Strong stakeholder management and influence.
• Deep knowledge of IT support and infrastructure.
• Resilient, inclusive leader with high integrity and accountability.
• Innovative continuous‑improvement mindset.
• Financial planning and budget management for Opex and Capex expenditures.
• Commercially focused.
• Progressive thinker staying up to date with new technologies.
• Strategic thinker with a pragmatic approach to execution.

Reasonable adjustments:
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. In addition to usual adjustments such as software, IT and office setups, we can also accommodate flexible hours or hybrid working where available. Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or location.