IT Operations Manager

Your New Role:  

 The Role  

Reporting to the Director of Center Operations, this position is critical in ensuring the implementation of the vision for the 24/7 Technology Operations Centre organizational unit.  This position will ensure the delivery and support of IT Event, Incident, and Request Management processes at WBD while ensuring a culture of excellence and consistent service and supporting WBD’s best-in-class distribution and infrastructure.  

Highlights of the role 

Utilizing strong cross-functional alignment, this position is responsible for leading unified “virtual” teams that will consist of members from multiple disciplines (Network Platform and Infrastructure Platform Operations), to form a dynamic technology-focused team capable of providing monitoring to all WBD linear and non-linear output and platforms, as well as supporting IT infrastructure. The support operation also leads WBD’s response to all incidents within our infrastructure.  

The organizational scope of the IT Operations Manager is day-to-day oversight of staff and services when on duty within our Krakow or Hyderabad Operations Centers – staff across multiple disciplines.  In addition, the role holder will manage a functional group based on their skill group (Basic Network Operations, Infrastructure Operation) supporting multiple offices and production Centers globally. 

The position is key to ensuring organizational improvements, consistently maintaining, and improving our customer feedback system, and establishing effective performance measurements to show successes and areas of opportunity.      

This position is a mission-critical role in leading global Technology Operations for Core IT.  As a function, it is the 24/7 Command & Control Hub for all our IT support services. Postholders will mainly work during standard business hours with an on-call rotation. However, during certain critical events working different shifts (including nights and weekends) will be required.  

The Centers are the point of contact and owners for Major Incidents and the postholder is responsible for the execution of the Major Incident process and procedures for Enterprise Technology & Operations and the department’s recovery plans. The Centers are also the focal point of contact for Global IT’s response in the event of an organization-wide Major Incident. 

The work is in Hybrid mode - 3days office / 2 days Home. The contract is in equivalent mode of employment - now team works in 8/5 but it may be a subject to change with Big Brand Events going to 24/7 

This position is a member of the leadership team for Technology Operations and will guide the team's development and communicate the organization's direction. 

Your Role Accountabilities:  

• Day to Day support leadership of cross-discipline staff, owning real-time Tier 1 and Tier 2 responses to active requests and incidents where needed. Lead a “hybrid” Center operation, to ensure the organization is properly staffed 24/7 across the sites 

• Support the creation of an integrated technology support organization based on collaboration, best practices, standards, efficiency, and commitment to effective service delivery and responsiveness to the needs of the business 

• Drives continuous improvement to key metrics through process, system, and organizational refinements 

• Ensure that event, incident, major incident, and problem management processes are implemented effectively 

• Acts as major incident lead when on duty.  Is a focal point of communication to ET&O during a major incident.  Vet potential critical outages, determine and prioritize status 

• Creation and ownership of multiple and trust-wide business continuity reporting including disaster recovery 

• Reporting on serious incident status including customer notifications. Ensures communications are accurate, timely, and messages for multiple audiences 

• Contributes to root cause analysis reports and is accountable for any remediation planning that results from lessons learned 

• Responsible for planning onsite cover during serious incidents, ensuring staff is directed to the correct area of focus 

• Works with the Engineering and Product Teams to ensure the contingency plans are kept up-to-date and available 

• To motivate and continually develop a good quality & customer-focused Operations Center team 

• Motivate other teams through effective and proactive leadership techniques in stressful situations 

• Guide and mentor, the Operations teams and user base in the event of serious incidents 

• Develop and implement effective maintenance and backup regime across systems and infrastructure 

• Maintains KPI and service metrics framework. Ensure service levels and targets are adhered to and corrective measures are in place to maintain performance targets 

• Maintains skills and career path framework for Center staff.  Ensures these are in place for all staff 

• Lead and deliver small to midsize operations projects or organizational change within the operations Center scope  

• Partner with relevant leadership teams on technology implementation.  Ensure impacts on the department are understood and that mechanisms are in place to manage these impacts and ensure service continuity 

• Partner with Digital Sports and Olympics teams for Sports Events and Olympic Games 

• Responsible for implementing effective business continuity and disaster recovery plans for leading an integrated technology support organization based on collaboration, best practices, standards, efficiency, and commitment to effective service delivery and responsiveness to the needs of the business 

• Working as part of a small team, ensuring efficient handover and seamless delivery of support 

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with key business leads and senior stakeholders within the customer base 

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships across all IT disciplines, and with 3rd party suppliers and outsourced service partners 

• Deputizes for the Senior Management as required 

• Any other responsibilities as requested 

Qualifications & Experiences:  

• Bachelor’s degree in IT Business Management, or equivalent 10+ years work experience 

• 3+ years of direct management experience in the IT function 

• 7+ years’ experience working in one or more of the following areas: Incident Management, Infrastructure Operations, or Network Operations 

• 7+ years’ experience in an Enterprise-level support environment. Experience in a service delivery environment and understanding of technical support processes and workflow 

• Working knowledge of ITIL is required. Foundation certification is expected. Must be able to effectively communicate with owners of ITIL Disciplines (Incident, Problem, Change, Release, and Configuration) to provide effective IT support to the end users 

• Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal communication, and customer service skills, in English is required 

• Strong organizational and conceptual skills 

• Ability to multitask within related functions 

• Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, and retain staff 

• Strong ability to demonstrate and execute professional communication skills at all levels of management 

• Project management experience with PRINCE2 principles  

• Strong critical thinking, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities 

• Ability to proactively communicate to senior leadership on areas of opportunity and be a solutions-oriented problem solver 

• Positive attitude and experience with motivating a team 

• Ability to maintain focus in a high-pressure environment  

• Able to demonstrate a high degree of flexibility, including flexibility in working hours to support employees and customers across multiple time zones 

• Experience in leading multiple IT support teams in multiple/global locations 

• Must have the legal right to work in Europe or India 

Not Required but preferred experience:  

• Experience working for a Media Company/Broadcast is desirable but not essential 

• Knowledge of local employment laws is beneficial