Service Operations Director

Reports to:

VP, Operations

Location:

London, with frequent national and international travel.

Main purpose and scope of job:

The main purpose of the Service Operations Director role is to ensure the customer relationship and expected outcomes are delivered through four main purposes:

• Ensure that new customer onboarding, and customer contracted deliverables and SLAs are visible, internal systems and processes are developed to ensure those SLAs are met, with supporting OLAs where required.
• Own the Service Operations strategy, manage and direct internal and outsourced resources to ensure that the processes and procedures supporting the end-to-end customer service journey and the associated service management wrap is defined, implemented, monitored and reported on, and that it constantly evolves to exceed our customer requirements.
• Working closely with the peer group of technical, quality, security, compliance and health and safety colleagues, ensure these capabilities are visible and showcased to our customers and that a continuous improvement cycles are in place.
• Motivate and support the site and country-based colleagues, which may be Polar employees or outsourced partners, to deliver customer centric outcomes and be sensitive and responsive to customer requirements.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Provide leadership and ownership of the following key duties:
• Perform the Process Owner role for the Service Operations processes: service delivery (request fulfilment, service design, implementation) and service management.
• Ensure the operations processes are produced, approved, trained, deployed, monitored and improved on an ongoing basis, utilising the Process Managers and Process Practitioners as appropriate.
• Through the processes, employ a standard approach to templates, documentation, procedures, work instructions with the goal of a company standard approach to Service Operations.
• Ensure that key performance indicators, goal setting and objectives are in place for the processes and performance of Service Operations, monitor and report on all defined metrics, evaluate outliers and trends, and investigate and orchestrate the appropriate responses.
• Ensure that SLAs and KPIs for both customer contracts and outsourced partner contracts are understood, visible, monitored, and achieved at all locations, evaluate outliers and trends, and investigate and orchestrate the appropriate responses.
• Report on the status, performance, SLAs and KPIs, and compliance initiatives relating to the Service Operations function and regularly present to customers and Polar Management.
• Manage relationships with strategic customers, work closely with the commercial sales teams to form an account management plan and service wrap. Grow, nurture and build close peer to peer customer relationships. Proactively engage customers to understand their business; their internal operating models and their value propositions, solutions and products. Share this knowledge internally and structure relevant processes or initiatives to ensure Polar stays relevant to customer needs.
• Work closely with group level peers, manage outsourced partners including facilities management, vendor service teams and specialist contractors to ensure these teams embody the Polar approach to service delivery.
• Support the identification, creation and deployment of new or adjusted SLAs and KPIs.
• Build and foster a mentality of service excellence, customer satisfaction and the developing and sharing of knowledge and best practice across the site teams.
• Take a feedback loop through customer surveys or meetings to challenge, iterate and improve our product and service catalogue. Build a management and development forum with technical and acquisition colleagues.
• Work closely with the procurement team to establish, implement and manage strategic supply chain relationships and develop standard product sets to drive consistency and best pricing for all sites and countries.
• Manage colleagues about the Service Operations function. Manage the Service Operations functional expenditure budget. Provide data and analysis to facilitate recruitment trigger points for mapping resources to customers, as part of our customer service wrap and service management plan.
• Lead the evolution of Polar’s data centre acceptance philosophy, acting as the Service Operations and customer representative. Own customer handover and go live obligations and ensure expectations are fully integrated and met.
• Provide customer input, or support delegated roles, on service operations aspects of design and construction projects, including topics such as customer specific design and implementation requirement, including demarcation aspects.
• Provide support to the Sales, Design and Construction teams during bid, contract negotiation.
• Ensure contractual obligations are made visible and managed to all relevant teams during post-sale stages.
• Act as Service Operations and customer representative on site expansion projects.
• Own the identification and management of risks to existing customers, ensure communications are proactively managed, and hold accountability for service continuity throughout project delivery.
• Own the Service Operations workstream during M&A activity. Assess customer growth plans, evaluate service delivery implications of acquisitions, and ensure customer commitments are aligned to Polar targets.
• Produce and maintain the group level strategic vision for Service Operations. As part of the management team, promote (internally and with our customers) the strategic direction over all timeframes.
• Engage with stakeholders to ensure the Service Operations strategy supports the business, including representation in forums, industry groups and events.
• As a key member of the management team, report to VP Operations, and support the executive team as required.
• Ensure opex and relevant capex budgets are spent efficiently and prudently.
• Present to management, investor, and board meetings as required. Prepare and deliver board report material covering Service Operations performance, customer status, and strategic initiatives.
• Own Polar’s Service Operations contribution to the ESG agenda, including the recording and publication of initiative achievements and measurables.
• Lead Service Operations input into bid support activities. Present to prospective customers as required, ensuring commercial and operational commitments are clearly defined.
• Take part in engagement activities with local communities, municipalities and educational establishments as part of Polar’s approach to being a friendly and relevant member of the communities in which our facilities are located. This includes engaging with members of the public, local politicians and dignitaries.
• Participate in major incident response as required, liaison with customer and supplier teams, and contribution to or leadership of root cause analysis.