Director of Service Operations - Global Tech Ops, Tier 1 Vendors, AI & Automation - £145,000 - £180,000 + 40% bonus + 40% equity
A global leader in digital entertainment and online gaming is seeking a Director of Service Operations to drive service excellence and technology vendor strategy across its central technology function and shared services.
Operating at huge scale across multiple brands and regions, this organisation runs high-volume betting and gaming platforms where downtime directly impacts revenue. They now need a strategic service operations leader to shift from reactive management to a proactive, data-driven, automation-led model.
Director of Service Operations role:
Reporting into the Group Director of Technology Operations, you’ll own the global service operations strategy across group functions and shared platforms. You'll lead a c.25-person organisation via senior reports (Head of IT Service Management, Head of Tech Supplier Management, Service Transformation & Change Lead), with direct accountability for operational excellence and tier 1 technology vendors (including a major cloud hyperscaler contract).
You’ll blend strategic leadership with enough technical depth to drive AI, automation and service transformation, influencing senior stakeholders in a complex, federated, multi-brand environment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Define and execute a multi-year service operations strategy aligned to commercial and product goals.
- Lead large-scale service transformation across incident, problem, change and service governance.
- Own performance for core shared platforms, reducing revenue-impacting incidents and improving SLAs/KPIs.
- Drive AI and automation initiatives to optimise processes and unlock operational efficiency.
- Own strategy and performance for tier 1 technology vendors, including a large, multi-year cloud contract.
- Partner with C-suite and senior stakeholders across brands, tech hubs and functions, influencing without formal authority.
- Lead and develop a senior leadership layer across service management, supplier management and service transformation.
Requirements:
- 10+ years in service operations, IT service management or technology vendor management in a global, matrixed organisation.
- 7+ years' senior leadership experience managing global teams and major technology vendors.
- Proven track record delivering large-scale service transformation with clear commercial outcomes.
- Strong ITIL/ITSM grounding and experience with cloud environments (ideally AWS) and digital platforms.
- Demonstrated tier 1 vendor management experience (multi-year, multi-million contracts).
- Credible communicator with experience influencing at Executive / C-suite level in a federated, fast-changing environment.
- Understanding of AI, automation and process optimisation and how to apply them in operations.
Are you a senior service operations leader ready to define how a global entertainment group protects revenue, scales its platforms and transforms operations through AI and world‑class vendor strategy?
Director of Service Operations - Global Tech Ops, Tier 1 Vendors, AI & Automation - £145,000 - £180,000 + 40% bonus + 40% equity
Burns Sheehan Ltd will consider applications based only on skills and ability and will not discriminate on any grounds.
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