Lead Service Delivery Manager

Closing Date

31/03/2026

Job Title: Lead Service Delivery Manager (Digital)

Location: Durrington, hybrid working

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 per week

Salary: from £65k

About The Role

As a Lead Service Delivery Manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the stability, reliability, and continual improvement of our IT services. You’ll lead and develop a team of Service Delivery Managers, embed best‑practice service disciplines, and work closely with operational, engineering, and digital stakeholders across the organisation.

This role sits within our Digital Service Delivery team, at the heart of supporting operational systems, corporate applications, customer-facing services, and the technology that underpins a regulated water utility.

What You Will Be Responsible For

• Leading, coaching, and developing a team of Service Delivery Managers to deliver high‑quality, customer‑focused service.
• Managing major incidents (P1 & P2), coordinating technical response, and supporting a 24/7 incident management rota.
• Owning service performance metrics — SLAs, OLAs, and KPIs — and producing accurate, insightful management information.
• Building strong relationships with operational, engineering, digital, and business stakeholders, representing Service Delivery at governance forums.
• Leading supplier performance reviews, driving improvements, and supporting commercial teams with contract negotiations.
• Embedding and improving ITIL‑aligned processes (incident, problem, change, request, release) and driving continual service improvement.
  
  

Additional Requirements Specific To The Role

• Participation in a 24/7 major incident management rota.
• Engagement in resilience, disaster recovery and service continuity activities.
• Ensuring service governance meets regulatory requirements for the water sector (cybersecurity, operational resilience, OT environments).
  
  

Essential

What you’ll bring to the role

• Proven experience leading IT Service Delivery teams in a 24/7 or operationally critical environment.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Deep understanding of ITIL frameworks across core processes.
• ITIL Foundation certification (v3 or v4).
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to understand technical information and translate it into business‑focused insights.
  
  

Desirable

• ITIL v5 (Foundation) or higher‑level ITIL qualifications.
• Experience using the ServiceNow ITSM/CSM platform.
• Experience in a regulated or utility environment (water sector preferred).
• Qualifications in SIAM, Lean, Agile, or other service/process frameworks.
  
  

At Southern Water, we believe diverse perspectives drive innovation. If you’re passionate about making a positive impact and think you can bring value to our team, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t tick every box. Your unique skills and experiences could be exactly what we need.

If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water, you can register your details here: Introduce Yourself (myworkdaysite.com- Introduce Yourself)

Our Commitment to Diversity

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other protected characteristic. If you need reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.

Additional Information

In line with Southern Water’s security requirements, successful candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity, eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record

check (DBS) and verification of their employment and/or education history for the past three years.

Appointment to this role is subject to the successful completion of all pre-employment checks, including security vetting.

Please note that if a candidate does not meet the required security standards or fails to pass the vetting process, Southern Water reserves the right to withdraw the offer of employment. Some positions may also require higher levels of security vetting, which may involve providing additional documentation.