Service Delivery Lead Manager

We are seeking an experienced Service Delivery Manager (SDM) to lead the delivery of 24x7 Managed Application Support Services for a large Banking client. The successful candidate will be responsible for service delivery governance, operational excellence, client relationship management, incident management, and leadership of offshore support teams across multiple support contracts.

This role requires a blend of service management expertise, technical understanding of application and infrastructure ecosystems, and strong stakeholder management skills to ensure stable, reliable, and cost-effective service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Service Delivery Leadership

• Lead end-to-end delivery of Managed Application Support Services across multiple client engagements.
• Own service performance against contracted SLAs, KPIs, and operational commitments.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance service quality, productivity, automation, and customer satisfaction.
• Manage operational governance processes, including weekly, monthly, and quarterly service reviews.
• Ensure alignment of support services with client business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Be a reliable escalation contact for any major incidents.

Operations Management

• Manage 24x7 offshore support operations covering production support, incident management, problem management, and maintenance activities.
• Leading Major Incident bridges with multiple teams and drive rapid restoration during business-critical outages.
• Establish operational controls to reduce incident volume and improve service stability.
• Familiarity with Service Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles
• Ensure adherence to ITIL processes, including:
  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Change Management
  • Availability Management

Client Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary delivery contact for client stakeholders.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with client technology and business teams.
• Present operational performance, risks, service improvements, and strategic recommendations.
• Manage escalations and ensure timely resolution of client concerns.

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop geographically distributed offshore support teams.
• Mentor and train the offshore team.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence.

Technical Oversight

• Maintain high-level oversight of supported applications, infrastructure dependencies, and business processes.
• Collaborate with engineering, infrastructure, and development teams to address service issues.
• Leverage monitoring and observability tools to proactively identify risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Drive automation and AIOps initiatives to improve operational efficiency.

Service Improvement & Governance

• Work with team to develop and execute service improvement plans.
• Analyze service trends and operational metrics to identify improvement opportunities.
• Conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA) reviews and track corrective actions.
• Ensure compliance with audit, security, risk, and operational governance standards.

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Required Qualifications

Experience

• 10+ years of IT Services experience.
• 5+ years leading Application Support or Managed Services engagements.
• Experience managing 24x7 production support teams.
• Experience supporting Banking, Financial Services, or highly regulated industries preferred.
• Proven experience managing multiple workstreams, support contracts, or service towers.

Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of application lifecycle management and production support operations.
• Working knowledge of:
  • How Enterprise applications work
  • Middleware platforms
  • Databases
  • IT Infrastructure concepts (OCP, On Prem, Cloud, etc.)
  • Cloud environments (Azure/AWS preferred)
• Hands-on exposure to monitoring and observability tools such as:
  • Dynatrace
  • Splunk
  • Azure Monitor

Service Management

• Strong knowledge of ITIL framework and operational best practices.
• Experience managing:
  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Change Management
  • Service Reporting
  • SLA Governance

Leadership & Communication

• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills.
• Strong presentation and reporting capabilities.
• Ability to manage client escalations and complex operational situations.
• Experience leading globally distributed teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• ITIL Foundation or ITIL Managing Professional certification.
• Experience with Banking applications, payment systems, lending systems, cards, or core banking platforms.
• Experience implementing automation and AIOps solutions.
• Experience managing vendor and subcontractor relationships.

Key Success Metrics

• SLA Compliance
• Service Availability
• MTTR Reduction
• Incident Volume Reduction
• Client Satisfaction Scores
• Team Utilization and Retention
• Successful Delivery of Continuous Improvement Initiatives
• Contractual and Financial Performance

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