Manager, Application Support & Service Operations (2027 Start)

The Company

Christie’s, the world’s largest Art Business, is an incredibly exciting & enriching place to start or continue your career. Whether you work within one of our Specialist Art Departments, or in one of our more Operational teams, we are all working together with one common goal in mind: to continue the success of this 250 year old company, steeped in history, bringing fresh ideas whilst not forgetting our shared values; Integrity, Excellence, Innovation, Responsibility & Relationships. Colleagues across all departments are truly passionate about what they do and it is inspiring to work with industry leaders across our business. 

Why This Role Matters

Christie's is seeking an experienced and highly collaborative Director of Application Support & Service Operations to lead global Application Support, wider service operations, vendor governance and Christie's Technology Group (CTG) financial operations. 

Approximately half of the role is focused on the effective day-to-day operation of Application Support services, including incidents and requests, application health, vendor delivery, release readiness, stakeholder communication, service reporting and continual improvement.

The remaining remit supports the VP, Global Head of ITSM & Application Support across Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Service Request and Service Level Management, ServiceNow governance, vendor governance, annual CTG budgeting, monthly invoice processing, operational controls and cross-team improvement.

The successful candidate will act as a trusted operational delegate, providing leadership continuity, driving accountability and translating strategy into measurable outcomes. This is a leadership-focused role rather than a primarily hands-on engineering position.

How You'll Make an Impact

Application Support Operations 

• Provide day-to-day leadership and oversight for global Application Support across a complex portfolio of business-critical applications. 

• Coordinate internal application and product teams, infrastructure, security, service-management functions and external support providers. 

• Maintain visibility of incidents, requests, problems, changes, releases, risks, escalations and operational dependencies. 

• Act as a senior escalation point for critical application issues and provide delegated operational coverage when required. 

• Maintain an accurate view of application service health, support coverage, critical dependencies and operational risk. 

• Ensure support arrangements remain appropriate for global sales, releases, peak periods and other business-critical events. 
  

Incident, Major Incident and Escalation Management 

• Participate in or lead Major Incident bridges, engaging technical owners, vendors and business stakeholders at the appropriate time. 

• Ensure records contain accurate business impact, technical findings, decisions, actions, resolution details and closure evidence. 

• Ensure lessons from major incidents result in problems, known errors, knowledge, monitoring, controls or automation. 
  

Problem Management and Continual Improvement 

• Identify recurring incidents, high-impact trends and service weaknesses requiring formal Problem Management. 

• Ensure problems have accountable owners, target dates, root-cause activity, workarounds and corrective actions. 

• Challenge incomplete root-cause analysis or stalled remediation and track repeat-incident reduction. 

• Maintain a prioritized improvement backlog with measurable outcomes and closure evidence. 

• Promote automation, monitoring, knowledge and workflow improvements that reduce avoidable support demand. 
  

Release, Change and Operational Readiness 

• Ensure releases and material changes have defined support ownership, runbooks, monitoring, escalation routes, knowledge, training, communications and rollback plans. 
• Include Application Support in planning, testing, deployment, stabilization and transition-to-support activities. 
  

Knowledge and Support Enablement 

• Ensure teams maintain accurate knowledge, procedures, troubleshooting guides, support models and escalation matrices. 
• Embed knowledge creation and review into incident, problem, change, release and service-introduction practices. 
• Identify documentation gaps that cause repeat demand, delayed resolution or dependency on individuals. 
• Confirm effective onboarding and knowledge transfer for new internal and vendor resources. 
  

Wider Service Operations  

• Ensure processes are documented, understood, consistently followed, measurable and supported by appropriate controls. 
• Review performance and address gaps in ownership, workflow, data quality, compliance, adoption and user experience. 
• Coordinate process reviews, improvement plans, operational-level agreements, RACI models and escalation paths. 
• Create clear operating boundaries across Application Support, infrastructure, product teams, Service Desk, security and vendors. 
  

Vendor and Commercial Governance 

• Manage operational relationships with managed-service providers and strategic technology vendors. 
• Ensure delivery aligns with contracts, Statements of Work, SLAs, KPIs, XLAs, OLAs and Christie’s policies. 
• Maintain scorecards, action logs, risks and service-improvement plans and support governance meetings. 
• Challenge missed actions, weak reporting, repeat failures, poor resource continuity and insufficient improvement. 
• Ensure commitments have measurable outcomes, named owners, target dates and closure evidence. 
• Identify opportunities for automation, cost optimization, demand reduction and improved service quality. 
  

Financial Management, Annual Budgeting and Invoice Operations 

• Partner with CTG leadership to coordinate the annual CTG budgeting process, including preparation, consolidation, submission, review and approved in-year adjustments. 
• Coordinate inputs from CTG budget owners and maintain visibility of planned expenditure, financial commitments, accruals, purchase orders, actual spend and forecast position. 
• Work with Finance, Procurement, Accounts Payable, CTG leaders and vendors to support accurate financial planning, coding, allocation, forecasting and reporting. 
• Lead and manage the team responsible for monthly CTG invoice processing, establishing clear priorities, controls, service expectations and escalation routes.
• Ensure invoices are reviewed, validated, coded, approved and submitted within required processing cycles and in line with financial policies and delegated authorities. 
• Act as the senior operational escalation point for invoice discrepancies, purchase order issues, disputed charges and vendor payment concerns. 
  

Service Performance and Experience 

• Distinguish operational activity from service quality, customer experience, risk and business outcome. 
• Validate data before it is used for decisions, contractual discussions or executive reporting. 
• Identify deteriorating trends early and require corrective action. 
• Support appropriate XLAs and feedback mechanisms to measure stakeholder and user experience. 

What you’ll bring to the team

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Systems, Finance, Operations or equivalent professional experience.
• Strong practical knowledge of enterprise service-management and operational practices.
• Significant experience in Application Support, service operations or managed-service leadership.

• Experience overseeing a complex portfolio of business-critical applications and globally distributed services.

• Experience managing multiple providers against contracts, SLAs, KPIs, XLAs and improvement plans.

• Strong understanding of Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Request, Release, Service Level, Asset and Configuration Management.

• Demonstrated success handling operational escalations and high-impact incidents.

• Experience coordinating annual budgets, monthly forecasts, variance reporting, accruals, commitments and invoice operations.

• Experience leading or managing a transactional or shared-services team with clear controls, service levels and performance expectations.

• Strong knowledge of ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise platform.

• Ability to interpret operational and financial trends and translate findings into corrective action.

• Excellent stakeholder management across operational, technical, commercial, finance and business audiences.

• Experience governing process documents, runbooks, RACIs, support models, financial controls and audit evidence.

• Sound judgement, resilience, attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership.
• Experience overseeing a complex portfolio of business-critical applications and globally distributed services.

• Experience managing multiple providers against contracts, SLAs, KPIs, XLAs and improvement plans.

• Strong understanding of Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Change, Knowledge, Request, Release, Service Level, Asset and Configuration Management.

• Demonstrated success handling operational escalations and high-impact incidents.

• Experience coordinating annual budgets, monthly forecasts, variance reporting, accruals, commitments and invoice operations.

• Experience leading or managing a transactional or shared-services team with clear controls, service levels and performance expectations.

• Strong knowledge of ServiceNow or a comparable enterprise platform.

• Ability to interpret operational and financial trends and translate findings into corrective action.

• Excellent stakeholder management across operational, technical, commercial, finance and business audiences.

• Experience governing process documents, runbooks, RACIs, support models, financial controls and audit evidence.

• Sound judgement, resilience, attention to detail and a strong sense of ownership.
• ITIL 4 Foundation, Managing Professional, Strategic Leader or equivalent certification would be beneficial.

• ServiceNow certification or substantial platform and governance experience.

• Additional certification in project management, Agile, risk, process improvement, finance, cloud, asset or vendor management desirable.
  

What’s great about working for us

• 25 days annual leave + 1 day Birthday leave  
• Christie’s Christmas office closure (guaranteed between 25th Dec – 2nd Jan) – in addition to annual leave: almost two weeks to fully switch off and spend time with friends and family
• Additional 1 week’s annual leave within the year of a 5-year anniversary i.e. 5th, 10th, 15th and so on
• Volunteering day: Take an additional day of annual leave to volunteer for a charitable organisation that’s important to you
• Donation matching of up to £500 per annum to help you support the organisations you care about
• Flexible Fitness Fund - £400 per year expense allowance for health and wellness related activity (taxable)
• Access to world-renowned art: with regular exhibitions in our galleries to wander around and exclusive guided tours hosted by specialist colleagues
• Discretionary Bonus (dependent on the business and employee performance payable in March each year)      
• Generous retirement plan: We will double match your pension contribution up to 5% of your basic salary (Max 10% contribution from Christie’s)
• Private Health Insurance – no employee contribution needed, subsidised for other family members
• Dental Insurance – (may be extended at personal cost)
• Generous Income Protection Insurance in the event of accident, sickness or injury after 12 months
• Competitive Life Insurance policy from first day 
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to personal advice and support services including counselling
• Eyecare vouchers (once a year)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Christie’s Extras – discounts on over 800 retailers, holiday packages, dinners and weekly shops
• Seniorcare by Lottie, a comprehensive eldercare solution
• Robust family first policy:
• 16 weeks full pay on Maternity Leave  
• Four-day week, for eight weeks, at full pay on return from Maternity Leave
• Dependent back-up care: 10 sessions/ days of childcare or eldercare per year
• The Stork Club: Our community of parents who meet regularly over breakfasts, lunch, afternoon tea…

              *Christie’s reserves the right to change company benefits at any time

Closing Date: Sunday 18th October

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