IT WPS Workplace Operations Service Owner

Workplace Services exists to provide end-to-end support of the back-office systems and applications which the Admiral business relies upon. Under your leadership, you will ensure your team understands its remit to provide the continued delivery of highly available, resilient, and scalable systems and services, to support the Admiral Group and its customers. You will work closely with the other areas within IT WPS, Corporate Services, and other teams as necessary to drive up the performance of all the Services we are collectively accountable for. You will be always remaining vigilant to identify areas for improvement; plan and implement appropriate activities which ensure that the business services remain in a supportable and viable state.

Job Purpose

The Workplace Operations team are our client tooling specialists and play a pivotal role in endpoint management, software packaging and the development of the modern desktop across the end user computing estate. The team is responsible for the maintenance and integrity of client tooling, hardware standards, patch management, application updates, OS provisioning, imaging, security hardening, software whitelisting, testing new apps, performance benchmarking and local admin controls.

 The team works closely with the Design & Engineering team on the future direction, ensuring changes are aligned with the technology roadmap and carried out in conjunction with the relevant D&E SME for your area. The role holder will need to collaborate with other Service Owners within WPS, on such matters as the technical designs for IT desktop and supporting infrastructure relating to EUC, including hardware and software solutions required to support business initiatives.

As the Service Manager, you are accountable for leading a technical team which presently owns and supports the management of end user devices through such tools as Ivanti (Application Packaging and OS/Application Patching), JAMF and inTune etc. There needs to be a maintained focus upon Windows OS and application lifecycle working in collaboration with the P&D Team. Managing the performance of your team’s services will require you to collaborate with TMs from the IT Service Desk. Your team are also responsible for the identification of and support of all end user devices, including mobile devices and associated software products.

As with all teams within WPS and beyond, some of the key drivers for the Team and for the Role Holder will be: Accountability, Leadership, Quality, Efficiency.

Main Duties

• Provide direction, support and leadership to the WPS WO Team.
• Manage the day-to-day operations of the team which includes delivering services to agreed SLAs, ensuring the [Ivanti/Jira] workload and workflow within the team is managed efficiently.
• Develop the skills and expertise of the team, ensuring knowledge is captured, documented and disseminated appropriately.
• Ensure KPIs, KRIs and monitoring of all services and performance in general is appropriate, maintained and in place across the estate.
• Ensure the supported endpoints including Windows, MAC or Mobile devices are operated and maintained optimally, to agreed security, availability, performance, and reliability [minimum] standards.
• Quality – striving for outstanding levels of customer satisfaction through the delivery of value-based services and the prompt and effective handling of any Incidents and/or Service Requests.
• Customer relationship management – achieving customer satisfaction by identifying potential Service issues before they occur, and promptly engaging with customers to keep them informed of their request progress.
• Understand, adhere to and contribute to the WPS Roadmap regarding the deployment of new Products and Features; understand new methods to streamline the upgrade process and monitor system stability.

Other duties of this role include, but are not limited to: 

• Ensure that the team’s priorities are identified and communicated to the team.
• Devise appropriate weekly/monthly/annual measures which cover various activities across the team which enable measurement of performance of the services, as well as at a team and individual level. 
• Attending calls and meetings where appropriate to represent the team and/or department where required. 
• Providing constructive input, suggestions and recommendations for team strategy and priority. 
• Ensuring ‘Accountability’ and ‘Customer’ are always in the forefront of the team’s activities and Incidents and Service Requests are dealt with swiftly and to a high standard. 
• Quickly be able to grasp operational situations to provide direction to your team in a Risk aware approach. 
• Undertake and document effective monthly 1-1s and annual APRs with each member of the team ensuring that there is clarity in terms of expectations ensuring that work is approached in an organised and structured fashion which challenges yet adheres to agreed time scales. 
• Ensure each team member is in possession of relevant and achievable, measurable objectives which are in line with the Department’s objectives, providing challenge and motivation. These must be tracked on a regular basis. 
• Take a proactive approach to create, review and update policies and processes as well as ensure the team adheres to existing IT and Security policies, including relevant Minimum Standards. 
• Ensure that tooling and technology within your team’s remit is appropriate to enable your team to perform its activities to the optimum level. 
• Establish individual Training Plans and monitor progress in order that the team remains technically capable; maintaining regular and documented records of the skill levels within the team and thereby identify any gaps and appropriate remediation (Skills Matrix). 
• Provide relevant and detailed input towards all budget requirements for your team and its activities. 
• Ensure your team is resourced appropriately to meet demand, identifying and documenting any gaps in order to ensure the team remains effective and well-placed to be able to adapt to changing demands. 

Behavioural Competencies

Communication

• Must have excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills with ability to present ideas, designs and solutions to IT colleagues and business stakeholders

Planning and Organising Resources

• Must be able to demonstrate experience of planning, prioritising and organising own workload on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, co-ordinating with others, ensuring customer needs and expectations are met, administrative tasks are completed punctually, and all documentation updated effectively

Challenging

• Be prepared to challenge the status quo and make suggestions for improvement.
• Be willing to voice an opinion on all matters whilst being receptive to feedback.

Pastoral Care and Welfare

• Must be able to demonstrate experience in managing customers in a variety of emotional states and potentially confrontational situations, as well of experience in guiding and supporting colleagues in similar situations

Time Management

• Well organised and able to prioritise tasks.
• Able to manage workload correctly with little supervision.

Knowledge and Experience

The Service Owner is not required to be highly technical, as the emphasis on the role is always to manage the team and the accountable services. However, the ability and desire to develop a technical understanding sufficient to be able to support your team, is essential.

• Excellent track record demonstrating effective Team Management, leadership and influencing skills.
• Evidence of an ability to manage supplier relationships, driving commercial value and the quality of services delivered by key suppliers.
• An ability to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders and communicate technical information at all levels.
• Keep abreast of current and emerging desktop technologies and be able to appreciate the support challenges for these; working with your team to develop strategies and plans to overcome these and incorporate learnings within the team’s BAU activities.
• Develop a base and good foundation of knowledge across multiple technologies including Operating Systems (Windows10 and MacOS), iVanti EPM, JAMF, Application Repackaging and Deployment, Citrix/VDI infrastructure, Active Directory, Organizational Unit design, Group Policy, DNS and DHCP covering Windows 10 etc.
• Experience and understanding of ITIL standards as well as Agile methodologies including Sprint, Scrum, Kanban, etc.

*Interviews and feedback for this role will commence on the 22nd of November* 

About Admiral

We're Wales’ only FTSE 100 company, with forward-thinking approaches and endless opportunities to test, learn and develop. Through innovation and organic growth, Admiral has evolved from a tiny startup into a multinational with a diverse product portfolio and a presence in eight countries.

There's a reason we are consistently named on the Sunday Times’ Best Companies to Work For: Our culture, core values, and commitment to diversity has created an environment where people share ideas, make an impact, and feel valued. Our philosophy is simple yet effective: “People who like what they do, do it better”.

Admiral people work hard to keep us at the top of the industry, and are rewarded for it — with competitive pay, great benefits, a share package based on company performance, a flexible work schedule, nearby fitness and health centres, and many other perks.

Salary, Benefits and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we're consistently voted one of Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here; https://admiraljobs.co.uk/employee-benefits/.

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