Service Design & Transition Lead

About the role

We are embarking on initiatives to enhance technical capability that will revolutionise our pet care customer experience and currently have a vacancy for an experienced Service Transition Lead operating within the Group IT Service Delivery function.  Working across various Programmes and projects the ST Lead will ensure readiness to integrate new services into our IT Service Delivery support portfolio.

Our Service Transition Leads are key stakeholders in the management of business and technical change, having responsibility to represent the perspectives of operational service delivery by ensuring service quality and readiness assurance in the Delivery of the ‘to-be’ Services, so ensuring we have capability to successfully support new services internally or through partners to support our Business’s strategic growth.

Aligned to Pets at Home’s Change Delivery Lifecycle, the Service Transition Lead will facilitate all aspects of service design & readiness, from the stage where a project is mobilised; working closely with Projects teams, Service Owners, Business Owners, and Service Delivery support teams through transition and build of the service, before successfully landing into Service Delivery.

Key responsibilities (will include, but not limited to):

• To partner the project stakeholders across IT and Business teams to build & ensure delivery of service governance, design and support model documentation, and the build of that service capability is aligned with Pets at Home ITSM policy & ITIL standards for successful ‘live’ operation and support in BAU.
• To validate, define & articulate the benefits case for Service NFRs; providing service lens in commercial and operational build readiness of support functions and processes, technology, and capability to achieve the desired service.
• Review 3rd Party partner services to ensure high availability, robust SLA's/service management processes and controls align with ITIL best practice, ensure high availability/recovery time agreed with business owners and appropriate underpinning commercial cover & SLAs are implemented.
• To create all the required Service Support documentation to ensure effective management of new services that are supportable and meet business availability needs.
• Ensure documentation and process are reviewed/agreed and signed off by the business and service management stakeholders.
• To provide service governance to oversee & influence the readiness of new services for BAU operation; to effectively support our colleagues and service resources have been correctly provisioned in line with release timescales.
• Manage the early life support warranty of new in-life services through to handover into BAU support; provide advice and guidance and support to teams, and support error investigation and recovery.
• Apply Service Transition principles and mentor staff across IT & the Business to continually improve the Service Transition capability.

About your experience

• Minimum five years’ working in Service Delivery environment where ITIL service management principles and processes are implemented,
• Experience of creating IT Service support designs then implementing those plans into working enterprise support,
• Confident use of the productivity tools, Microsoft Office, email and familiarly of modern IT Service Management tooling; such as Service Now, Ivanti Heat
• Well-developed presentation and influencing skills, capable of making the case for and achieving effective service transition deliverables in project environments,
• Proven track record of successfully managing their own work and that of others where required, including the ability to plan, prioritise and organise work to meet tight deadlines,

Essential Qualifications

• Educated to Degree level in an IT or Business discipline
• ITIL4 foundation certificate
• ITIL Service Lifecycle Transition certificate

Desirable Experience

• Project Delivery experience in a retail environment
• Technical background to understand the different architectures of the core systems, and to understand the impact of new technologies; experience of enterprise level applications will be an advantage,
• Minimum of two years’ experience as IT Service Manager or Transition Lead within a complex and diverse organisation,
• Service Transition experience building support for both Agile & DevOps Application delivery environments 

About Our Purpose

Far more than a retailer, Pets at Home Group is the UK’s leading pet care specialist, fulfilling every possible pet and owner need, from food and accessories to grooming and vet services. Since 1991, we’ve been building a business around pets and their owners and we’ve set our sights on becoming the best pet care business in the world. Join us now and you can be part of that journey, developing your future as we develop ours. This is a place where you can take pride and passion in your work within an inspiring, professional team that’s focused on supporting pets and their owners to live happier lives together.

We’re driven by the wellbeing of pets and we make sure we look after our people too. We depend on your commitment and innovation, and reward it with competitive pay and comprehensive benefits.