Service Delivery Manager

VACANCY: Service Delivery Manager - Plus1X Solutions Based in Gauteng

A vacancy exists in the Managed Services Department for a Service Delivery Manager reporting to Lisa Fielder .

Purpose of Position:

The Service Delivery Manager is accountable for the end-to-end delivery, governance and continual improvement of assigned managed services. The role serves as the primary operational interface between Plus1X Solutions, the customer and internal delivery teams, ensuring that contracted services are delivered predictably, securely and commercially responsibly. The incumbent translates contractual commitments into an executable service plan, drives service performance and customer outcomes, manages escalations, risks and dependencies, and ensures that reporting, governance and improvement actions are accurate, timely and owned.

Main Responsibilities:

Service Governance and Customer Leadership

- Own the customer service relationship and act as the primary point of accountability for operational service delivery.

- Establish and maintain the governance cadence, including operational reviews, monthly service reviews, quarterly business reviews and executive escalations where required.

- Maintain an agreed service management plan covering stakeholders, communication, reporting, escalation, risks, dependencies and improvement priorities.

- Set clear expectations, communicate service health honestly and convert technical detail into business impact, decisions and actions.

SLA, KPI and Operational Performance

- Monitor performance against contracted service levels, key performance indicators, operating level agreements and underpinning supplier commitments.

- Ensure incidents, requests, problems and changes are managed through the agreed IT service management processes and appropriately escalated.

- Challenge aged tickets, recurring incidents, weak ownership and poor-quality updates; drive recovery plans where performance is at risk.

- Validate the accuracy of service data and ensure reported results are traceable to source systems and agreed definitions.

Major Incident, Problem and Change Oversight

- Coordinate the customer-facing response to priority incidents, ensuring timely communications, clear ownership, business-impact updates and restoration focus.

- Ensure post-incident reviews and root-cause analyses are completed to the required quality and that corrective actions are tracked to closure.

- Provide service-impact input into change planning and governance, including customer communication, risk evaluation and readiness confirmation.

Commercial and Contract Management

- Understand the service schedule, statement of work, assumptions, exclusions, pricing model and change-control obligations for each assigned customer.

- Monitor consumption, resource utilisation, third-party costs and scope variance; identify margin leakage and initiate corrective or change-control action.

- Support invoicing validation, renewals, service expansion and commercial reviews with accurate operational evidence.

- Prevent informal commitments that create unpriced scope, unmanaged risk or delivery obligations outside the contract.

Risk, Security and Compliance

- Maintain service risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and decisions, with owners, due dates, impact and mitigation actions.

- Ensure delivery teams operate within applicable customer policies, security controls, access requirements and Plus1X governance standards.

- Escalate material operational, security, compliance, capacity and continuity risks promptly through the agreed channels.

- Support audit evidence, service continuity planning and compliance reviews relevant to the contracted service.

Continual Service Improvement

- Maintain a prioritised continual improvement register linked to measurable customer, service, efficiency or risk-reduction outcomes.

- Use trend analysis, customer feedback, problem data, automation opportunities and operational insights to identify improvements.

- Build approved improvements into delivery plans, assign accountable owners and demonstrate realised value.

Delivery Team and Supplier Coordination

- Coordinate internal technical teams, service desk, field services, project teams and third-party suppliers to deliver a joined-up service.

- Clarify ownership and dependencies using the agreed responsibility model; hold contributors accountable without bypassing functional management structures.

- Confirm that service documentation, support procedures, knowledge articles, asset and configuration information and escalation paths remain current.

Support transitions into service and ensure operational acceptance criteria, documentation, training, tooling and support ownership are complete.

Key Deliverables/KPIs:

Governance: Published governance calendar; accurate minutes, decisions and action logs issued within two business days; overdue actions actively escalated.

Service reporting: Monthly service report delivered by the agreed deadline, with validated SLA/KPI results, trends, business impact, risks, improvement actions and clear executive commentary.

Service performance: Performance maintained at or above contracted targets; breaches supported by documented cause, recovery action, owner and target date.

Customer experience: Regular stakeholder engagement, transparent communication and agreed customer feedback actions; relationship risks addressed before they become formal escalations.

Major incidents: Communications delivered at the contracted cadence; post-incident review and root-cause analysis completed within agreed timelines; corrective actions tracked to closure.

Risk and compliance: Current RAID and security/compliance action registers; material risks escalated promptly; audit evidence supplied accurately and on time.

Commercial control: Monthly review of scope, consumption, resource utilisation and supplier costs; variances and margin risks identified early and managed through corrective action or formal change control.

Continual improvement: Active improvement roadmap with quantified outcomes; progress reviewed monthly and benefits evidenced after implementation.

Service documentation: Service management plan, contacts, escalation matrix, support procedures, asset/configuration records and knowledge content reviewed and kept current.

Required Capabilities:

- Strong customer leadership, relationship management and executive communication skills.

- Sound knowledge of ITIL-aligned service management practices, including incident, problem, change, request, service level and continual improvement management.

- Commercial awareness, including scope control, cost drivers, utilisation, margin protection, invoicing inputs and change control.

- Ability to interpret contracts and translate obligations into practical controls, measures and accountable delivery actions.

- Data literacy and attention to detail sufficient to challenge reports, identify trends and communicate business impact accurately.

- Calm, structured decision-making during major incidents, escalations and competing priorities.

- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and suppliers without relying solely on positional authority.

- Strong facilitation, negotiation, conflict-management, problem-solving and written communication skills.

- Risk, security and compliance mindset, with the judgement to escalate material issues early.

- High personal ownership, integrity, follow-through and willingness to have direct, constructive conversations.

Required Experience:

- 5-7 years of experience in IT service delivery, managed services, customer success, operations or service management roles.

- At least 2-3 years of accountability for customer-facing service governance, SLA performance and operational escalations.

- Demonstrated experience producing and presenting service reports to operational and executive stakeholders.

- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary technical teams and third-party suppliers across infrastructure, cloud, network, workplace or security services.

- Practical experience with IT service management platforms, service metrics, major incident management, problem management and change governance.

- Experience with contract interpretation, scope management, commercial reviews, renewals or change requests is strongly preferred .

Educational Qualifications :

- Relevant diploma or degree in Information Technology, Business Management, Service Management or a related field; equivalent demonstrable experience may be considered.

- ITIL 4 Foundation certification is required or must be obtained within an agreed period after appointment.

- ITIL Practice Manager, ITIL Managing Professional, SIAM, COBIT, ISO/IEC 20000, project management or customer-success certification is advantageous.

- Ongoing professional development in managed services, commercial management, cybersecurity, governance and leadership is expected.

If you are interested in this vacancy, please apply via the job ad post, no later than 23 October 2026 .

Applicants will be required to participate in a comprehensive assessment process and must be deemed competent.

Work sample and / or psychometrics tests will be undertaken as part of the selection process.

Applicants who have not been contacted within three months from the closing date should consider themselves unsuccessful.

Preference will be given to candidates from the designated groups.