Head Of Service Operations

Head of Service Ops, Permanent, Dunstable (Hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days in the office)

We need a Head of  Service Ops to lead our driven team and align our IT services with the needs of our growing business, keeping our hotels and restaurants on top. Bring your ITL Service Management and Service Now experience to us and be a part of Whitbread Tech.

You may know us as the UK’s leading hospitality business, but we’re also the country’s largest property business. With Premier Inn, we changed the perception of what a budget hotel can be and our IT structures helped make it happen.

Now we’re building the hotels of the future, and our Tech is leading the way. We’ve invested £150 million in IT over the last three years, to make sure our foundations are more than solid enough for us to win in our markets both at home and internationally.

We need a Senior Service Delivery Manager to lead our driven team and align our IT services with the needs of our growing business, keeping our hotels and restaurants on top. Bring your ITL Service Management to us and be a part of Whitbread Tech.

Salary:  £85,000pa-£90,000pa plus car or car allowa n ce

Location: Whitbread Court, Dunstable, LU5 5XE. Hybrid working (minimum of 3 days a week in the office)

Why you’ll love it here

• Healthcare : Family BUPA healthcare
• Discounts : Up to 60% discount on Premier Inn stays and 25% discount on our Restaurant brands
• Bonus : Up to 30% company performance related bonus

• Check out all our benefits here:

What you’ll do

• Plan and manage the implementation of processes, tools and methods for monitoring and managing the performance of our systems and services so they meet the needs of our guests and business users in a consistent, effective, and efficient manner.
• Work with the Technology and service delivery teams, this role is accountable for the entire IT Services area for audit compliance. This vital role is accountable for ensuring Whitbread’s DR testing schedule is carried out according to obligations and within budget.
• Implement and manage maintenance status reporting, metrics, and benchmarks, along with the day-to-day management of running delivery teams accountable for optimising the cost, risk, and value of maintenance activities.
• Responsible for ensuring that their accountable IT Services are able to deliver the agreed service levels from capacity perspective in a cost-effective manner.

What we need

• Somebody who knows Service Operations, who has a real drive for managing large teams and bringing out the potential in their people!
• Strong communication skills - communicate technical concepts to non-technical people to enhance understanding and drive to decisions that lead to positive outcomes and the ability to work closely with stakeholders and suppliers at all levels!
• Budgeting and forecasting experience. Show us you’ve managed risk and cost implications of IT contracts or contract negotiations.
• Demonstrable, strong working knowledge of ITIL Service Management framework and process areas, covering implementation and on-going operation.

Be part of the Tech team at Whitbread

Through collaboration, passion and hiring the smartest minds, our Technology team builds products and services that are used by 38,000 of us at Whitbread and millions of guests. Everything from an eCommerce website that handles £2 billion in transactions per year, applications that are scalable across our 1,200 hotel and restaurants, devices that enable our teams and guests to have a seamless experience, all whilst keeping data secure. Together we’re building the hotel of the future .  #LI-MM1

We believe that everyone is unique and there should be no barriers to entry and no limits to ambition. We are committed to being an inclusive organisation that values diversity and welcomes your application whatever your background or situation.

Under-represented groups such as women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities & members of the LGBTQIA+ community (those who identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans and non-binary or those who use a different LGBTQIA+ term), are strongly encouraged to build a career with us. Speak to us about workplace adjustments, part-time and flexible working. Where possible we will support this.

Job ref: 821666-1629
Advertised: 21 Feb 2024