Job Description

Closing Date for Applications

14th August 2026

Salary Range

£59,031 to £82,400 per annum

What is the purpose of this job?

Platform Services provides a suite of critical enterprise technology capabilities that underpin multiple Rail Delivery Group products and services. These include cloud infrastructure, identity and access management services, API and integration platforms, monitoring and observability tooling, and other shared technology components.

The Senior Service Manager – Platform Services is accountable for the tactical and strategic management of these shared capabilities, ensuring they are delivered securely, reliably, and in accordance with agreed service levels and contractual obligations.

The role provides a single point of accountability for a highly critical service environment where failures can impact multiple products and customers simultaneously. The post holder will lead service governance across a complex multi-supplier ecosystem, coordinating cloud providers, infrastructure suppliers, platform partners, internal architecture teams and product teams to ensure effective operational delivery.

The role requires a strong understanding of modern cloud platforms, platform operations, service reliability, infrastructure dependencies and operational risk management.

The Senior Service Manager will drive platform resilience, oversee major incident response, coordinate cross-supplier recovery activities and ensure platform capabilities evolve to meet the needs of RDG and the wider rail industry.

What can I expect to do in this job?

Service Ownership and Governance

• Act as the accountable service owner for Platform Services.
• Define and maintain the Service Model, Service Design Package and operational support model.
• Establish service governance arrangements across internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure services operate in accordance with contractual obligations, service levels and operational policies.
• Maintain service roadmaps aligned to strategic technology and business objectives.
• Drive service maturity and continuous improvement activities.
• Oversee the operational management of cloud, infrastructure, identity, API and monitoring services.
• Ensure effective monitoring, observability and operational control arrangements are in place.
• Maintain visibility of platform health, performance, capacity and resilience.
• Proactively identify operational risks and coordinate mitigation activities.
• Review service performance against KPIs, SLAs and operational objectives.
• Lead service response during major incidents affecting Platform Services.
• Coordinate technical and operational activities across multiple suppliers and support teams.
• Ensure clear ownership, communication and escalation during service disruption.
• Chair major incident reviews and post-incident investigations.
• Drive root cause analysis and problem management activities.
• Ensure lessons learned result in measurable service improvements.

Platform Operations

• Oversee the operational management of cloud, infrastructure, identity, API and monitoring services.
• Ensure effective monitoring, observability and operational control arrangements are in place.
• Maintain visibility of platform health, performance, capacity and resilience.
• Proactively identify operational risks and coordinate mitigation activities.
• Review service performance against KPIs, SLAs and operational objectives.

Major Incident and Problem Management

• Lead service response during major incidents affecting Platform Services.
• Coordinate technical and operational activities across multiple suppliers and support teams.
• Ensure clear ownership, communication and escalation during service disruption.
• Chair major incident reviews and post-incident investigations.
• Drive root cause analysis and problem management activities.
• Ensure lessons learned result in measurable service improvements.

Supplier and Partner Management

• Manage relationships with platform suppliers and technology partners.
• Coordinate service delivery across cloud, infrastructure, identity and integration providers.
• Hold suppliers accountable for contractual performance and service outcomes.
• Facilitate cross-supplier collaboration and dispute resolution.
• Review supplier performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure platform changes are assessed for operational and business impact.
• Provide service management oversight of platform releases and infrastructure changes.
• Participate in Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) processes.
• Ensure operational readiness activities are completed prior to service introduction or change.
• Validate rollback, support and recovery arrangements.
• Own platform service continuity and disaster recovery governance.
• Ensure resilience requirements are understood and tested.
• Coordinate disaster recovery exercises and service resilience reviews.
• Support security incident response and remediation activities.
• Ensure operational risks associated with platform services are actively managed and reported.
• Build effective relationships with product owners, service managers, architecture teams, suppliers and industry stakeholders.
• Provide clear and timely communication during operational events.
• Present service performance, risks and improvement plans to governance forums and senior leadership.
• Represent Platform Services within industry and RDG operational forums.

Change and Release Governance

• Ensure platform changes are assessed for operational and business impact.
• Provide service management oversight of platform releases and infrastructure changes.
• Participate in Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) processes.
• Ensure operational readiness activities are completed prior to service introduction or change.
• Validate rollback, support and recovery arrangements.

Resilience, Business Continuity and Security

• Own platform service continuity and disaster recovery governance.
• Ensure resilience requirements are understood and tested.
• Coordinate disaster recovery exercises and service resilience reviews.
• Support security incident response and remediation activities.

Ensure operational risks associated with platform services are actively managed and reported.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build effective relationships with product owners, service managers, architecture teams, suppliers and industry stakeholders.
• Provide clear and timely communication during operational events.
• Present service performance, risks and improvement plans to governance forums and senior leadership.

Represent Platform Services within industry and RDG operational forums.

Requirements

Essential

• Extensive experience in Service Management within complex technology environments.
• Strong understanding of ITIL Service Management principles and practices.
• Experience managing cloud-hosted and enterprise-scale technology services.
• Experience coordinating multiple suppliers within a service delivery environment.
• Strong understanding of:
• Cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS)
• Identity and access management
• API and integration platforms
• Infrastructure and hosting services
• Monitoring and observability tooling
• Experience leading Major Incident and Problem Management activities.
• Experience managing operational risk within mission-critical services.
• Ability to translate technical issues into business impacts.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience working within a 24x7 operational environment.

Desirable

• ITIL v4 Foundation or higher.
• Experience of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) concepts.
• Experience of platform engineering or cloud operations environments.
• Experience of regulated or critical national infrastructure environments.
• Knowledge of rail industry operational systems and service delivery models.

Benefits

Why Work for RDG?

We offer a highly competitive package, including:

• 75% discount on rail travel (for work and leisure), plus international rail discounts
• 30 Days annual leave (plus buy/sell options and additional leave for key life events)
• Two Personal Development Days are granted to employees annually
• Interest-free Season Ticket Loan for commuting costs
• Enhanced family leave – 30 weeks full pay for maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and shared parental leave
• Pension scheme – up to 8.64% employer contribution
• Subsidised Private Medical Insurance (Vitality PPP) and Health Cash Plan (Healthshield)
• Access to our flexible benefits portal - a central hub for accessing retail discounts, shopping, dining, travel, and entertainment perks
• Flexible working arrangements available