Service Delivery Manager

Overview

The Service Delivery Manager is responsible for ensuring that IT services across the firm are delivered effectively, consistently and in line with business expectations. This role is accountable for overall service performance, standards and outcomes across a multi‑site legal environment, ensuring high levels of service availability, responsiveness and user satisfaction. The Service Delivery Manager acts as the bridge between IT operational teams, third‑party suppliers and the wider business, owning service performance, driving continual improvement and ensuring that technology services support the needs of lawyers and business services teams across all office locations.

• Accountable for the end‑to‑end delivery of IT support services across the firm, ensuring alignment to business priorities and user needs.
• Accountable for service performance against agreed service levels and key performance indicators, taking early and decisive action where standards or outcomes drift.
• Ensure Service Desk and Operations Support Team Leaders maintain effective day‑to‑day control of service delivery, including queues, backlog, workload and escalation.
• Ensure consistent application of incident, request, problem and change disciplines, maintaining service stability and predictability.
• Provide senior operational leadership during major incidents, ensuring clear communication, structure and business confidence, and own post‑incident review and follow‑through.
• Maintain oversight of service health, including trends, recurring issues, operational risk and capacity, ensuring issues are identified and addressed early.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across legal and business services teams, ensuring service aligns with business expectations.
• Act as the senior point of accountability for service performance and escalations.
• Ensure service delivery reflects the pace, expectations and client standards of a professional services environment.
• Communicate clearly on service performance, issues and improvement activity, ensuring transparency and trust.

• Hold third‑party suppliers accountable for service performance, quality and delivery outcomes, not just contractual measures.
• Ensure supplier performance issues are visible, escalated and addressed in a timely manner.
• Lead service reviews and support contract renewal and improvement discussions.
• Ensure supplier activity aligns with internal service standards, processes and governance expectations.

• Own the identification, prioritisation and delivery of service improvements.
• Ensure improvements are driven by service data, trends and recurring issues, not anecdotal feedback.
• Ensure issues raised by team leaders are translated into structured and measurable improvement actions.
• Drive improvements in automation, self‑service, knowledge management and operational efficiency.
• Support service design and transition activity, ensuring new or changed services are supportable, controlled and well embedded.

• Ensure service management processes are defined, consistently applied and aligned to firm policies and standards.
• Ensure service data, reporting and insight are reliable and support effective decision making and audit requirements.
• Ensure risks, capacity constraints and service issues are visible, assessed and actively managed.
• Support audit, compliance and information security requirements within service operations.
• Ensure business continuity and disaster recovery considerations are reflected in how services are delivered.

• Set clear service and behavioural standards and ensure consistent application across all support functions.
• Hold Service Desk and Operations Support Team Leaders accountable for performance, control and adherence to standards.
• Ensure leaders are visible, engaged and in control of their areas of responsibility.
• Intervene early where performance, consistency or behaviour does not meet expectations.
• Create an environment where issues are raised early and ownership is clear.
• Develop…