Office 365 Services Lead, Infrastructure Manager, Director

To lead the team responsible for developing, provisioning and supporting enterprise Microsoft 365, Microsoft Authentication Services (AAD), Dynamics and other cloud–based Application Services.

Job summary/key responsibilities

This role is a technical Agile Delivery Lead role, reporting into the Head of the Cloud Services. The role will require the post–holder to demonstrate exceptional technical management as well as team leadership skills heading up a team of Sytsem Administrators and Support Engineers.

It is essential that the Delivery Lead is an expert in Agile delivery in order to develop and mature the capability of their teams to provide the vital Cloud based services. As Cloud Services are at the front of IT strategy, the post–holder will be required to develop, grow and manage the centre of excellence of an area which is technically challenging and fast moving. The spread of Cloud services are key to the ability, its ALB and its end–users to perform every day activities, means that the post holder will be be responsible for a wide range of services which are at the very heart of IT provision.

One of the main focuses of this role will be to maintain the capability which will support the current, urgent platform services (e,g, Microsoft 365) which is heavily reliant upon across all its operations. This will involve significant focus on the manpower and capability of the team and is likely to require very close liaison with suppliers, other market partners and also recruitment. This post holder must then develop and mature the teams into a lean and agile operational engine, which will be at the forefront IT delivery, as more and more new projects consume cloud services.

* Reporting to the Head of the Cloud Centre of Excellence, the role will be responsible for establishing and leading the Application Services technical teams
* 'Cloud First' is a strategic decision by to move as many new IT services as possible into the Cloud and this role is key in establishing the capability to deliver against this objective. This has not been done before and as such the role–holder will lead activities and a function that are newly established

* The post holder will be required to develop strong relationships with peers and project managers across the Business as well as with other Delivery Leads and GIO process owners to ensure the smooth running of application services and the provisioning of services.

* The post holder will be accountable for the performance of the services delivered by the team and the availability and performance of the Application Services.

* The post holder will lead a highly technical team which is fully accountable for the effective delivery and development of enterprise Microsoft 365 Services within including (but not limited to) Office365, EOL, SPOL, POL, Teams, Yammer, Dynamics and Power Platform tools. The post requires strong leadership skills, and the ability to remain calm under pressure; the capability to lead and motivate people across different locations; and proven experience of IT incident management.

* The post–holder will keep up to date with industry trends, and challenge teams and suppliers to ensure that maintenance schedules and the technology landscape reflect industry best practice and best value for the Authority.

* Leading a team required to provide 24x7 technical response to service affecting incidents, the post requires a strong technical understanding of the Cloud platforms to be able to deal with escalations and make judgement calls to support the team.
* The post–holder will work closely with the Cloud Architect – Application Services for the purposes of architectural direction.

Knowledge and skills

The Application Services Delivery Lead will have recognised expertise in Cloud Service delivery, including the technology involved, current developments, the most commonly available products, and the delivery of these services within a technical and business environment.

Recognised technical experience in Cloud technologies – especially enterprise Microsoft 365 or relevant qualificiations in Cloud technologies.
Recognised technical experience in security management and knowledge and experience of securing O365 Platforms and related tools.

Stakeholder management at Exec and Ministerial level – this post holder will need to hold briefing sessions with the most senior members of the organisation and with Ministers, therefore excellent communication skills are required, to go along with deep technical understanding. The post holder will be working on a daily basis with technical teams and suppliers, so will need to be conversant with all the technical complexities of the solutions. They will also need to be able to explain, persuade and update business stakeholders and the wider organisation and beyond with respect to Cloud Centre of Excellence matters.

The Application Services Delivery Lead will have an expert–level and broad knowledge of ICT cloud technologies with an excellent understanding of how enterprise Microsoft 365, Dynamics and AAD services relate to other areas of ICT and how they impact on other business functions.

The Delivery Lead will have previous experience of business transformation using Microsoft 365 and Dynamics products.

Experience in the effective delivery and development of enterprise Microsoft Authentication and 365 Services including (but not limited to) AAD, Office365, Exchange Online, Sharepoint, Project, Teams, Yammer, Dynamics and Power Platform tools
The Delivery Lead will have extensive and solid experience of delivering ICT application platform services, to policy and procedural standards, for a large, complex ICT delivery organisation. This will include expert knowledge of licencing and best practice implementations.

Considerable, evidenceable experience managing wide–ranging and complex services in Microsoft 365, Dynamics and other Application Services platforms – including service level management and incident resolution.

It is essential that the Delivery Lead is an expert in Agile delivery in order to develop and mature the capability of their multi–discipline team to provide the vital Cloud based services. They will have considerable experience in running Agile teams, championing Scrums and other Agile delivery metholodogies.

Evidence of significant experience of operational, contractual and commercial management of complex services in a multi supplier outsourced environment as the technical owner responsible for these services.In order to deal with a wide range of suppliers and internal stakeholders, the post holder will need to be able to display technical gravitas and strong organisational and business awareness.

Experience of representing a broad technical operational function at senior / executive level to enable strategic decision making by executive and non–technical stakeholders

Experience of influencing senior stakeholders, suppliers and other senior members within and outside the DDTS structure to enable decision making on cloud services

Establishing official and operative goals for the organisation/units and to establish a system of measuring effectiveness of goal attainment.

Experience of establishing and monitoring procedures to control and regulate employee tasks and activities within a diverse function.

Experience of establishing official and operative goals for the organisation/units and to establish a system of measuring effectiveness of goal attainment.

People Source Consulting Ltd is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.

People Source specialise in technology recruitment across niche markets including Information Technology, Digital TV, Digital Marketing, Project and Programme Management, SAP, Digital and Consumer Electronics, Air Traffic Management, Management Consultancy, Business Intelligence, Manufacturing, Telecoms, Public Sector, Healthcare, Finance and Oil & Gas.