Fluid Water Group
Head of Information Technology
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About Fluid Water Group
Fluid Water Group is a family of market-leading brands, including Stuart Turner, Mikrofill and Dutypoint, delivering engineered water solutions such as pumps, booster sets, flow meter chambers and pressurisation units to customers across the UK and beyond. Our Guiding Principles are Focus, Win, Grow Together and these shape how work gets done at Fluid Water Group: concentrating on what matters, winning as a team, growing with purpose and doing these collaboratively.
PURPOSE OF ROLE
Role Overview
The Head of IT is a leadership position responsible for the delivery and continuous improvement of IT services across the Fluid Water Group. Reporting to the IT Directors, this role owns the relationship with our external IT Managed Service Provider (MSP), holds them to account for service performance, and leads the internal IT team.
This is a dual role: IT service owner and people manager (currently 3 direct reports). You will bring commercial rigour to vendor governance, operational discipline to service delivery, and a coaching mindset to team management. You will also act as the senior IT voice in Group-wide programmes — including our active ERP (Sage 200), CRM (Salesforce) and M365 consolidation initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
MSP Performance Management (Primary Focus)
- Own the end-to-end relationship with the IT MSP as the Group’s primary point of accountability for all managed services.
- Define, monitor and enforce SLAs, KPIs and OLAs across all support tiers; ensure contractual obligations are met.
- Chair regular service review meetings (monthly operational, quarterly strategic) with the MSP.
- Manage major incident escalations, ensuring timely resolution, root cause analysis and permanent remediation.
- Drive Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) plans, tracking actions and outcomes from service reviews.
- Manage contract renewals, scope changes and commercial negotiations; benchmark MSP performance against market alternatives.
- Maintain a risk register for IT services and report MSP performance to the IT Director.
- Coordinate between the MSP, internal IT team, and business stakeholders to ensure seamless service delivery across all sites and entities.
Team Management
- Line manage the internal IT staff, providing clear direction, support and accountability.
- Set individual objectives aligned to business priorities; conduct regular 1:1s and annual performance reviews.
- Identify training and development needs; build and execute personal development plans for all direct reports.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, ownership and high performance within the IT function.
- Lead recruitment activity when vacancies arise, including job scoping, interviewing and onboarding.
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IT Strategy & Governance
- Work with the IT Director to develop and maintain a rolling three-year IT roadmap, aligned to the Group’s growth strategy and 2028 ambition.
- Own the IT budget (capex and opex), including hardware, software, licensing, and MSP contract.
- Maintain the Group IT asset register, software licence compliance and renewal schedule.
- Establish and enforce IT policies, standards, procedures and acceptable use guidelines across all entities.
- Report to the IT Director on IT performance, risks and spend on a regular basis.
Infrastructure & Systems Oversight
- Maintain oversight of all Group IT infrastructure: on-premise servers, networking, cloud, connectivity and endpoints across all sites.
- Act as the escalation point for complex issues beyond first-line (MSP) and second-line (IT Support Analyst) resolution.
- Own the M365 tenant roadmap, governance framework and licensing strategy; oversee SharePoint, Teams, Exchange Online and Entra ID.
- Provide IT leadership for key Group systems: ERP (Sage 200 / EFACS), CRM (Salesforce) and associated integrations.
- Own the Group’s IT security posture: endpoint protection, backup and DR, cybersecurity awareness, and compliance with Cyber Essentials.
Vendor & Contract Management
- Manage all third-party IT vendor relationships: MSP, ERP/CRM vendors, connectivity, telephony, hardware and software suppliers.
- Maintain a contracts schedule with renewal dates and commercial review triggers; lead negotiations for value and quality.
- Evaluate new products and services against business need, fit and total cost of ownership.
IT Projects & Programme Delivery
- Lead IT workstreams within Group business programmes, including the active ERP implementation (Sage 200 + Sicon Manufacturing), Salesforce Sales Cloud rollout and M365 tenant consolidation.
- Manage IT project scope, resources, timelines and risks; provide regular progress reporting to programme sponsors.
- Ensure IT projects are delivered to agreed standards, on time and within budget.
Administrative / Other
- Ensure IT documentation, policies and process maps are maintained and accessible to relevant stakeholders.
- Any other duty that may reasonably be required by the CFO or Group Executive team.
Skills & Experience
Essential
- Proven track record of owning and managing an IT MSP relationship, including SLA/KPI governance, service reviews and contract management.
- Demonstrable experience of line managing IT staff, including objective-setting, performance management and development planning.
- Strong working knowledge of IT Service Management principles and frameworks (ITIL Foundation or above).
- Solid M365 administration experience: Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, Intune and licensing.
- Good working knowledge of Windows Server (2016+), Active Directory and networking fundamentals (LAN/WAN, VPN, DHCP, DNS).
- Experience of managing IT budgets and third-party vendor contracts, including commercial negotiation.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to present confidently to Board and senior leadership.
- Experience working in a multi-site or multi-entity business environment.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to interpret service data and drive action from it.
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Desirable
- ITIL v3 or v4 Foundation certification (or above).
- Experience with Sage 200 or similar ERP platforms.
- Salesforce or CRM platform knowledge.
- Familiarity with Cisco Meraki or equivalent networking hardware.
- Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks: Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus, or ISO 27001.
- Microsoft Azure or hybrid cloud environment experience.
- Project management qualification or experience (PRINCE2, Agile, MSP).
- Experience of sector-specific systems in manufacturing, distribution or engineering environments.
Key Competencies
- Leadership & People Development — builds high-performing teams, leads by example and holds people accountable with care.
- Commercial Acumen — understands contractual obligations, cost drivers and value; makes decisions with commercial rigour.
- Strategic Thinking — translates business goals into a coherent IT roadmap and acts with foresight.
- Vendor Accountability — confident in challenging third parties, escalating where needed and driving improvement.
- Communication & Influence — articulates technical concepts clearly to non-technical audiences; credible at all levels.
- Organisation & Prioritisation — manages multiple workstreams and competing priorities effectively without losing detail.
- Resilience & Adaptability — remains calm and effective under pressure; adapts to fast-changing business needs.
- Collaboration — works effectively across entities, disciplines and geographies to achieve shared outcomes.
For further information please contact Laura Emms on 07586 500502 or email me at Laura@curated.partners
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ROLE IS EXCLUSIVE TO CURATED PARTNERS. ALL THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS WILL BE FORWARDED ONTO CURATED PARTNERS
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