Service Assurance Lead

Summary

The Service Assurance Lead is a senior role accountable for leading a team of Service Assurance Managers to deliver effective Service Management across assigned D&T Tribes (product, platform, and infrastructure). Embedded within these Tribes, the team acts as the key link between Service Management practices and delivery teams, ensuring adherence to ITIL4, DevOps, and SecOps frameworks while meeting the required service levels for M&S operations and stores.

As ambassadors for Service Management, the team supports Tribe members in balancing delivery velocity with risk mitigation through standardised practices. They proactively monitor performance, identify trends and risks, and work collaboratively with Tribe leadership to deliver insights, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives. The Service Assurance Lead is responsible for driving performance and maturity across their Tribes and regularly engages with Tribe and business leaders to align priorities, manage risks, and reinforce the value of Service Management.

What’s in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…

• After completing your probationary period, you’ll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

What you'll do

• Manage a team of Senior and Service Assurance Managers aligned to specific Tribes, ensuring effective onboarding, coaching, and targeted training to embed service management practices and close performance gaps.
• Oversee Tribe compliance and performance against SLAs and KPIs, leading continuous improvement of Service Management practices and scaling successful interventions across teams.
• Act as the senior contact for business stakeholders, partnering with Tribe leaders to communicate the value of Service Management and secure buy-in for improvements.
• Identify trends, risks, and issues; maintain the risk register; lead development and tracking of remediation plans; and ensure leadership support for addressing key challenges.
• Ensure the team supports major incident escalation and stakeholder communications, delivering regular reports on performance, risks, and progress to Tribe and Service Management leadership.

Who you are

• Proven ability to lead and motivate a team of Senior and Service Assurance Managers, driving performance, accountability, and effective collaboration.
• Skilled in managing senior stakeholder relationships, communicating change effectively, and securing buy-in for service management improvements.
• Deep understanding of ITIL4, DevOps, SecOps, and service management tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Power BI), with strong knowledge of IT infrastructure and operations.
• Strong capability in analysing performance metrics, ensuring SLA compliance, identifying risks, and developing actionable mitigation strategies.
• Confident in presenting service insights and reports, with clear business awareness and the strategic mindset to align service delivery with organisational goals.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re ambitious about the future of retail. We’re innovating, disrupting, and leading the way into a more inspiring, digital era. It’s an exciting time to be part of M&S.

To support us on our journey, we’re building inclusive, diverse teams where everyone can be themselves, do their best work, and make change happen. We support each other and succeed together.

Don’t worry if you don’t meet every single requirement of the job description. It’s more of a guide to what’s possible within the role. If you’re passionate, ready to work hard, and think the role feels right for you, we’d love to hear from you.

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