Description Organisation: Defence Equipment & Support Salary: £43,100-£46,700 per annum (plus generous benefits) Grade: Professional II Working Pattern: Full time, Part time, Job Share, Flexible Working Contract Type: Permanent Summary At Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), we supply and maintain vital equipment and services for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Together, we deliver a vast range of essential defence programmes, and strive for what's next. Because it helps keep our military at the top of their game and our nation safe – for today, and tomorrow. We offer 25 days’ holiday, flexible and hybrid working, enhanced parental leave schemes, shopping discounts, and an exceptional employer pension contribution of 28.97%, to help make work work for you. Nationality, visas and vetting: For security reasons this role is open to sole UK nationals only. A ‘sole UK national’ refers to an individual who holds citizenship solely in the UK, without dual citizenship or nationality from another country. We’re unable to offer visa sponsorship. This role requires you to have lived in the UK for the last 5 years and obtain Security Check (SC) security clearance. Clearance must be obtained without any caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role you’ve been recruited for. If it isn’t obtained, or is obtained but with caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role, any conditional offer made to you will be withdrawn. Obtaining SC security clearance can be a lengthy process, and we reserve the right to withdraw any conditional offer made if the necessary security clearance isn’t obtained within 12 months. Job description Are you passionate about IT operations and eager to make a significant impact within a forward-thinking team? At Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), we’re looking for an IT operations manager to join us and become a part of our journey towards innovation and excellence. You will become a key member of our data services team, which plays a pivotal role in driving our mission forward. By joining us, you will have the opportunity to leverage your full range of skills to provide, maintain, and support the critical systems that underpin our business operations across DE&S. Your responsibilities will include administering and configuring systems to ensure their security and performance. You will handle incident management and problem resolution, keeping stakeholders informed of progress and ensuring that lessons learned are documented to drive continuous improvement. Additionally, you will oversee the lifecycle management of all managed assets, including software and licenses, ensuring compliance with all relevant guidelines and regulations. Beyond the day-to-day management of our current systems, this role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to strategic planning for our transition to Microsoft Azure. Your insights and expertise will be invaluable in shaping the future of our data services infrastructure. We champion flexible ways of working. Regular in-person attendance is required to promote the benefits of face-to-face collaboration alongside flexibility of hours to support work-life balance. Initially, you may be expected to attend more frequently to familiarise yourselves with the site, the team, and your role. What you’ll be doing Respond to management information on service levels, key performance indicators and trend analysis Responsible for monitoring release activity and assessing the impact to service, influencing project stakeholders to mitigate outages Review business processes, identify improvements, assess feasibility and pan business implications and recommend new approaches where appropriate and share in the community Manage service desk activity including incident management and coordinating recovery of service on incidents Work collaboratively with the development team to identify a fix to restore service and agree lesson learned Person specification To be successful with your application, you'll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria : Experience of IT operations in a large organisation Experience in administration of Microsoft SQL server In addition to the responsibilities above, the following technical competences and behaviours will be assessed at interview: Service Delivery and Operations – Practitioner Strategy, Architecture and Solution Design- Awareness Delivering at Pace – CSBC 3 Making Effective Decisions – CSBC 3 Benefits 25 days’ annual leave 1 day a year up to 30 days, 8 bank holidays and a day off for the King’s birthday Flexible and hybrid working options Market-leading average employer pension contribution of 28.97% Annual performance-based bonus and recognition awards Access to specialist training and funded qualifications Support for progression Huge range of discounts Volunteering days Enhanced parental leave schemes Improving innovation and enriching our culture, diversity of thought is vital to our success. So whether you’re looking for a new opportunity, a next step, or a helping hand as you return from a career break, bring your experiences and help deliver for the defence of tomorrow. Here you’ll find a supportive, family-friendly organisation to be a part of - and if you need any assistance with your application, just let us know. Further Information Candidate Information Pack: https://bit.ly/DES-Candidate-Information-Pack Terms and Conditions: https://bit.ly/DES-SDA-Terms-and-Conditions Any personal data that you provide during the Recruitment process will be treated in accordance with the MOD Privacy Notice which can be accessed here. Selection Process Details Your application will go through the following stages of assessment: Pre-sift - We will check that you meet any essential or eligibility criteria that are listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. On your CV, please clearly show how you meet the essential criteria. Sift - Your CV will be assessed against the following categories, using a simple numerical scoring system: Key Achievements; Relevant Experience; Applied Knowledge and Skills. Please follow our guidance on CV writing for best chance of success. Interview - If you're invited to interview, you'll be assessed against the Sift categories listed above, as well as the Technical Competences and Behaviours listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview. Offering at a lower level If you’re not successful at interview, we may offer you a role at a lower level if this is a match for your skills and experience. If this applies to your application, you’ll be scored against criteria for the lower-level role and offers will be made in merit order. If you accept this position, you’ll be able to take advantage of opportunities to develop your career as part of our team.