Service Readiness Manager

Ref: BBBH68081_1787755857

Service Readiness Manager – SC Cleared

Whitehall Resources currently require an experienced Service Readiness Manager to work with a key client

**Please note this role falls INSIDE IR35 and requires SC Clearance Eligibility**

Role Purpose
The Service Readiness Manager is responsible for ensuring that new and changed services are fully prepared for deployment into live operation and support. Acting as the focal point between delivery teams, operational support teams, suppliers, and business stakeholders, the role provides governance and assurance that services meet agreed quality, security, supportability, and operational readiness requirements before go-live.
The role is accountable for coordinating release readiness, service transition activities, defect management, operational acceptance, and post-live stabilisation, ensuring services can be transitioned safely into Business as Usual (BAU) operation with minimal risk to service users and operational teams.

Key Responsibilities:

Service Readiness & Operational Acceptance
* Define and maintain Service Readiness and Operational Acceptance criteria for programme releases.
* Assess readiness across people, process, technology, security, support, service management and operational processes.
* Coordinate Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) activities.
* Ensure support teams have the capability, knowledge, documentation and tooling required to operate the service.
* Facilitate readiness reviews and provide recommendations to governance boards regarding deployment decisions.

Release Management
* Develop and maintain release schedules across multiple delivery teams and suppliers.
* Coordinate deployment planning and release governance activities.
* Manage dependencies, deployment risks and release conflicts.
* Ensure release approvals are obtained through agreed governance processes.
* Support deployment planning, go-live activities and rollback planning.

Defect Management
* Establish and maintain defect management processes and governance.
* Chair defect triage meetings and manage prioritisation of defects.
* Provide visibility of defect trends, risks and remediation progress.
* Escalate critical defects impacting service readiness or live operation.
* Ensure agreed defect thresholds are met before production deployment.

Service Transition
* Coordinate transition activities between delivery and operational teams.
* Ensure transition plans are developed, maintained and executed.
* Verify service support models, processes and SLAs are in place.
* Ensure service documentation, runbooks and knowledge articles are complete and approved.
* Support supplier onboarding and transition activities.

Hypercare & Stabilisation
* Coordinate early life support and hypercare activities.
* Monitor service performance and defect resolution during stabilisation periods.
* Ensure ownership for outstanding issues is agreed before transition to BAU support.
* Produce lessons learned and improvement recommendations.

Risk & Governance
* Maintain readiness dashboards and reporting.
* Identify and manage service readiness risks and issues.
* Present readiness recommendations to Programme Boards, Design Authorities and Service Acceptance Boards.
* Support audit, compliance and assurance reviews.

Skills & Experience
* Experience delivering large-scale digital, data or technology programmes.
* Experience of Release Management, Service Transition and Operational Readiness.
* Strong knowledge of defect management and quality assurance practices.
* Experience working with multiple suppliers and delivery partners.
* Strong stakeholder management and governance experience.
* Experience presenting recommendations to senior leadership.
* Understanding of Agile, Scrum and DevOps delivery approaches.
* Experience using service management tooling including ServiceNow and Jira
* Strong analytical, planning and risk management skills.

Desirable
* ITIL Foundation or higher.
* Experience in UK Government digital services.
* Experience working in highly regulated environments.
* Knowledge of Government Service Standard and service assessments.
* Experience supporting cloud-based services (AWS).
* Knowledge of cyber security and operational resilience requirements.

All of our opportunities require that applicants are eligible to work in the specified country/location, unless otherwise stated in the job description.

Whitehall Resources are an equal opportunities employer who value a diverse and inclusive working environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, pregnancy, disability, age, veteran status, or other characteristics.

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