Senior Infrastructure & Operations Manager

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Overview

Apetito is the UK's leading supplier of food to the health and social care sectors. Servicing over 400 hospitals, 450 care homes and thousands more through our work with Local Authorities, we produce delicious, nutritious, and sustainable meals for people at home or in care. Through our food we look to 'make a real difference' to all our customers, up and down the country.

About the Role

This is the most senior role in the infrastructure and operations (I&O) function within IT, accountable for IT I&O throughout the organisation.

You will be responsible for the delivery of all IT infrastructure and related IT operations used to enable business capabilities and services across the enterprise including manufacturing and logistics technologies.
This role reports to the VP of Information Technology and has line management responsibilities for a team of 10.

The Senior Infrastructure & Operations Manager brings experience, knowledge, and future vision for transforming the I&O function including its strategy, operating model, product and service offerings and workforce.

The role holder is a senior stakeholder in all relationships with externally sourced infrastructure and operations capabilities.
As a key member of the senior IT leadership team this role contributes to the development and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and is responsible for ensuring I&O strategy is fully aligned, positioning I&O to deliver compelling business value.

Our Values

Established in 1958, as a family-owned business, our values sit at the very heart of what we do. We are proud to be a business that 'makes a real difference', committed to producing 'great food to be proud of'. We have developed a range of products designed to 'enhance health and well-being' for all our customers. We are proud supporters of British food and farming and focus on using the best 'ethical and sustainably' sourced produce.
We are driven by a 'passion for service', dedicated to feeding some of the UK's most vulnerable people, offering healthy and delicious meals to customers across the UK.
Ethical & Sustainable
As a business which operates within food manufacturing, we believe we have an obligation to make a positive contribution on society. With over 300 products in our range, we ensure our produce is ethically and sustainably sourced, working only with suppliers who share our commitment to making a positive impact.
We're a proud member of the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI), a leading alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs, that promote respect for workers' rights globally. All our new suppliers now operate under the ETI's guidelines.
We are also a member of The UK's Plastics Pact, an initiative looking to transform the plastic packaging industry in the UK. As part of the initiative, we have committed, along with other ambitious targets, to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic completely by 2025.

Responsibilities

• Sets the mission, vision, and strategy of the I&O organisation to maximize the success of business and IT enterprise initiatives.
• Introduces innovative, differentiating infrastructure and operations capabilities that enhance our overall competitive capabilities and enhance employee productivity.
• Works with the IT senior leadership team on the service portfolio and governance required to prioritize resources, including budget. Works with key stakeholders to measure and prioritize technical debt remediation.
• Builds successful stakeholder relationships with other IT and business key stakeholders by developing a clear understanding of business needs, acting as a trusted advisor, and ensuring cost-effective delivery of IT services to meet those needs.
• Creates and aligns an I&O value map by linking targeted business outcomes with the future-state business capabilities required to achieve them.
• Drives alignment of I&O strategies to the organization's environmental, social and governance goals.
• Develops and controls the annual I&O budget to ensure that it's consistent with the overall strategic objectives of IT and the enterprise and is within plan. Creates a culture of continuous cost optimisation.
• Defines, develops, and manages a comprehensive and integrated IT Service Management (ITSM) landscape, based on best-practice processes, disciplines, and related toolsets. This includes delivery of a comprehensive IT asset management program.
• Collaborates with the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to ensure I&O contributes to, embraces, and applies security strategy.
• Operates a formal governance mechanism to establish and monitor effective controls for the processes and functions performed by I&O teams. Supports periodic reviews by audit teams, compliance teams and other risk-related functions as required.
• Develops and executes a strategy to improve awareness of the business value that the Infrastructure and Operations function provides, and continuously seeks to ensure alignment to customer needs.
• Designs and develops a strong and diverse I&O leadership team, together with a reporting structure for the function.
• Works collaboratively with direct reports to support their career progression, nurture their development and to help them realize their potential.
• Improves IT resilience by executing strategies that improve reliability, tolerability, and disaster recovery readiness.
• Keeps track of trends and provides direction on what emerging technologies should be incorporated into I&O products and services to successfully deliver overall IT strategy.
• Champions I&O involvement in the organization's innovation efforts and encourages experimentation with new solutions to avail business opportunities.
• Provides strategic direction and oversight for the full life cycle of IT systems, working in close partnership with peers, and identifies where common approaches, solutions, and shared platforms provided by I&O could drive efficiency.
• Directs the development of an I&O sourcing strategy and provides executive oversight for strategic vendor and partner relationship management.
• Works with HR and the IT leadership team to develop and execute workforce plans that ensure I&O can supply skilled resources to meet demand.
• Develops the maturity of I&O to improve efficiency, deliver new innovations and increase collaboration with other IT and business areas (e.g., through Agile, DevOps, platform, and product approaches).
• Drives the adoption of (and commitment towards) service improvements through a programmatic approach to continuous improvement which also measures impact and shares results.
• Supports the VP of IT by implementing infrastructure solutions that align to the enterprise architecture framework and roadmap.
• Continuously evaluates the business value of I&O, including the use of metrics such as Key Performance Indicators, Outcome Driven Metrics and Objectives and Key Results.
• Collaborates with peer IT Leaders to ensure knowledge and insight can be freely shared.
• Manage end to end infrastructure operations

Qualifications

Education & Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, information systems, business administration, related field, or equivalent work experienc

Skills & Experience

• Extensive IT Infrastructure experience, ideally within a multi-site/multi-branch environment with a Head Office (Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution, etc)
• A least 2 years of previous experience managing the day-to-day IT Operations of a medium to large customer-facing organisation.
• A proactive, hands-on all rounder who combines a highly technical skillset with the ability to lead technical teams.
• Significant experience of leading enterprise scale infrastructure transformation, including planning, designing and building solutions that are aligned to strategic objectives.
• Experience as a key contributor to a large-scale IT improvement program and knowledge of the associated challenges, is essential
• Exceptional leadership skills, with the ability to develop and communicate an I&O vision that inspires and motivates staff and aligns with the IT and business strategy
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills in complex environments where resources required for success may not be in direct control of this role
• Evangelizing and implementing transformational initiatives where the target state included agile, DevOps, SRE, cloud adoption at scale.
• Consolidating operations capabilities in large, complex enterprise organizations to deliver improved efficiency, while balancing customer preferences for agility.
• Excellent analytical, strategic conceptual thinking, strategic planning, and execution skills
• Ability to build consensus, make decisions based on many variables, and gain support for major initiatives.
• Self-starter who self-assesses and solicits feedback from others to improve their performance.
• Experience developing strategies to leverage fusion teams that embrace business technologists
• Strong business acumen, including industry, domain-specific knowledge of the enterprise and its business units
• Delivery of hybrid working excellence to improve customer and user experiences
• Developing staff including coaching, mentoring and performance management.
• Maximizing effectiveness of nearshore / offshore resource models
• Creating self-service mechanisms to streamline infrastructure provisioning and ongoing management
• Budget planning and financial management, preferably with showback and/or chargeback models
• Deep understanding of current and emerging I&O technologies and practices, and how other enterprises are employing them
• Applying I&O capabilities to achieve regulatory or statutory compliance requirements.
• Establishing and improving DevOps, as well as other working practices (e.g., ITIL).
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute a strategic staffing plan that ensures the right people are in the right roles at the right time, and employees are highly engaged and satisfied
• Leading cloud adoption (at scale), including establishing governance mechanisms, delivering migration projects and modifying I&O's target operating model.
• Developing governance practices to track and measure the quality of services, and maintain service improvement plans.
• Third-party management, working closely with sourcing and vendor managers.