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 g ood 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 a prayer room

A work-life balance is key for us all. We offer flexible working as well as health, well-being and discount schemes. The annual leave package starts at 25 days per year and increases to 30 days over five years. We offer generous maternity, paternity, shared, and adoption leave.

This gives you a flavour of what’s available, but there is so much more we could mention – see Civil Service Employee Benefits , Civil Service Careers for further information.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Further information about success profiles with guidance on how to complete your application form is available here - About the application process , Civil Service Careers

Application Process

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on your experience and will be asked to complete:

• A CV. This should include your job history, qualifications, skills and experience.
• A 500 -word personal statement: "Referring to the ' Job Description' and 'Person specification' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples."
• Technical Statement : Please 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.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form . Success Profiles: Experience - GOV.UK

• You will also be asked to give examples of behaviours, which is one element of success profiles - Behaviours , Civil Service Careers When giving examples of behaviours, please use the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format – see A brief guide to competencies - GOV.UK

For further guidance and information on how to complete your application CV application, Personal Statement, Technical statement and Behaviours, you are encouraged to visit the Civil Service Careers website About the application process , Civil Service Careers

Sift

Scoring for all criteria for the application is from 1 to 7 – A score of 4 and above will progress to interview unless there is a large number of applications, if so an initial sift will be conducted using the CV and Personal Statement . Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview. The panel may agree a benchmark score higher than 4 with a rationale for the decision. Any candidates applying under the Disability Confident Scheme who scores 4 or above on all of the criteria will be offered an interview.

Interview

If successful at the application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on experience, behaviours and strengths.

For experience, we will ask you to tell us – in your own words – about your relevant experience against the requirements set out in the job advert. You are asked to keep this to 10 minutes.

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

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

When giving examples of behaviours, please use the Situation, Task, Action, Result (STAR) format – see A brief guide to competencies - GOV.UK

A range of Strengths relevant to this role will be tested at interview. More information on Strengths : Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK

Sift and Interview dates

The sift will be conducted week commencing 12 October 2026.

Interviews are currently scheduled to take place in person at the VMD the week commencing 2 November 2026.

Please note, this timeline is indicative at this stage and could be subject to change.

You cannot claim back any expenses incurred during the recruitment process.

Contract

This role isn’t suited to a home-working contract.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

If you are new to the civil service, or coming back into the civi