Job Description

Who are we

At Knight Frank, we work responsibly in partnership to enhance people's lives and environments. Founded in 1896 and headquartered in London, UK, Knight Frank is one of the world's leading independent real estate consultancies. After 128 years we are now located in over 50 Territories, 740+ Offices, 27,000+ People, with 1 Global Network.


At the heart of all we do are our Clients. A relationship built on trust is vital. As trusted partners in property, we act with integrity and care, understanding our clients' unique needs and consistently thinking about the bigger picture to provide personalised, clear and considered advice across all areas of property. Through our deep understanding of key markets and sectors - both emerging and established - we are dedicated to meeting and exceeding their property goals.


A true partnership is a balanced one, and our People are passionate about, and committed to, making our business inclusive and diverse. We give every individual the space and opportunity to perform at their best and be recognised for the immense value they bring. We empower everyone to have autonomy in their role and encourage them to use their voice in how we can make a positive impact as a firm and shape the future of real estate, the built environment and the impact on the communities we serve. Our collaborative and engaged teams provide excellent and dedicated client service. In our workplace, opinions are respected, everyone is invited to contribute to the success of our business and innovation, and new ideas are celebrated.


In 2021 we celebrated our 125th anniversary and set out Our Desired Future, cemented in three pillars: People Potential, Client Centricity and always Creating our Future, together.

About The Role

Scope

Established in 1896, Knight Frank is the leading independent property consultancy in the UK offering agency and professional advice across Commercial, Residential and Rural sectors. Headquartered in London, Knight Frank now comprises a global network of over 523 offices in 60 territories.





We are seeking a highly talented, motivated and experienced IT Service Delivery & Vendor Manager to support us on the evolution of our IT Transformation.


This is a critical role within the Group IT department, responsible for ensuring the effective delivery of IT Services to our Knight Frank business across the UK and Global. The role will be the face of IT Services into our business partnering with key stakeholders to ensure IT Services are optimised and meet the business need.


The role will be the Knight Frank escalation point for IT Services and own business incident communications and the major incident management process.





This role is a senior leadership position reporting directly to the Head of Technology Projects & Operations with overall responsibility for the delivery of the IT Services to the business. Acting as their IT Service conduit back into our team and as the escalation point and partner for IT Service.





The IT Service Operations team consist of outsourced IT Service Desk, EUC Operations, Infrastructure and Information Security and in-house Application Support and Microsoft Power Platform support. The Service Delivery and Vendor Manager manages the day-to-day relationship with all technology vendors and owns the relationship with all non-strategic vendors unless otherwise defined. They are responsible for ensuring vendor service delivery aligns to contractual expectation and service levels and alignment with business need and expectation.





The Service Delivery and Vendor Management is responsible for reporting of the IT department performance and vendor performance to our business and owning and building a continual service improvement mindset across IT.


The role is responsible for IT service communications, ensuring quality, content and timing is consistent. They own the Major Incident Management process ensuring internal and external teams restore IT service in a timely and effective manner whilst managing business communications.





The role will work collaboratively across the organisation to affect positive and measured change and ensure that the Service Owners and Vendors that underpin the SLAs we offer are performing, optimised and that we are driving the best value from our third-party relationships.





In addition, the role owns the CSI process, commissioning SIPs where appropriate to focus the energies of technical teams to sharpen the delivery and ensuring that are services are always looking to evolve, refine and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Responsibilities

Vendor Relationship Management - Develop, manage and maintain both tactical and strategic out-sourcing vendor relationships and ensure service obligations and levels or performance are being met. Provide vendor service management capability for all third parties that supply an underpinning service or technology to Knight Frank. This includes managing all aspects for the Vendor's service delivery that could or is impacting the live Service delivered to our customer. Build relationships with key partners to ensure they work as an extension of technology services and drive value-add from their offering. Commercial Vendor Management - Ensure our IT Services vendor portfolio is managed and optimised to ensure appropriate sizing and capability breadth. Identify service improvements and potential financial opportunities and benefits. Liaise with the wider IT team and support IT Procurement in the onboarding and management of new vendors including owning the creation of contract service schedules and IT service non-functional requirements.
- Service Reporting & Performance - Ensure regular Service performance reviews are held with key Vendors to ensure they deliver against expected contractual performance and quality.
Create key metrics around IT Services' performance, reliable and availability which will enable better decision making, financial and resource allocation. Be responsible for delivering, improving, and reporting on the SLAs agreed with the business. Define clear metrics with stakeholders that align business-based targets with the IT service performance, coupled with each service as listed in the Service Catalogue. Design a framework for all Live Service reporting, working with our partner Microland team to deliver a roadmap of iteratively improving dashboards that visualise the key metrics and insights.
- IT Services Business Partnering - act and be the main interface for Live Services offered and delivered to the business function. This requires representing Digital & Data as a supplier of technology services to the business, being responsible for the performance and availability of those services.


ITSM Excellence - ensuring Knight Frank colleagues receive the best customer experience available. Achieving this through developing strong relationships with colleagues across the business to better understand their day-to-day IT challenges and ensure Knight Frank IT continuously strives to improve. Understanding the Organisation - Knight Frank is complex, and changes frequently. Ability to under-stand the organisational structure, business and user requirements and key programmes will enable the Service Operations Manager to provide the best service. Vendor Problem Management - Leading IT Service Operations team to ensure identification and effective management of recurring IT problems is a key requirement for this role. Performing proactive trend analysis and post Incident review to prevent future problems, eliminate recurring or unnecessary inci-dents and to minimise the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented. Major Incident Management - Responsible for ensuring timely identification and effective resolution management of Incidents including consistent, informative and high-quality communication, especially during Major Incidents.
- Continual Service Improvement - Identify and implement Continuous Improvement Plans. Commission, track and report on all SIPs where focus is required to improve the Service offered. Contribute to the identification and delivery of medium to large scale SIPs that require a change to the Service.


Commercial and Contractual Management - a deep understanding of the commercial and contractual aspects of vendor contracts that provide IT services and products to Knight Frank is essential to this role. Understanding the scope and boundaries of a contract and maximising the value for Knight Frank. Senior Management Team - be part of the IT Service Operations management team, contribute and challenge ideas in a constructive and progressive manner.
- Service Assurance - Chair regular Service assurance and performance reviews with key stakeholders to transparently present the performance they receive.


- Projects & Initiatives - Work on Ad-Hoc projects that relate to Service offering and maturity as required.

Skills

Strong leadership and coaching with evidence of inspiring and maturing a IT Service Operations team consisting of a mix of internal colleagues and external vendor colleagues. Strong knowledge of IT infrastructure and a general interest in technology and future trends and opportunities. Commercially aware, forward-looking, and attention to detail. Ability to construct, review and manage a complex vendor contracts including those with SIAM Understanding of Critical Service Levels and Key Measures along with the associated KPIs that underpin them Ability to own activities, initiatives and issues and work independently and take decisions where necessary to resolver and/or deliver. Track record of successful delivery against commitments and deadlines. Promotes and supports standardisation and continuous improvement. Presentation and Reporting skills to demonstrate process performance in Service reports to the SIAM Ecosystem and management Financial management including forecasting and budget management. Excellent communication skills (written and oral), with experience interacting with all levels of man-agement both within Company and Client organisations. Ability to create a collaborative environment, highly developed stakeholder management Ability to work effectively under pressure and manage multiple priorities. Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills. Strong analytical and reporting capabilities. Willingness to take charge and provide direction.

Knowledge

An ITIL expert, with experience taking strategic responsibility for managing vendor performance and contracts. Good technical knowledge in Networks, Infrastructure, Applications and Information Security. Knowledge of running or historically running a IT Service Operations 'run' environment with a minimum of 10 years' experience managing IT operations teams across Incident, Problem, Release and Change management. An understanding of Cloud and Digital Transformation technologies and experience of transitioning to such services and service design around cloud and digital technologies. Practical knowledge and experience of Service Design, Transition and Continual Service Improvement Able to manage customer and SIAM Ecosystem relationship Knowledge of IT control frameworks and their implementation, e.g. COBIT, ITIL, ISO27001 etc. Knowledge of commercial and financial management techniques and tools. Knowledge of vendor procurement (RFI/RFP), team management and recruitment, training and motivation. Knowledge of business continuity planning and IT service continuity planning techniques and tools. Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technology solutions in business terms, establish rapport and persuade others.
Qualifications


Masters/Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, computer engineering, or a close-ly related specialist field ITIL V3/4 qualified - Service Operations and Service Transition as a minimum. Professional certifications such as COBIT, Prince II, Lean, Six Sigma desirable

Experience

Minimum of 10 years of experience in IT Service Management. Experience of vendor management and management of the service delivery of outsource partners ensuring the best business value Knight Frank is provided. Experience acting in a business partnering capacity. Experience of managing vendor contracts and supporting commercial conversations. Experience in the support and provision of IT Service infrastructure, EUC services and application and product support
- Experience in people management with strong interpersonal and leadership skills - leadership, collabo-ration, facilitation, and negotiation skills.


Experience in the service level management, reporting performance to stakeholders through SLA's, KPI's, service reviews etc Experience of stakeholder management in a complex partner-based organisation. Previous experience of successfully embedding, validating and testing the SIAM operating model to en-hance service integration and management processes. Property business knowledge and understanding Up to date and highly specialist knowledge and experience across the full range of activities and areas undertaken by the post holder Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of methods that evaluate and improve information man-agement and technology Significant proven experience and knowledge of strategy and finance in a major organisation Energetic, enthusiastic, and proactive and high degree of initiative. Confidence to successfully explain and guide people through the process and handle any low-level pro-cess issues Experience working in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
Competitive salary


Please note: this is a Direct Search led by Knight Frank. Applications from recruitment agencies will not be accepted nor will fees be paid for unsolicited CVs, even if provided by PSL agencies.