JOB DESCRIPTION Job Title: Department/Division/Faculty: Campus location: Service Line Manager for [one of Education/Research/Business/Infrastructure] ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), South Kensington Campus (normally) Job Family/Level: Professional Services, level 6 Responsible to: Head of Service Strategy and Planning Line Management responsibility for: Matrix management of staff across ICT (including Change Delivery, Service Operations and Customer Services) responsible for delivery of the service line. Key Working Relationships (internal ICT): ICT Senior Management, Digital Partners, Service Line Architects, project and service teams. Key Working Relationships (internal College): Key Working Relationships (external): Contract type: Working Hours: Faculty Dean and Vice Deans, Faculty Operating Officer, Heads of Departments and senior academic and administrative personnel. Senior staff appropriate to business line (e.g. Vice Provost Education for the Education service line). External collaborators, Strategic and Tactical Suppliers. full-time permanent Not normally less than 35 hours per week Background Imperial College provides world class scholarship, education and research in science, engineering, management and medicine. This world-leading status is built on excellence, innovation and multidisciplinary working. It is within this dynamic context that the Information, Communication and Technologies (ICT) department works to deliver innovative solutions and resilient services. ICT s stakeholders include students from 125 countries, academic and research staff, central services staff, NHS Trust users, prospective students and alumni, and visitors to College s campus and website. The key focus of ICT s strategy is to ensure College success by delivering change and enabling transformation in response to evolving customer needs. 1
To meet this challenge, ICT has developed service lines. Education, to support our teaching and learning needs; Research, to support our world leading research; Business Support, to automate supporting business processes and Infrastructure. Together the service lines will deliver the College demands for excellence. Purpose of the Post This role is fundamental to ICT ensuring that ICT delivers, now and in the future, the IT services appropriate to the service line that are vital to the College business and achieving the College strategy. The Service Line Manager is responsible for ensuring that the users have an evolving service optimised to meet their developing needs in the most effective way to provide maximum value for College as a whole. Service Line Managers are responsible for ensuring the quality of the end to end ICT service line, service line strategy, portfolio management and road maps. Emerging market trends digital opportunities and threats must be understood in the context of the service line. The Service Line manager is responsible for the service line budget (in excess of 1m) used to deliver the appropriate services. The post-holder will also be responsible for the matrix management of a wide and diverse spectrum of customer service staff, from highly strategic and visionary, to highly technical and operational. The post-holder will demonstrate a wide mix of communications skills and leadership abilities across a diverse range of people and services across their service line accountability. Service Line Managers are highly skilled IT professionals whose technical expertise will be engaged in understanding the business needs of stakeholders across Academic Departments and Support Services, translating them and assembling an appropriate service response. Service Line Managers will be responsible for planning and executing change including coordinating its execution. The post holder must be capable of gaining the respect and of influencing Board Level representatives. Digital transformation capability is one of five core ICT strategic themes and the post holder will be responsible for the delivery of this transformation in their service line as well as being a major contributor to others. Key Responsibilities Key responsibilities and person specifications incorporate skills and attributes from the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) competency framework. The main duties of the post will include: Analysis, Reporting & Documentation Work with Digital Partners and senior stakeholders to define appropriate service levels and establish agreement on measures and targets over multiple years for the service line. Provides analysis of risks, benefits and opportunities arising in the areas covered. Customer Service Provide leadership for all major programmes and projects of change and technology deployment in area of responsibility Set service delivery goals, overall priorities and success measures. Responsible for the full lifecycle of products and services across the service line. Ensures service deliverables are to agreed standard of quality and within specified constraints of time and costs. Set objectives and monitor the delivery of the overall end user experience and accountable for ensuring that appropriate levels of training provision are available to ensure adoption of the services within the service line. 2
Acts to ensure that customers are offered products and services in line with the strategy. Manages colleagues in their dealings with customers; initiates procedures to improve services to, and relationships with customers. Oversees the management and planning of business opportunities. Influences the development and enhancement of services, products and systems. Planning & Organising Design, implement and maintain policies, plans and standards relating to service line activities and deliverables over a multi-year time horizon. Leading the service line strategy and contributing to the overall ICT Strategy and vision. Able to relate the scale of service line changes and importance of the challenges ahead to the existing organisational capabilities and resources and identify potential gaps or blocks. Work with Digital Partners, Service Line Architects, service specialists and service users to understand trends and how technology advances might enhance the service line; develop and evangelise the integrated service line vision. Identifies and resolves change in scope to a beneficial and acceptable outcome through controlled change management processes in line with Digital Partners expectations. Manage service line changes and project inter-dependencies across departments and project streams. Plans, directs, and co-ordinates activities to manage and implement a programme of change from contract /proposal initiation to final operational stage; plans, schedules, monitors, and reports on activities related to the programme. Ensures that programmes are managed to realise business benefits and that programme management is informed by an awareness of current technical developments. For the service line sets the strategic direction and takes responsibility for the full range of customer service functions, including organisational frameworks for feedback, complaints, service standards and operational agreements. Defines service levels, standards and the monitoring process for customer service staff. Gives technical leadership to operational staff, and takes responsibility for business continuity and legal compliance. Leads the definition of a portfolio of change and the portfolio roadmap. Engages and influences senior managers to ensure the portfolio will deliver the agreed business objectives. Plans, schedules, monitors and reports on activities related to the portfolio to ensure that each part of the portfolio contributes to the overall achievement of the portfolio. Identifies issues with portfolio structure, cost, risk, inter-dependencies, impact on current business activities and the strategic benefits to be realised. Notifies projects / programmes / change initiatives of issues and recommends and monitors corrective action. Reports on portfolio status as appropriate. Finance/Resource Management Responsible for the Service Line budget ( 1million+) and resource allocation for the service line services and projects. Negotiates at senior level on technical and commercial issues, to ensure that customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders understand and agree what will meet their needs, and that appropriate service level agreements are defined and that College achieves value for money. Provide overall direction and leadership to relevant service line virtual group. Ensures that a catalogue of available services is created and maintained and that service level agreements are complete and cost effective. Ensures that service delivery is monitored effectively and that identified actions to maintain or improve levels of service are implemented. Ensures that operational methods, procedures, facilities and tools are established, reviewed and maintained. Negotiates with relevant parties in respect of disruptions and major amendments to the provision of services. Reviews service delivery to ensure that agreed targets are met and prepares proposals to meet forecast changes in the level or type of service. 3
Liaison Works with Digital Partners and other senior ICT managers to identify opportunities and their longer-term IT needs, whilst understanding the overall College strategy and objectives, the needs of Faculty and Administrative Divisions Forges and maintains excellent working relationships with Service Owners, Digital Partners, other Service Line Managers, Planning and Development, Service Operations and Customer Services teams in order to realise business benefits within acceptable timescales. Overcome obstacles and resolve conflicts to push through delivery and change. Understands and identifies the major challenges ahead and has the ability to confidently network with team and key senior College staff, as well as experts in their field. Liaise with Customers to communicate and evangelise the service line service offerings. Actively participate in and develop relationships external to College especially with similar organisations to identify trends and developments to support development of service line both in IT and the subject of the service line. Represents ICT on relevant College and external committees and forums. Undertakes effective strategic and tactical supplier relationship management. Management Provides significant input to the annual planning round making the case for the appropriate service line budget. Direct and motivate delivery teams, ensuring that all deliverables are met, including quality criteria. Ensure the development of team members to their full potential. Responsible for management of complete Service Line via matrix management of teams and staff in other sections of ICT, Development, Operations and Customer Service is effective. Continuous Improvement Actively monitors for, and seeks, opportunities, new methods and trends in IT capabilities and products to the advancement of the organisation. Clearly articulates, and formally reports their benefits in area of responsibility. Continual self-development to be informed of technological, legal and operational changes that facilitate innovation or may impact the service and it s strategically development in area of responsibility. Continuously seeks feedback on and monitors the service, continually striving for excellence in the delivery of the service line provision. Recognises potential strategic application of IT, and initiates investigation and development of innovative methods of exploiting IT assets, to the benefit of organisations and the community. Plays an active role in improving the interface between the business and IT. Works with other senior ICT managers to identify opportunities for improving the ICT service to its customers. Other Duties To observe and comply with all College policies and regulations, including the key policies and procedures on Confidentiality, Conflict of Interest, Business Continuity, Data Protection, Equal Opportunities, Ethics related, External Interests, Financial Regulations, Health and Safety, Imperial Expectations (for new leaders, managers and supervisors), Information Technology, and Smoking. To undertake specific safety responsibilities relevant to individual roles, as set out on the College Health and Safety Structure and Responsibilities web page: www.imperial.ac.uk/safety/policies/organisationandarrangements. To undertake Business Continuity responsibilities relevant to individual roles 4
Job descriptions cannot be exhaustive and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities. Imperial College London is committed to equality and valuing diversity. 5
PERSON SPECIFICATION Candidates/postholders will be expected to demonstrate the following: Criteria Essential/ Desirable (E/D) Measured by (Application form/ /Test) Knowledge Educated to at least degree level and preferably post E Application graduate. (Or equivalent experience) Project Management qualification D Application Demonstrable understanding and preferably experience from within the Information, Communication and Technology sector. Understanding of the management of transformational complexity and change. Knowledge of particular service line (Education/Research/Business/Infrastructure) business Knowledge of programme or project management processes and service management (ITIL, Agile, Prince, MSP) Skills Ability to oversee and implement new strategies and vision Strong leadership and management skills Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to interact at all levels, and a proactive, driven approach Adept at working with broad direction, taking an autonomous approach to meet business objectives Ability to create innovative solutions and practical implementation for strategic change Ability to influence and manage the expectations of others Ability to engage with internal and external stakeholders, gain their confidence and persuade them to cooperate with initiatives where required Demonstrable ability to manage risk. Well-developed team skills to foster collective ownership and purpose Experience 6
Extensive IT work experience and substantial experience of managing service delivery and customer interaction. Experience of project programme delivery discipline. Budgeting and financial management experience A team-player with demonstrable experience in driving forward collaborative efforts across multiple teams Demonstrable experience of making decisions which impact the success of assigned projects i.e. results, deadlines and budget. Demonstrate leadership, ensuring all virtual team members continue to develop and strengthen skill sets and deliver an excellent customer service Ability to drive process improvement to continually improve service and reduce costs. Experience of matrix and virtual management across teams Experience of working within a Higher Education environment Experience of working within a customer service environment Other Requirements Self-motivated professional able to work in a fast-paced and constantly changing environment. Imperial Expectations These are the 7 principles that Imperial leaders, managers and supervisors are expected to follow: 1) Champion a positive approach to change and opportunity 2) Communicate regularly and effectively within, and across, teams 3) Consider the thoughts and expectations of others 4) Deliver positive outcomes 5) Encourage inclusive participation and eliminate discrimination 6) Support and develop staff to optimise talent 7) Work in a planned and managed way 7