Head of Service Operations

The role
The Head of IT Service Management is accountable for leading IT service management practices across Group IT and ensuring that internal teams and external vendors consistently operate against agreed ITIL-based frameworks, controls, and performance expectations.
The role leads the ITIL practice leads and owns the integrated service management improvement agenda, ensuring practices are well defined, adopted, trained, measured, reported, audited, and continuously improved.
The role is responsible for driving end-to-end operational stability, incident reduction, major incident management, change management, problem management and root cause analysis, knowledge management, service request management, continual service improvement, and Group IT operational reporting.
The role is Singapore based to align with the Group IT Operations leadership hub in STC and SJPS, enabling daily senior-level engagement, faster operational decisions, and stronger coordination across vendors, internal IT teams, and ITIL practice governance.

Key Accountabilities
1. IT Service Management Leadership and Governance
The Head of IT Service Management is accountable for the overall effectiveness, adoption, and maturity of IT service management practices across Group IT.
Responsibilities include:

• Lead the ITIL practice leads and provide clear direction, prioritisation, coaching, and performance expectations.
• Own the IT service management governance model, standards, practice roadmap, and improvement agenda.
• Ensure ITSM practices are aligned to business priorities, operational risk, audit expectations, and Group IT strategy.
• Establish governance forums to review service performance, practice adoption, risks, issues, and improvement progress.
• Act as the senior escalation point for ITSM practice risks, maturity gaps, governance failures, and cross-team process issues.
• Ensure ITSM practices operate as an integrated service management system rather than isolated processes.

2. ITIL Framework Adoption Across Vendors and Internal Teams
Ensure all vendors, managed service providers, and internal IT teams operate consistently against agreed ITIL-based ways of working.
Responsibilities include:

• Define the expected ITIL-based standards, controls, behaviours, and process obligations for vendors and internal teams.
• Govern compliance with major incident, incident, request, problem, change, knowledge, and continual improvement practices.
• Challenge process drift, inconsistent adoption, poor quality data, weak handoffs, and unclear ownership across teams and suppliers.
• Ensure process requirements are embedded into supplier governance, service reviews, contracts, operational reporting, and onboarding.
• Drive consistency of ITSM execution across regions, technology domains, service towers, and delivery partners.
• Hold teams and suppliers accountable for service management performance, quality, and evidence.

3. Operational Stability, Incident Reduction and Service Improvement
Own the end-to-end agenda for reducing operational disruption and improving service stability.
Responsibilities include:

• Define and lead the service stability and incident reduction roadmap across Group IT.
• Use incident trends, major incident themes, root cause data, change failure data, user impact, and operational reporting to identify priorities.
• Drive cross-functional improvement actions that reduce recurring incidents, repeat failures, avoidable escalations, and service disruption.
• Ensure problem management and root cause analysis outputs convert into measurable improvement and risk reduction.
• Partner with service owners, platform owners, engineering teams, operations teams, and vendors to address systemic service weaknesses.
• Report progress against stability, reduction, and improvement objectives to senior IT leadership.

4. Group IT Operational Reporting and Performance Insight
Own the operational reporting capability required to give Group IT accurate, trusted, and actionable service performance insight.
Responsibilities include:

• Define and govern the Group IT operational reporting framework, performance measures, and reporting calendar.
• Ensure operational reporting covers service performance, major incidents, change performance, incident trends, request performance, problem progress, knowledge adoption, vendor performance, and improvement activity.
• Improve data quality, reporting consistency, and narrative insight across operational reports.
• Provide executive-level reporting that highlights risks, trends, decisions required, and improvement priorities.
• Ensure reporting drives better action, accountability, and service outcomes rather than passive measurement.
• Partner with analytics, ServiceNow, process owners, service owners, and supplier teams to improve reporting automation and accuracy.

5. Major Incident Management, Change Management and Core Practice Oversight
Provide leadership oversight for critical ITSM practices that directly protect service stability and business confidence.
Responsibilities include:

• Oversee major incident management to ensure fast mobilisation, clear communication, effective coordination, and timely service restoration.
• Oversee change management to ensure changes are risk assessed, controlled, communicated, and delivered with minimal business disruption.
• Oversee problem management and root cause analysis to ensure repeated issues are understood and permanent corrective actions are delivered.
• Oversee knowledge management to improve self-service, support quality, faster resolution, and consistent service delivery.
• Oversee service request and continual service improvement practices to improve efficiency, experience, automation, and operational quality.
• Ensure each ITIL practice has clear ownership, standards, measures, governance, training, and maturity plans.

6. Training, Adoption and Capability Development
Ensure teams and suppliers understand how to operate effectively within the Group IT service management framework.
Responsibilities include:

• Own the ITSM training and adoption strategy for internal teams, vendors, and operational stakeholders.
• Ensure clear training content, process guidance, role expectations, quick reference material, and onboarding assets are available and maintained.
• Drive adoption campaigns for key practices, controls, tools, and behavioural expectations.
• Ensure training is practical, role-based, and focused on improving service outcomes rather than process theory alone.
• Measure training completion, adoption effectiveness, process compliance, and behavioural improvement.
• Build service management capability across IT through coaching, communities of practice, governance forums, and targeted interventions.

7. Risk, Audit, Compliance and Continual Improvement
Ensure IT service management practices are auditable, controlled, risk-aware, and continuously improved.
Responsibilities include:

• Maintain visibility of ITSM risks, control gaps, audit findings, and process maturity weaknesses.
• Ensure appropriate process evidence, controls, and governance records are available for audit and compliance reviews.
• Drive remediation of audit findings, control weaknesses, and recurring process failures.
• Maintain a continual improvement roadmap across ITSM practices and operational reporting.
• Promote automation, simplification, standardisation, and proactive risk reduction across service management.
• Provide clear recommendations to senior leadership on where investment, decision making, or enforcement is required.

Key Responsibilities
The Head of IT Service Management will:

• Operate from Singapore to mirror other Group IT Operations “Heads of” roles and maintain daily alignment with senior Group IT stakeholders based in STC and SJPS.
• Lead the ITIL practice leads and set the direction for IT service management across Group IT.
• Own the ITSM governance model, practice standards, maturity roadmap