About this role
Second Line Team Lead (Manager) — Expert Team
Networks | Security | Escalations | Projects | Cloud | Automation
Role Purpose
Why the Second Line Team Exists
The Second Line Team is Ello Technology’s Expert Team .
It exists to own the complex technical work that sits beyond First Line support and to deliver the technical changes that strengthen, secure, modernise and improve our clients’ environments.
The team is responsible for:
- Complex escalations from First Line
- Networking reliability, performance and architecture
- Cybersecurity controls and continuous risk reduction
- Complex incident response and root-cause prevention
- Infrastructure projects, migrations and implementations
- Cloud adoption, migration and optimisation
- Automation and process improvement
- Technical standards, documentation and quality assurance
- Repeatable technical delivery that scales across the client base
As Second Line Team Lead, you are accountable for turning complex technical work into predictable, secure, documented and commercially sound outcomes .
You build a team that remains calm when production is under pressure, delivers projects without chaos, solves root causes rather than symptoms, and continuously improves the technical environments we manage.
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90-Day Mission
Definition of Done
By Day 90, the Second Line Team operates as a structured, accountable Expert Team:
- Clear First Line → Second Line escalation rules are implemented and followed
- Complex incidents are triaged quickly and driven through to root-cause resolution
- Network and security standards are consistently applied
- Active projects have clear scope, ownership, timelines, risks and sign-off criteria
- Change control and rollback planning are enforced for high-risk work
- Cloud and automation delivery follows defined technical standards
- Repeat incidents and unnecessary escalations are reducing
- Project rework and post-project issues are reducing
- Documentation, runbooks, diagrams and configurations are current and usable
- Monitoring and alerting are meaningful and actionable
- Engineers have clear ownership, expectations and development plans
- Scorecards are visible and reviewed consistently
- Technical scope and BOM handoffs support accurate quoting, procurement and invoicing
- The team is increasingly proactive rather than permanently reactive
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Primary Outcomes
Operational Excellence
- Reduced repeat escalations and recurring technical issues
- Faster resolution of complex and high-severity incidents
- Stable and reliable client infrastructure
- Improved network performance and availability
- Stronger client security posture
- Reduced reactive workload through root-cause prevention
- Clear ownership of complex technical problems from escalation through resolution
Project & Technical Delivery
- Projects delivered predictably against agreed time, scope and quality
- Clean project planning, change control and technical execution
- Reduced project rework and post-project incidents
- Complete handovers into ongoing support
- Clear communication with clients and internal stakeholders
- Repeatable delivery methods for common project types
Cloud & Automation
- Cloud solutions are implemented securely and according to defined standards
- Automations deliver measurable operational or client value
- Automations are tested, documented and supportable
- Client adoption, training and handover are completed
- Outcomes such as time saved, reduced manual work or improved processes are measured where possible
Security & Risk
- Security controls are consistently implemented and improved
- High-risk findings are identified, prioritised and remediated
- Security incidents are contained and resolved effectively
- Security improvements are converted into structured client roadmaps where appropriate
- Change risk is actively managed
Leadership
- Clear roles and accountability across the Second Line Team
- Strong technical ownership and decision-making
- Engineers are coached and continuously upskilled
- SOP and documentation discipline is embedded into daily work
- Performance expectations are clear and measurable
- The team develops deeper technical capability and reduces dependency on individual "heroes"
Commercial
- Technical scopes and BOMs are accurate and complete
- Scope creep is controlled through formal change management
- Billable work is accurately captured
- Commercial handoffs are clear and timely
- Project delivery protects expected gross profit
- Revenue leakage caused by poor technical handoffs is eliminated
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Key Responsibilities
1. Escalations & Complex Incident Leadership
- Own the First Line → Second Line escalation pathway, including entry criteria, priority and exit criteria
- Ensure escalations contain the minimum required troubleshooting and documentation before acceptance
- Prioritise and assign complex technical work according to impact and urgency
- Ensure rapid triage of high-severity incidents
- Drive incidents through to proper resolution rather than relying on temporary workarounds
- Lead root-cause analysis and preventive actions
- Maintain escalation SOPs and provide feedback and training to First Line
- Run post-incident reviews for significant incidents
- Build and maintain a prevention backlog based on recurring technical problems
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2. Networking & Infrastructure
- Own technical standards for switching, routing, Wi-Fi, firewalls and associated infrastructure
- Ensure client network documentation and diagrams remain current
- Drive proactive improvements to network stability, resilience and performance
- Review and approve high-risk infrastructure changes
- Ensure appropriate change control, testing and rollback planning
- Identify infrastructure risks and ensure remediation plans are established
- Standardise common network configurations and deployment methods
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3. Security Operations
- Own baseline security standards and continuous security improvement within the Second Line function
- Ensure agreed patching, vulnerability remediation, endpoint, identity and access standards are enforced
- Lead technical incident response for security events
- Coordinate containment, remediation, recovery and technical reporting
- Maintain security runbooks and response procedures
- Identify recurring security risks and develop improvement plans
- Support the development of client security roadmaps where required
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4. Project Delivery
- Own the technical project pipeline within the Second Line Team
- Prioritise projects and allocate technical resources
- Ensure every project has an approved scope, owner, plan, timeline, risks and completion criteria
- Run regular project reviews and remove delivery blockers
- Ensure risky changes include testing, change control and rollback planning
- Monitor project delivery against agreed scope and timelines
- Manage technical stakeholder and client communication
- Ensure projects are formally signed off and handed over
- Prevent uncontrolled scope creep and unapproved work
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5. Technical Scoping & Commercial Handoffs
- Produce accurate technical scopes, BOMs and implementation requirements
- Ensure technical assumptions, dependencies and exclusions are clearly documented
- Confirm scope approval before delivery begins
- Identify scope changes early and enforce the change-control process
- Provide clean technical handoffs to the BU Sales Consultant for quoting, procurement and invoicing
- Ensure billable technical work is accurately recorded and traceable
- Review quoted versus delivered effort to identify margin or scoping issues
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6. Cloud & Automation Delivery
- Own technical standards for cloud implementations and automation
- Ensure appropriate naming, permissions, security and documentation standards are followed
- Ensure automations and cloud solutions are properly tested before production deployment
- Ensure automations are supportable and monitored where required
- Maintain reusable templates and deployment standards
- Ensure client training, adoption and handover are completed
- Track measurable outcomes where possible, including time saved, manual steps removed or operational improvements
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7. Monitoring, Alerting & Proactive Management
- Ensure monitoring produces meaningful and actionable alerts
- Reduce unnecessary alert noise
- Define clear ownership and response procedures
- Track response and resolution performance
- Identify recurring alerts and convert them into prevention work
- Use monitoring data to identify client risks before they become major incidents
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8. Quality Assurance & Documentation
Documentation is a required part of delivery.
The Team Lead must:
- Maintain SOPs for recurring Second Line activities
- Establish QA gates for technical changes and projects
- Implement peer review where appropriate
- Ensure testing and sign-off checklists are used
- Ensure client documentation is updated following changes
- Maintain runbooks, diagrams, configurations and technical guides
- Ensure project documentation is complete before closure
- Audit documentation and SOP compliance
- Build reusable technical and project templates
No project or complex technical change is considered complete until the required documentation and handover are complete.
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9. People Leadership & Technical Development
- Set clear roles, ownership and performance expectations for Second Line engineers
- Run regular 1:1s
- Establish individual skills and development plans
- Coach engineers on troubleshooting, technical decision-making and client communication
- Develop engineers across networking, security, cloud, automation and project delivery
- Conduct peer reviews and technical knowledge-sharing sessions
- Address performance or quality issues promptly
- Support recruitment, interviews and technical assessments where required
- Build succession and capability within the team
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10. Cross-BU Collaboration
First Line
- Maintain clear escalation and handover standards
- Provide technical coaching where recurring escalation issues are identified
- Ensure completed work is handed back with sufficient documentation for ongoing support
Customer Acquisition / Sales
- Provide accurate technical scope and BOM information
- Identify risks, dependencies and assumptions before quoting
- Support technical discovery where required
BU Sales Consultant
- Provide clean scope and BOM handoffs
- Support quote → procurement → delivery → invoicing flow
- Ensure variations and additional work are commercially captured
The objective is one continuous delivery process — not isolated departments handing problems to one another.
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KPIs / Scorecard
Monthly — Ver2.0
Escalations & Incident Management
- Escalations received vs resolved
- Repeat escalation rate
- Critical incident MTTA
- Critical incident MTTR
- Repeat incident/root-cause rate
- Prevention backlog completed
Networks & Infrastructure
- Network incident count
- Client downtime minutes where measurable
- Network standards compliance
- Change failure rate
- Recurring infrastructure issues resolved
Security
- High-risk findings opened vs remediated
- Patch/remediation SLA adherence
- Security incidents by severity
- Security incident containment time
- Security baseline/control coverage where applicable
Project Delivery
- Projects delivered on time
- Projects delivered on scope
- Project cycle time
- Project rework rate
- Post-project incident rate
- Client/project sign-off rate
- Change failure rate
Cloud & Automation
- Cloud/automation initiatives delivered
- Automation adoption and handover completion
- Automation/project rework rate
- Measurable impact achieved where applicable
- Documentation and support readiness
Quality & Documentation
- Documentation completeness score
- SOP compliance audit score
- QA/peer review pass rate
- Ticket quality
- Runbook/diagram/configuration compliance
- Handover completeness
Commercial
- Scope/BOM handoff quality
- Missed billable/revenue leakage incidents — target: zero
- Project quoted vs delivered variance
- Project GP variance within agreed threshold
- Unapproved scope-creep incidents — target: zero
People & Leadership
- 1:1 completion
- Skills development progress
- Training/certification progress where applicable
- Team scorecard performance
- Recurring quality/performance issues
- Knowledge-sharing and cross-training completed
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Non-Negotiables
Behavioural Rules
- Calm and decisive under pressure
- Root cause over temporary workaround
- No project starts without clear scope and approval
- No high-risk change without change control and rollback planning
- No project closes without documentation and handover
- Documentation is part of the work — not optional administration
- Scope creep is managed through change control, not goodwill
- No hero culture: systems, standards and teamwork beat individual dependency
- Technical decisions must consider security, operational and commercial impact
- Strong handoffs between First Line, Second Line, Sales and the BU Sales Consultant
- SOP compliance is enforced
- Reporting must be factual and scorecard-driven
- Problems must be surfaced early — not hidden until they become emergencies
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30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan
Days 0–30: Stabilise & Build the Operating System
Focus
Understand the current technical environment, stabilise urgent issues and establish one operating rhythm for the newly merged Second Line Team.
Actions
- Audit all active Second Line escalations and projects
- Identify the top 20 recurring escalations
- Identify the top 10 client technical/security risks
- Review active and overdue projects
- Define First Line → Second Line escalation criteria
- Establish project prioritisation and resource planning
- Implement technical scoping and project templates
- Implement change-control requirements
- Establish documentation baseline standards
- Review monitoring and identify unnecessary alert noise
- Establish the monthly Second Line scorecard
- Start post-incident reviews for critical events
- Define roles and ownership within the merged team
- Identify immediate skills gaps and single points of technical dependency
Deliverables by Day 30
- Second Line escalation SOP
- First Line escalation checklist
- Active project and escalation register
- Second Line monthly scorecard live
- Technical documentation standard published
- Project scope, risk, change and handover templates implemented
- Team ownership structure defined
- Top client risks and recurring technical problems identified
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Days 31–60: Improve Quality, Speed & Predictability
Focus
Move the team from reactive problem-solving toward structured delivery and prevention.
Actions
- Implement QA gates and peer review
- Establish network and security baselines
- Reduce repeat escalations through root-cause remediation
- Implement formal change-control discipline
- Improve incident triage and ownership
- Establish skills development plans for engineers
- Formalise monitoring and alert response rules
- Standardise cloud and automation delivery
- Improve project communication and sign-off
- Build a prioritised prevention backlog
- Address the most common causes of project rework
- Begin cross-training to reduce individual technical dependency
Deliverables by Day 60
- Visible reduction in repeat escalations
- Network/security baseline rollout underway
- Improved incident response performance
- Monitoring and response rules formalised
- QA and peer-review process operating
- Cloud and automation standards implemented
- Lower project rework trend
- Individual development plans active
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Days 61–90: Scale the Expert Team
Focus
Build a predictable technical delivery engine that improves client environments rather than simply responding to problems.
Actions
- Mature incident response and post-incident learning
- Reduce reactive workload through prevention
- Standardise recurring project types
- Tighten technical scope/BOM and commercial handoffs
- Improve project forecasting and resource planning
- Ensure billing capture and scope discipline
- Measure cloud and automation outcomes
- Build the Second Line technical playbook
- Establish reusable runbooks and implementation standards
- Continue reducing single-person technical dependencies
- Use scorecard trends to drive continuous improvement
Deliverables by Day 90
- Second Line operating predictably as one Expert Team
- Reduced repeat escalations and incidents
- Improved project delivery performance
- Reduced project rework
- Reliable network/security standards
- Prevention engine operating
- Cloud and automation delivery standards embedded
- Clean technical-to-commercial handoffs
- Reliable reporting for capacity and operational planning
- Second Line playbook established
- Clear skills and succession roadmap for the team
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Benefits
Earning Potential
Your income should grow when your leadership creates stronger client environments, better delivery and measurable commercial impact.
This is a leadership role where your impact on uptime, security, project delivery, automation and technical quality directly contributes to business performance.
This is how we do that at Ello:
- Competitive, market-related salary aligned to leadership responsibility
- A role built around ownership and measurable outcomes
- Opportunity to increase your value as the Expert Team's capability and impact grow
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Performance Recognition
Not just activity. We recognise technical leadership that produces measurable results.
At Ello Technology, we value leaders who solve difficult problems while building systems that prevent those problems from returning.
This is how we do that at Ello:
- We recognise strong technical and delivery leadership
- We value calm decision-making under pressure
- We recognise improvements in uptime, security and project performance
- We value reductions in repeat incidents and rework
- We make meaningful contributions visible and appreciated
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Career Growth
This role provides broad ownership across technical operations and delivery.
You will lead a function spanning escalations, infrastructure, security, projects, cloud and automation.
This is how we do that at Ello:
- Exposure to broad technical and operational leadership
- Involvement in architecture, security, cloud and automation decisions
- Increasing ownership as the Second Line function matures
- Opportunity to grow into broader technical, operations or architecture leadership
- A performance-led environment where responsibility grows with demonstrated capability
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Coaching & Development
Good engineers solve difficult technical problems.
Great technical leaders build teams and systems capable of solving those problems consistently without depending on one person.
This role gives you the opportunity to develop beyond technical execution into technical, people and operational leadership.
This is how we do that at Ello:
- Hands-on leadership of a high-impact technical team
- Exposure to incident, project, security and cloud leadership
- Experience building technical standards, QA systems and scorecards
- Continuous learning through complex real-world environments
- Direct, practical feedback designed to improve leadership and execution
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Meaningful Work & Culture
High standards. Strong ownership. Real impact.
The Second Line Team is Ello Technology's Expert Team . It owns the technical challenges and changes that have the greatest impact on our clients' environments.
This is how we do that at Ello:
- You solve complex problems that directly affect client operations
- You protect and strengthen client environments
- You deliver projects that create meaningful business improvement
- You use cloud and automation to improve efficiency
- You build systems that reduce recurring problems
- You develop engineers into stronger technical professionals
- You help create a technical business that is stable, secure, scalable and trusted