IT Operations & Service Management Lead

Job summary

About the VMD

The VMD is the regulatory and policy lead responsible for issues concerning the authorisation, use, and manufacture of veterinary medicines in the UK.

Our aim is to protect public health, animal health, and the environment, and promote animal welfare by assuring the safety, quality and effectiveness of veterinary medicines.

Find out more at: About us - Veterinary Medicines Directorate - GOV.UK

About the Job

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate is looking for an IT Operations and Service Management Lead to join its IT Operations team.
This is a hands-on operational role with service management responsibility. The post holder will support the reliable day-to-day running of IT services that underpin VMD’s regulatory, scientific and business activities, with a particular focus on modern computing, end user services, service desk operations and live service support.

The role provides HEO-level capacity within the IT Operations team, ensuring that operational work is not only delivered but also coordinated, prioritised and managed effectively. The post holder will be actively involved in operational activity, including incident, request, change and problem handling, service desk support, user support, technical triage and escalation of live service issues.

The post holder will work closely with EO IT Operations Support colleagues, providing senior technical judgement, day-to-day prioritisation and escalation support, while also directly contributing to hands-on operational tasks. This ensures routine operational work is delivered efficiently, while more complex decisions, risks and service management responsibilities are handled at the appropriate level.

As VMD continues to rely on a broad range of digital and technology services to support its statutory functions, this role will help strengthen service resilience, continuity and quality. It will reduce reliance on individuals, improve knowledge sharing, and ensure operational responsibilities are managed in a sustainable and consistent way.

This is an ideal role for someone who enjoys working close to live services, combining practical IT operations delivery with service management responsibilities, and contributing directly to the stability and effectiveness of IT operations at VMD.

Job description

Your main responsibilities include:

• Coordinate and support the day-to-day running of VMD’s IT Operations and Service Desk function, including running daily service stand-ups or huddles to review workload, prioritise incidents and requests, identify blockers, agree ownership, and escalate service issues where required.
• Provide hands-on support for live IT services, including end-user computing, Microsoft 365, device provisioning, user access, service desk tickets and operational troubleshooting, working closely with colleagues, subject matter experts and technical teams.
• Provide day-to-day operational leadership and senior judgement for service desk and IT operations activity, supporting colleagues with prioritisation, decision-making, escalation routes and resolution of more complex or higher-impact issues.
• Support effective incident, request, change and problem management through Jira Service Management, helping to ensure tickets are clearly documented, assigned, updated, progressed and resolved in line with agreed processes.
• Help improve service quality and operational resilience by identifying recurring issues, supporting problem management, maintaining knowledge articles, runbooks and handover notes, and reducing reliance on individual knowledge.
• Work collaboratively with users, colleagues, suppliers, technical teams and stakeholders, bringing a positive, proactive and “can-do” approach to resolving issues, explaining IT matters clearly, and supporting reliable, user-focused IT service delivery.
• Contribute to the safe operation and continuous improvement of VMD’s technology environment, including Microsoft 365, Intune, Defender, Entra ID, Jira, Confluence, cloud services, legacy systems, supplier-supported services, asset management, IT inventory control, device lifecycle management and future service improvements.
• Complying with ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 27001 (information security) standards, and GDPR and Information Management requirements.
• Act corporately – meeting, role-modelling, embedding, and championing the corporate objectives set by the VMD.

Person specification

We require someone that has experience:

• Of working in an IT operations, service desk, technical support or live service support environment.
• Of using a ticketing or service management tool, such as Jira Service Management or similar, to record, manage, prioritise, progress and report on operational work.
• Of supporting users with workplace technology, including laptops, Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, user accounts, access requests, mobile devices, laptop builds, device provisioning, Autopilot, Intune or similar end-user services..
• Of working with colleagues, suppliers and technical teams to support reliable day-to-day IT service delivery, including effective handover, documentation, knowledge sharing and continuous service improvement.
• Of monitoring operational service information, including ticket trends, service desk performance, recurring incidents, operational metrics, alerts and security-related issues, using this information to identify risks, support proactive service improvement and coordinate appropriate escalation, including to suppliers, technical specialists or SOC/security monitoring functions where required.

We require someone that :

• Has a good understanding of IT service management practices, including incident, request, change and problem management, using ITIL-based or equivalent service management approaches.
• Has the ability to assess the impact and urgency of IT issues, prioritise work effectively, identify trends or recurring issues, and escalate risks, service issues or complex technical matters when needed.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Outline your knowledge and experience of 1st to 3rd line IT support, Microsoft 365 administration and end-user computing services;- including incident management, technical troubleshooting, service improvement, and the day-to-day IT service delivery.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,795, Veterinary Medicines Directorate contributes £11,238 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension is one of the best workplace pension schemes in the UK public sector, with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• Free onsite parking
• Free eyesight test
• Onsite gym
• Access to