Modular Data
IT Operations Lead (Project based) - Security Cleared (SC) (contract)
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About Us
We are a technology solutions provider specialising in the public sector. Our mission is to help government organisations become truly data-driven by transforming their digital services, streamlining operational processes, improving citizen outcomes, and enhancing transparency across public services.
We work closely with government bodies to design and deliver modern, secure, and scalable digital solutions that have real-world impact.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced IT Operations Lead who holds current Security Clearance (SC) on a contract basis to lead the operational management and support of a live data product supporting a central government client.
You will be accountable for the end-to-end operation of the live service, ensuring the stability, availability, security, and performance of the platform while leading Service Desk operations, IT operational processes, and release management activities. You will act as the primary escalation point for operational issues, major incidents, service requests, access management, and service performance, ensuring high-quality support outcomes within an ITIL-aligned environment.
You will take ownership of the production environment, overseeing incident, problem, change, and release management, whilst proactively monitoring system health, service availability, operational risks, and capacity. Working closely with cross-functional technical teams including Data Engineers, Software Developers, Platform Engineers, DevOps teams, and third-party suppliers, you will coordinate operational activities to ensure services remain resilient, secure, and continuously available.
As IT Operations Lead, you will play a key role in maintaining operational readiness and driving continual service improvement. You will identify opportunities to enhance service reliability, streamline operational processes, improve automation, and optimise support practices to deliver a highly effective live service.
A key aspect of the role is proactive stakeholder management. You will build and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders, client representatives, delivery teams, senior leadership, and third-party suppliers. You will provide regular operational reporting, communicating service performance, operational risks, system health, release readiness, and improvement initiatives, ensuring services remain aligned with business priorities, contractual obligations, and government security standards.
The successful candidate will bring strong operational experience within complex technical environments. They will be capable of owning IT operations end-to-end, including Service Desk management, operational resilience, release management, service performance, stakeholder engagement, and continual service improvement.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the day-to-day delivery of IT Operations, ensuring the stability, availability, security, and performance of live services in line with agreed SLAs, KPIs, and operational objectives.
- Oversee Service Desk operations, ensuring the effective management of incidents, service requests, problems, access management, and operational support activities through to successful resolution.
- Act as the operational lead and primary escalation point for major incidents, coordinating cross-functional technical teams to restore service quickly, minimise business impact, and drive post-incident reviews.
- Monitor and maintain system health, service availability, operational resilience, capacity, and performance, proactively identifying and resolving risks before they impact service delivery.
- Plan, coordinate, and oversee release and deployment activities, working closely with engineering, platform, and delivery teams to ensure successful implementation with minimal operational disruption.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with client stakeholders, delivery teams, and senior leadership, providing clear communication on operational performance, risks, releases, and service improvements.
- Produce and present regular operational reporting, including service metrics, SLA and KPI performance, system health, operational risks, and continual improvement initiatives.
- Drive continual service improvement by analysing operational trends, identifying root causes, implementing process improvements, and promoting automation and operational efficiencies.
- Maintain and continuously improve operational documentation, knowledge management, support procedures, runbooks, and service standards to ensure operational readiness and resilience.
- Identify, manage, and mitigate operational risks throughout the service lifecycle, ensuring appropriate governance, escalation, and business continuity planning.
- Lead, mentor, and develop the nascent operations team and wider operational support function, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, customer focus, and continuous improvement.
- Collaborate with Data Engineers, Software Developers, Platform Engineers, DevOps teams, and third-party suppliers to ensure the successful operation, support, and continuous enhancement of the live service.
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Essential Skills & Experience
You must have demonstrable, hands-on experience of:
- Proven experience in IT Operations or Service Management functions within complex technical, cloud, or data-driven environments.
- Experience owning the operational management of cloud-hosted platforms and services, ensuring high availability, resilience, system health, performance, and operational readiness.
- Strong operational leadership with experience managing Service Desk functions alongside wider IT Operations and live service support.
- Experience planning, coordinating, and governing release and deployment activities, ensuring successful delivery with minimal operational disruption.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across business, technical, supplier, client, and senior leadership teams.
- Knowledge of operational governance, service resilience, capacity management, risk management, business continuity, and operational support best practices.
- Experience using IT Service Management (ITSM) tools (e.g. ServiceNow, Jira Service Management, BMC Remedy, or equivalent) to manage operational support, service delivery, and reporting.
- Strong analytical and reporting skills, with experience producing operational dashboards, service metrics, trend analysis, and management information to support decision-making.
- Excellent communication, leadership, organisational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities within a fast-paced operational environment.
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Desirable Skills/Experience
- Good understanding of AWS cloud services, including technologies such as Redshift, Lambda, Athena, CloudWatch, and S3, with experience managing the operational support of cloud-based services.
- Ability to interpret technical information and data to support service management, incident oversight, trend analysis, and informed decision-making.
- Experience overseeing the support of data platforms, data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and cloud-based reporting solutions, working collaboratively with engineering and platform teams.
- Experience using service monitoring and observability tools, such as Grafana, Kibana, CloudWatch, or equivalent, to monitor service health, identify trends, and drive proactive service improvements.
- Ability to work effectively with technical specialists to coordinate the resolution of complex incidents, manage operational risk, and improve service resilience.
- Service Transition & Operational Readiness - experience managing handover from delivery teams into live service, including operational acceptance, support readiness, and knowledge transfer.
- Service Availability, Resilience & Continuity - responsibility for service availability, capacity management, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning.
- Security Incident & Risk Management - experience managing security incidents, vulnerabilities, and operational risk within secure government environments.
Additional Requirements
- Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Ability to prioritise workload and meet SLAs in a live service environment
- Must hold valid UK Security Clearance (SC) (essential)
- Ability to work independently in a remote environment
What We Offer
- Outside IR35 contract
- Fully remote working (UK-based)
- Opportunity to work on meaningful public sector digital services
- Start ASAP (subject to onboarding process)
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