This role is an exciting opportunity for an innovative and forward-thinking IT Manager to lead our IT department and ensure the seamless delivery of all IT services, supporting our engineering teams and business operations. The IT Manager is responsible for overseeing all aspects of IT service delivery, including helpdesk support, infrastructure management (both on-premises and cloud), application support, and specialised engineering IT support. This role requires a strategic mindset to keep the company at the forefront of current and emerging technologies. The IT Manager will also manage budgets and develop the IT roadmap to align with the company's goals and technological advancements.

Key Tasks

Team Leadership:

·         Lead and manage the department: includes all line management activities throughout the employee life cycle; recruitment, performance, development & mentoring, PDR’s, wellbeing.

·         Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and business outcomes focus.

·         Ensure there is a clear understanding of the skillsets, capability, and resourcing required to deliver the IT Service across the business including services, engineering, production and satellite missions.

·         Ensure that the department’s current and forward planning of workload is fully scoped and managed. Proactively resolve issues such as resource limitations, potential resource clashes, and changing business requirements.

IT Service Management:

·         Develop and maintain the IT strategy and roadmaps aligned with business goals, set budgets for the delivery and improvement of services, ensure good financial control and reporting of expenditure.

·         Act as a senior technology advisor to stakeholders and leadership, providing regular reports to senior leadership team.

·         Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and customer focus.

·         Ensure the availability, performance, reliability, security and scalability of all IT systems, networks, applications, and services on-premises and cloud based.

·         Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards (e.g. GDPR, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus).

·         Ensure that all services and applications delivered to the business are licenced and up to date.

·         Ensure high-quality IT support and customer-focused service delivery based on ITL good practice.

Out of Hours Service Provision:

·         Ensure effective communication during out-of-hours operations and service calls, coordinating issue resolution with on-call staff, users and stakeholders.

Stakeholder Management:

·         Collaborate with internal stakeholders (projects, engineering, production, sales) to align on service delivery objectives and priorities.

·         Conduct regular reviews to assess service performance and identify improvement areas. Reports to be issued in advance of customer meetings, demonstrating performance against KPI’s, SLA’s and contractual obligations.

Risk and Incident Management:

·         Develop and maintain risk management strategies to mitigate potential service disruptions.

·         Lead incident response efforts, ensuring timely resolution, minimal impact on operations, and timely communication to the business and key stakeholders.

·         Ensure that performance deviations and system outages are dealt with in a timely and efficient manner and within the defined and agreed service levels.

Continuous Improvement:

·         Continuously evaluate and improve service delivery processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

·         Identify opportunities to improve the service, based emerging technology and best practices to drive operational excellence and refine service offerings based on business requirements.

·         Oversee the management of IT projects from initiation to delivery.

Bids, Proposals & Contract Management:

·         Provide technical and commercial inputs to proposals for new missions.

·         Initiate, develop, and negotiate customer contracts and contract extension proposals to ensure service continuity.

·         Work with Commercial and Compliance teams to ensure services comply with contractual and security obligations.

·         Manage relationships with vendors, MSPs, and third-party suppliers, negotiating service levels.

Previous Experience

·         Proven experience within an IT Manager role.

·         Experience managing budgets, vendors and projects.

·         Experience of managing hybrid environments.

Qualifications Knowledge & Skills

·         Degree in Computing/Information Security or equivalent

·         ITIL, CISA, CISSP an advantage but not necessary

·         Must be able to attain and hold National Security Vetting to a minimum SC level.

·         A strong technical background in information Technology.

·         Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to motivate, develop, mentor, collaborate, and inspire teams.

·         Strategic thinker with the ability to handle day-to-day challenges effectively.

·         Clear and persuasive communicator with excellent interpersonal and written skills. Able to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences and influence and persuade

·         Highly organised, with expertise in project/time management and resolving conflicting priorities under pressure.

·         Proficient in ITIL frameworks and service management tools/technologies.

·         Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.

·         Results-driven, adaptable, and able to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced environments.

·         Skilled in customer engagement, anticipating needs, and managing technical relationships.

·         Proven experience in resource management, budgeting, and meeting schedules.

·         Detail-oriented with strong collaboration and problem-solving skills.

·         Demonstrates company values: accountability, teamwork, customer focus, and innovation.

·         Knowledge of incident management and problem-solving methodologies

·         Ability to see technology as an enabler, not a blocker, to the business

Location

·         The role is based in our Head Office in Guildford but we support hybrid working and a range of flexible working options