Job Description:

Milton Keynes (2-3 days per week on-site)
£350-£450 per day
Outside IR35
We're looking for an experienced Major Incident & Escalation Manager to join a busy Service Operations team, taking ownership of critical incidents, high-priority service escalations and supplier performance issues across a complex IT environment. The role acts as a central point of coordination between business stakeholders, technical teams and third-party suppliers to ensure service issues are driven through to resolution.
The Role
You will be responsible for leading major incidents and operational escalations from initiation through to closure, ensuring effective communication, clear ownership and timely resolution throughout the process. You'll work closely with service teams, suppliers and senior stakeholders whilst identifying opportunities to strengthen operational resilience and service performance.
Key Responsibilities

• Manage Priority 1 and Priority 2 incidents and service escalations end-to-end.
• Act as the primary point of contact for stakeholders during major incidents and business-critical service disruptions.
• Coordinate technical teams, incident bridges and restoration activities.
• Drive supplier accountability and challenge performance where service commitments are not being met.
• Provide clear and proactive communications to business stakeholders and senior leadership.
• Track actions, risks, RCA activities and service improvement initiatives through to completion.
• Analyse recurring issues and support continuous service improvement activities.

Required Experience

• Proven experience as a Major Incident Manager, Incident Manager, Service Operations Manager or similar role.
• Experience managing major incidents, service outages and operational escalations.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience managing third-party suppliers and outsourced service providers.
• Good understanding of ITIL Incident, Problem and Change Management processes.
• Excellent communication, organisational and decision-making skills.

Desirable

• Experience within Financial Services or another regulated environment.
• Knowledge of Operational Resilience, Business Continuity or Application Recovery.
• Experience with ServiceNow, Power BI and Microsoft 365.
• ITIL Foundation Certification or above.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced service professional who thrives in fast-paced operational environments and enjoys taking ownership of critical incidents, supplier relationships and service recovery activities.

What you need to do now


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