Service Manager

Contract Service Delivery Manager – Divestment / TSA Environment
Remote-first | Occasional travel to London or Cambridge
Circa £550 per day | Inside IR35
Initial 3–6 month contract (high likelihood of extension)

We are supporting a major UK-headquartered global organisation in the advanced materials and sustainable technologies sector as it undertakes a complex divestment and separation programme to a multinational industrial technology business.

As part of this transition, we are seeking an experienced Service Delivery Manager to provide operational leadership, governance, and control during a critical Day 1 and Transitional Services Agreement (TSA) period.
This is a high-visibility role operating across multiple stakeholders, suppliers, and service towers, ensuring service stability while managing change in a fast-moving and ambiguous environment.

The Service Delivery Manager will act as a central coordination point between the client organisation, the acquiring business, and multiple infrastructure and platform service providers.
You will be responsible for ensuring service continuity, controlled change, effective escalation management, and clear operational governance throughout the transition.

Key Responsibilities:
Service Governance & Operational Leadership

• Own day-to-day service governance across TSA and separation activities.
• Establish and run operational service forums, including service reviews, escalation meetings, and service assurance sessions.
• Maintain oversight of service performance, risks, dependencies, and cross-tower impacts.

Escalation & Risk Management

• Act as the primary escalation point for service issues, conflicts, and delivery risks.
• Maintain and manage RAID logs, ensuring risks and issues are proactively mitigated and escalated where required.
• Support resolution of cross-supplier and cross-tower service issues impacting transition milestones.

Change & High-Risk Change Governance

• Govern standard, non-standard, and high-risk changes during the transition period.
• Ensure change activity is assessed for risk, dependency, and cross-environment impact.
• Chair or support Change Advisory Boards (CABs) as required.

TSA Oversight & Control

• Operationalise Transitional Services Agreement obligations and ensure services are delivered within agreed scope.
• Monitor TSA demand and consumption, highlighting scope creep or emerging risks.
• Support TSA exit readiness and service disentanglement milestones.

Legal Hold & Compliance Coordination

• Coordinate IT and service activities related to legal hold requirements.
• Work closely with legal, security, and platform teams to maintain appropriate controls and auditability.

Reporting & Communication

• Produce clear service reporting covering performance, risk, change, and TSA status.
• Provide structured updates to senior stakeholders across the programme.
• Drive consistent and transparent communication across stakeholder groups.

Stakeholder Management

• Operate confidently across senior stakeholders, programme leadership, service providers, and transition teams.
• Act as an integrator across infrastructure towers, platforms, security, legal, and delivery teams.

What We’re Looking For Essential Experience

• Proven experience as a Service Delivery Manager within complex enterprise IT environments.
• Strong background in service governance, escalation management, and operational leadership.
• Experience working across multiple suppliers, service towers, and stakeholder groups.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous or rapidly evolving programme environments.
• Strong stakeholder diplomacy and relationship management skills.

Highly Desirable

• Experience supporting divestments, carve-outs, or separation programmes.
• Direct experience working within Transitional Services Agreements (TSA).
• Exposure to regulated or large-scale enterprise environments.

Key Traits for Success

• Strong service management discipline
• Commercial and contractual awareness without being overly rigid
• Ability to constructively challenge demand
• Excellent stakeholder diplomacy
• Comfortable operating in complex transition environments

Contract Details

• Initial 3–6 month contract
• Highly likely to extend due to programme timeline
• Inside IR35
• Remote-first with occasional travel to London or Cambridge
• Circa £550 per day

If you have experience stabilising services during complex transformation, transition, or separation programmes, we would be keen to speak with you.