Service Operations Manager; Northumbria University Digital Services Limited upon Tyne

Job Description

Northumbria University Digital Services Limited is a forward-thinking and growing organisation, delivering 24/7/365 support to students and staff across higher education.

Through Norman Managed Services, we support university communities at scale, combining people, service insight and AI-enabled technology to provide responsive, professional and reliable support whenever it is needed.

We are looking for a Service Operations Manager to help lead the next stage of our service development. This is a key role within our Service & Technology team, focused on strengthening the way our service is managed day to day, improving quality and performance, and ensuring our customers can see clear value from the service we provide.

What youll do

As Service Operations Manager, you will lead the day-to-day management of Normans support service across people, process and delivery.

Working through Team Leads across a large staff group, you will help ensure the service is consistently managed, standards are applied properly and teams are supported to deliver a professional, service-user-focused experience across daytime and out-of-hours operations.

You will work with established quality and performance frameworks, using service insight to understand what is driving outcomes, where standards are not being met and where improvements are needed. This is not a role for someone who maintains the status quo. We are looking for someone who can listen, challenge established ways of working where needed, break down problems properly and help teams improve how the service is delivered.

Your day-to-day will include:

• Leading the day-to-day management of the support service across people, process and delivery.
• Managing through Team Leads to maintain clear standards, consistency and follow-through across a large team.
• Embedding agreed quality and performance frameworks into everyday management practice.
• Using service insight, reporting, feedback and quality themes to understand what is driving service outcomes.
• Supporting Team Leads to coach, challenge and develop analysts in a fair and evidence-based way.
• Managing operational feedback and complaints, ensuring learning is fed back into service improvement.
• Supporting knowledge management, making sure guidance is current, accessible and used consistently.
• Challenging ways of working where they no longer support good service, strong performance, service user experience or customer value.
• Working with colleagues across Account Management, Technology and Commercial Operations to support service change, new opportunities and improvements to delivery.

For more information, please see the job description .

About you

You will bring experience from a customer support or similar high-volume service environment. You may already be managing Team Leads, supervisors or senior colleagues, or you may be ready to step into a broader role where you can influence how a large service team performs.

You will be comfortable working through others, setting clear expectations and following through. You will understand that good service is not just about being busy or hitting simple measures. It is about quality, consistency, good records, clear communication, strong knowledge, fair performance management and a service experience that gives customers confidence.

We are looking for someone who can bring structure and maturity to a busy environment, while still being prepared to question how things work. You will be able to listen to teams, understand what is really causing service issues and turn that insight into practical improvement.

Were looking for someone who can bring:

• Experience managing or supporting teams in a customer support, managed service or live service environment.
• Confidence managing through Team Leads, supervisors or senior colleagues.
• A strong understanding of service quality, performance management, feedback, complaints and knowledge management.
• The ability to use data and service insight to understand performance and drive improvement.
• The confidence to challenge poor standards and established ways of working constructively.
• The ability to inspire teams to raise standards and take accountability for better outcomes.
• A practical approach to improvement, with the ability to turn issues into clear actions.
• Good judgement, strong communication skills and the confidence to work with colleagues across the wider business.
• An interest in how technology, automation and AI can support better service delivery.

Further information can be found in the person specification .

Why join us

This is a chance to take on a visible management role at an important stage in our growth.

You will help shape how standards are applied, how performance is managed, how Team Leads are supported and how service improvement is…