About the position
Introduction
The IT Services Manager is responsible for ensuring the secure, reliable, resilient, and cost-effective delivery of technology services that support business operations and strategic objectives. The role provides leadership and governance across IT service operations, infrastructure, networks, cloud and on-premises platforms, cyber security, vendor and contract management, technology lifecycle management, business continuity, and service delivery.
This role is accountable for maintaining high levels of system availability, performance, security, and user satisfaction through effective operational management, proactive risk mitigation, continuous service improvement, and strong stakeholder engagement. Working closely with business leaders, technology partners, and service providers, the role drives operational excellence, technology innovation, cost optimisation, and compliance while ensuring that IT services remain scalable, resilient, and aligned to evolving business needs.
Duties & Responsibilities
IT strategy, plans and budget
- As a member of the Group IT Management Team, the role participates in the formulation and execution of Group IT strategy and annual plans
- Develops and maintains the IT Services roadmap aligned to business objectives and technology strategy
- Conducts IT services research, cost-benefit analyses and feasibility studies and motivates budgetary requirements to the IT Management Team
- Manages operational and capital expenditure budgets for IT services and infrastructure
- Identifies and drives cost optimization opportunities across technology services, contracts, licensing and infrastructure
- Develops business cases and investment proposals for technology initiatives
Infrastructure
- Liaises with business unit and regional management to determine infrastructure requirements and future capacity needs
- Manages the availability, performance and lifecycle of server, storage, virtualization, cloud and data centre environments
- Develops capacity and resource plans covering current utilisation, business growth and future technology requirements
- Ensures infrastructure platforms are secure, resilient, scalable and support business continuity objectives.
- Oversees infrastructure upgrades, refreshes and modernization initiatives
- Maintains infrastructure standards, architecture principles and operational procedures
Network and Connectivity Services
- Manages WAN, LAN, SD-WAN, Wi-Fi, internet and telecommunications services across all business locations
- Ensures reliable connectivity between corporate offices, manufacturing facilities and distribution centres
- Monitors network availability, performance and utilisation and implements improvements where required
- Manages relationships with network service providers and telecommunications vendors
- Ensures network services comply with organisational security and operational standards
Technology Lifecycle and Asset Management
- Develops and maintains technology lifecycle plans covering hardware, software, infrastructure platforms and end-user computing devices
- Manages technology refresh programmes and coordinates replacement of end-of-life and end-of-support assets
- Ensures technology assets are correctly recorded, governed and managed throughout their lifecycle
- Identifies and mitigates risks arising from obsolete or unsupported technologies
- Develops and maintains technology standards and approved product catalogues
Licensing and Software Asset Management
- Manages software licensing compliance across the organisation
- Maintains oversight of software subscriptions, enterprise agreements and vendor licensing programmes
- Ensures optimisation of software utilisation and licensing costs
- Coordinate and support software licensing audits and remediation activities where required
- Provides guidance on licensing models, compliance obligations and commercial implications
Vendor Management
- Sources, evaluates and manages technology vendors, service providers and strategic partners
- Negotiates contracts, pricing, service levels, warranties and support agreements
- Monitors vendor performance against contractual and service level commitments through regular governance review
- Develops vendor scorecards and drives continuous improvement initiatives with service providers
- Manages vendor-related risks, escalations and service improvement plans
System Monitoring and Service Availability
- Reviews reports on infrastructure, network and system availability, performance and utilisation
- Ensures proactive monitoring tools and processes are implemented across all critical technology environments
- Drives improvements to service availability, operational resilience and system performance
- Manages service availability targets and business-critical uptime requirements
- Ensures operational issues are identified and resolved before impacting business operations
Documentation and Governance
- Develops, maintains and enforces technology policies, standards, procedures and operational documentation
- Ensures technical environments, support procedures and recovery processes are fully documented
- Maintains governance frameworks and operational controls across IT services
- Supports internal and external audit activities and ensures remediation of audit findings
- Ensures compliance with organisational policies, standards and technology governance requirements
Change Management
- Ensures effective change management processes are implemented across all technology services and infrastructure environments
- Chairs or participates in Change Advisory Board meetings and governance forums
- Reviews and approves technology changes in accordance with risk and business impact assessments
- Monitors change success rates and drive improvements to change processes
- Minimises service disruption resulting from technology changes
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
- Develops, maintains and continuously improves disaster recovery capabilities and technology resilience programmes
- Ensures business-critical systems are protected through appropriate backup, recovery and continuity measures
- Defines and manages recovery objectives including RTO and RPO requirements
- Conducts regular disaster recovery testing, failover exercises and recovery simulations
- Reports on resilience maturity and implements improvement initiatives
Cyber Security
- Continuously assesses and measures cyber security control effectiveness and security maturity
- Develops and executes cyber security improvement plans to strengthen the organisation's security posture
- Oversees cyber security operations, managed security service providers and third-party security partners
- Manages vulnerability management, patch compliance and security remediation programmes
- Leads cyber incident response and recovery activities
- Manages identity and access controls and supports regulatory and compliance requirements
- Drives cyber security awareness, training and risk reduction initiatives
Continuous Improvement
- Identifies opportunities for automation, simplification and optimisation of technology services
- Evaluates emerging technologies, platforms and industry trends for business applicability
- Leads infrastructure, operational technology and service improvement projects
- Drives innovation initiatives that improve service delivery, resilience, user experience and operational efficiency
- Promotes adoption of best practices and continual improvement methodologies
Risk Management and Compliance
- Identifies, assesses and manages technology and operational risks
- Maintains technology risk registers and mitigation plan
- Ensures compliance with relevant regulatory, legal and contractual obligations
- Supports governance, risk and compliance initiatives across the Group
- Develops controls to mitigate operational, cyber security and third-party risks
Staff Management
- Monitors workload and resource allocation to ensure effective service delivery and fair distribution of responsibilities
- Sets performance objectives and development plans for team members
- Monitors productivity, service quality and achievement of operational objectives
- Provides coaching, mentoring and leadership to promote professional growth and technical capability
- Ensures appropriate succession planning, skills development and knowledge transfer
- Builds a high-performance culture focused on service excellence, accountability and continuous improvement
Enterprise Architecture and Technology Standards
- Ensures technology services, infrastructure platforms and operational solutions are aligned to approved enterprise architecture principles, standards and roadmaps
- Contributes operational requirements and technical expertise to architecture planning and technology decision-making processes
- Collaborates with Group IT leadership and architecture stakeholders to define future-state infrastructure, cloud, network and security platforms
- Maintains technology standards, reference architectures and approved technology patterns for infrastructure and operational services
- Evaluates proposed technologies and solutions for strategic fit, supportability, scalability, security and total cost of ownership
- Identifies and mitigates technology complexity, duplication and technical debt across the IT landscape
- Supports technology modernization initiatives and adoption of architecture best practices
- Ensures infrastructure and operational services support business growth, resiliency, cyber security and digital transformation objectives
Minimum Requirements
Formal Education
Essential
- Bachelor's Degree (NQF Level 7) in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Information Technology, or a related field
- ITIL Foundation Certification (or equivalent IT Service Management certification)
Preferred
- Postgraduate qualification in Information Technology, Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline
- ITIL 4 Managing Professional, ITIL Strategic Leader, or equivalent Service Management certification
- TOGAF Foundation or TOGAF Certified qualification advantageous
- Cloud certifications (Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud)
- Cyber Security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, Security+, ISO 27001 Lead Implementer/Auditor, or equivalent
- Project Management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, Agile, Scrum, or equivalent
Experience
Essential
- 8-10 years' experience in IT Operations, Infrastructure, Service Delivery, or Technology Services environments
- Minimum 5 years' experience in a manag
