IT Operations Team Leader

IT Operations Team Leader

Location: Mariestad or Värnamo, Sweden
Type: Full-time, Permanent
Language Requirement: English (Fluent), Swedish (Fluent)
Workplace Model: Hybrid - 60% work from home permitted

Travel: Up to 30% (Sweden & Denmark); A driving license is required
Reporting to: IT Regional Infrastructure Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced IT Operations Team Leader to join our Shared Services team. In this role, you will be responsible for leading and managing a team of IT professionals in delivering and supporting the organization’s IT infrastructure.

You will play a pivotal role in ensuring the stability, performance, and security of our IT environment while driving continuous improvement and innovation.

Principal Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Team Leadership

• Manage and develop a high-performing IT infrastructure team.
• Assign tasks, set priorities, and monitor team performance.
• Foster a collaborative and supportive team culture.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to team members.

Infrastructure Management

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the IT infrastructure, including servers, networks, storage, and telecommunications systems.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and security of IT systems.
• Develop and implement IT infrastructure standards and best practices.
• Monitor system performance and identify potential issues proactively.

Project Management

• Lead and participate in IT infrastructure projects, from planning to implementation.
• Manage project timelines, budgets, and resources effectively.
• Coordinate with other departments and stakeholders to ensure project success.

Incident Management

• Provide leadership during IT incidents and outages.
• Coordinate incident response and recovery efforts.
• Implement measures to prevent recurrence of incidents.

Capacity Planning

• Analyze IT infrastructure capacity and performance.
• Develop capacity plans to meet future business needs.
• Optimize resource utilization to maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Vendor Management

• Manage relationships with IT infrastructure vendors and suppliers.
• Negotiate contracts and service level agreements.
• Ensure vendor performance meets expectations.

As IT Operations Team Leader, you will oversee the day-to-day management of our IT infrastructure environment, including servers, networks, storage and telecommunications systems. You will provide technical leadership, support strategic infrastructure projects, drive continuous improvement and ensure the effective delivery of services that enable business success.

Working closely with regional and global stakeholders, you will balance hands-on technical expertise with strong leadership capabilities, helping to develop team performance while ensuring operational excellence across the IT estate. A fantastic opportunity to combine technical leadership with people management in a dynamic international environment.

About You

We are looking for an experienced IT Infrastructure leader who combines strong technical expertise with a passion for people leadership and operational excellence. You have a proven track record of leading infrastructure or IT operations teams and creating an environment where individuals and teams can thrive. With a collaborative and motivating leadership style, you enjoy coaching others, building high-performing teams and driving continuous improvement.

You bring broad technical knowledge across server, network, storage and virtualisation technologies, along with a solid understanding of IT Service Management principles and frameworks such as ITIL. You are comfortable operating in complex environments, using your analytical mindset and problem-solving abilities to ensure stable, secure and efficient IT services.

In addition to operational leadership, you have successfully delivered infrastructure projects, balancing business priorities, stakeholder expectations and technical requirements. You are an effective communicator who can confidently engage with both technical specialists and business stakeholders, translating complex topics into clear and actionable insights.

Whether your background includes a degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or a related field, or you have developed equivalent expertise through hands-on experience, you are driven by the opportunity to influence strategy, develop people and shape the future of IT infrastructure within a growing organisation.

Desirable skills & qualifications:

• Experience with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure).
• Certifications in relevant IT technologies (e.g., Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA).
• Experience in a shared services environment.

Why DS Smith?

At DS Smith, you'll be part of an international organisation where innovation, sustainability, and customer focus drive everything we do. We are passionate about developing smarter, more sustainable packaging solutions and empowering our people to make a real impact. Here, you'll have the opportunity to grow professionally and work alongside talented colleagues in a collaborative and supportive environment.

DS Smith is a leading packaging company operating in 34 countries with approximately 30,000 employees worldwide. To learn more about us, visit: https://www.dssmith.com/sv/packaging

We want our employees to thrive both professionally and personally. That's why we offer a range of benefits that support health, wellbeing, and work-life balance, including private health insurance, dental care, regular health check-ups, subsidised lunch, among other benefits.

A Workplace for Everyone

At DS Smith, we believe that the best teams are built by people with diverse experiences, perspectives, and strengths. So, if this role feels right for you, but you do not meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply. Your ambition, commitment, and potential can be just as important as meeting every requirement listed in the job advertisement.

Application and Further Information

The position is a permanent, full-time role and reports to I&T Regional Infrastructure Manager Justin Hoveland.

The starting date will be agreed upon individually; however, our ambition is to have the position filled as soon as possible.

Working hours: Monday to Friday, 07:45 to 16:30 (local time)

Out-of-Hours Support: As part of the team leadership role, you will participate in an on-call rotation to ensure 24/7 escalation support for critical IT systems. During on-call shifts, you are expected to respond to production-critical outages within 30 minutes.

For additional information or questions regarding the recruitment process, please contact our recruitment team at [email protected]. Please note that we do not accept applications via email.

If you have specific questions about the role, please contact: Justin Hoveland, [email protected]

As part of our recruitment process, we use screening questions as well as logical reasoning and personality assessments to support a fair and objective selection process.

Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis, so don't wait to submit yours!

Please submit your application and CV in English.

We look forward to hearing from you!

#LI-MR