Oak Furnitureland is a beloved British furniture retailer with a passion for helping people create their dream homes. We are committed to providing exceptional quality and stylish furniture at accessible prices. As we continue to grow and evolve, we're seeking a talented and passionate IT Service Support Manager to join our growing IT team.
As our IT Service Support Manager, you will be at the heart of our technology operations. This isn't just about 'keeping the lights on'; it's about delivering a stable, predictable, and highly effective IT service that empowers every one of our colleagues to succeed. You will lead the Service Support function, owning and maturing the core processes that ensure our technology services are reliable, resilient, and continuously improving. Your leadership will directly impact the experience of our customers and the productivity of our teams across the whole organisation.
Beyond internal operations, you will act as the commercial steward for our IT partnerships. You will bridge the gap between technical requirements and business value by overseeing the entire lifecycle of our third‑party IT contracts. This includes ensuring that every agreement is commercially sound, legally safe, and performing at the high standards required to support Oak Furnitureland’s growth.
The position is located at our Swindon Head Office and we can offer hybrid working with 3 days in the office and 2 from home.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the Service Desk Team: You will manage, mentor, and develop our IT Service Desk team, fostering a culture of exceptional customer service, accountability, and technical excellence. You will drive team performance through key metrics (e.g. first contact resolution rate, ticket aging).
- Champion Service Management Excellence: You will be the owner and evangelist for our core service management processes. Through your team, you will ensure these functions are embedded, governed, and matured across the IT department:
- Incident Management: Oversee the process for restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible following an incident, ensuring your team minimises business impact and provides clear stakeholder communication.
- Problem Management: Drive the team to look beyond immediate fixes by leading Root Cause Analysis (RCA) on major and recurring incidents, identifying and driving the implementation of permanent solutions.
- Change Management: Play a pivotal part in our Change Management process by preparing and coordinating the agenda and content for the Change Advisory Board (CAB), ensuring all proposed changes are effectively documented and presented for assessment.
- Release Management: Work collaboratively with our development and infrastructure teams to enable your team to effectively support the planning and scheduling of releases into our live environments.
- Govern Our Technology Assets: You will be accountable for maintaining the definitive record of our IT landscape. Your team will manage and develop our IT service management system, ensuring it is the single source of truth for our IT services and assets, and will oversee the lifecycle of all IT hardware and software.
- Drive User Adoption and Capability: You will be a key driver in ensuring our colleagues get the most from our technology. By analysing trends in service desk requests, you will actively identify training needs and work in close partnership with:
- Our Organisational Development team to facilitate the creation of resources that improve user productivity and confidence with our core systems.
- Our Cyber Security team to champion and support initiatives that foster a culture of high security awareness and protection across the entire business.
- Third-Party Contract & Billing Management: Own the administrative and financial accuracy of IT vendor relationships, ensuring all billing aligns with contractual agreements and business usage.
- Risk & Compliance Collaboration: Partner closely with the Compliance and Legal teams to vet new contracts, ensuring they meet business safety standards and regulatory requirements before entry.
- Performance & SLA Monitoring: Actively monitor third-party performance against agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs), holding vendors accountable to ensure service continuity and quality.
- End-to-End Renewal Lifecycle: Lead the contract renewal process by engaging stakeholders to assess system value, obtaining competitive quotes, and coordinating with Legal/Compliance for any contractual amendments.
- Procurement Execution: Ensure all Purchase Orders (POs) and formal contractual documents are finalised and executed well in advance of contract expiry to prevent service disruption.
Skills & Experience
- Proven Leadership: Demonstrable experience managing and developing a technical support team within a fast‑paced, commercial environment.
- Strong ITSM Expertise: A deep, practical understanding of established IT service management frameworks and principles, and how to apply them pragmatically to deliver business value.
- Process-Driven Mindset: A track record of successfully maturing service management processes (Incident, Problem, Change, etc.) through a team-focused approach.
- Exceptional Communicator: The ability to engage with, and manage the expectations of, a wide range of stakeholders, from end‑users to senior business leaders. You can translate technical issues into business impact, and describe highly technical solutions to our internal customers in simple and understandable terms.
- Analytical & Decisive: You use data and KPIs to measure performance and drive continuous service improvement. You are comfortable making critical decisions under pressure, especially during major incidents.
- Technical Acumen: Demonstrable experience overseeing a modern, mixed‑OS (Windows 12, macOS, Android) technical environment, with strong administrative knowledge of Microsoft cloud services (Azure, Entra ID, Intune), practical experience with ITSM systems and MDM platforms (SOTI), and a working knowledge of AWS and Google Workspace.
- Retail Experience (Desirable): Experience within a multi‑channel retail environment (e‑commerce, physical stores) would be a significant advantage, giving you an immediate understanding of our unique challenges and priorities.
- Commercial & Vendor Management: Proven experience managing third‑party IT vendors, including SLA monitoring and contract lifecycle management within a commercial environment.
- Financial & Administrative Acumen: Strong understanding of IT procurement processes, budget tracking, and billing reconciliation.
- Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Ability to work effectively with Legal and Compliance teams to navigate complex contractual terms and mitigate business risk.
- Strategic Stakeholder Engagement: Experience consulting with business owners to determine the ongoing viability of technical systems and negotiating renewals based on those needs.
Benefits
- Employee discount: amazing discounts available on all Oak Furnitureland products after successful completion of probation
- Life assurance: free cover of a minimum of two times your annual salary up to the age of 65
- 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
- Birthday: an additional day off for you to celebrate your birthday
- Pension: 4% employee contribution matched by the company
- Employee Assistance Programme: gives all employees access to both telephone and face‑to‑face counselling services
- My Rewards Programme: offers discounts on everything from restaurants and supermarkets, to entertainment and holidays
- Free on‑site parking
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