Service Owner

Senior IT Service & Operations lead

£100,000-£110,000 + 25% bonus

Permanent

An established global insurance group is seeking a Senior IT Service & Operations lead to take accountability for the operational health and performance of business-critical applications within it's the Insurance business.

This is a high impact, standalone leadership role operating at a senior level and directly in the IT Director. You will act as the escalation point for major incidents, provide cross team service oversight, and ensure operational stability across multiple technology functions.

This is not a line management position. It is a senior service governance role requiring credibility, influence, and deep operational experience within an insurance carrier environment.

The Role

You will take ownership of the end-to-end service life cycle across a portfolio of in house built and vendor platforms, ensuring performance, resilience and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities include:

• Oversight of application service health, stability and cost control
• Monitoring ticket volumes, ageing, SLA/OLA adherence, and service KPIs
• Leading incident and problem governance, including root cause analysis
• Acting as escalation authority for high-severity incidents
• Ensuring effective change and release control with minimal production impact
• Partnering with Scrum Masters to embed Agile discipline within support environments
• Driving transparency through clear stakeholder reporting
• Holding third-party vendors accountable for contractual service obligations
• Representing the IT Director where required

You will operate across multiple established technology teams, providing oversight and challenge without direct line management responsibility.

What We Are Looking For

This role requires an experienced service leader. It is not a developmental step-up opportunity.

You will demonstrate:

• Proven experience as a Service Owner, Application Support Lead or similar within an insurance carrier
• Strong grounding in ITIL disciplines: Incident, Problem, Change and Release Management
• Experience overseeing both in-house applications and vendor platforms
• A track record of improving SLA performance and reducing service backlog
• Experience working within Agile environments and supporting Scrum-based delivery
• Vendor and outsourced supplier management capability
• Gravitas to influence senior stakeholders and Embedded technical managers
• Financial awareness and experience managing IT service budgets

You must be comfortable operating at senior level without direct reports, influencing laterally and driving accountability across established teams.

Why This Role?

• Senior-level autonomy and visibility
• Clear operational ownership across critical systems
• Exposure to enterprise-level stakeholders
• Strong remuneration and bonus structure
• Genuine second-in-command position

This is a strategic service execution role for someone who thrives on operational excellence, governance discipline and cross-functional leadership within a complex insurance technology environment.

For a confidential discussion, please get in touch.