Operational Readiness Manager

Operational Readiness & Service Transition Manager

London (Hybrid)

Full-Time | Permanent

Own the transition from delivery to operational excellence

At Maintel, successful service delivery doesn't end at implementation—it begins when customers go live.

We're looking for an experienced Operational Readiness & Service Transition Manager to lead our Operational Readiness function and ensure every new or changed service is fully prepared for live operation, support and long-term success.

This is a pivotal leadership role sitting at the intersection of Project Delivery, Operations, Service Management and Customer Lifecycle Management. You'll be responsible for defining and governing the frameworks, controls and quality gates that ensure services transition seamlessly into live operation, while also overseeing the professional management of customer service cessation activities.

Leading a specialist team of Operational Readiness Specialists and Customer Lifecycle Coordinators, you'll help shape the future of service onboarding, operational acceptance and customer lifecycle governance across Maintel's growing managed services portfolio.

The Opportunity

This role offers a unique opportunity to build and mature a critical capability within Maintel's Design & Transition function.

You will own the processes, governance and operational controls that ensure:

• New services are fully operationally accepted before go-live.
• Support teams are equipped with the knowledge, tooling and documentation needed to deliver excellent customer outcomes.
• Early Life Support activities are effectively managed and stabilised.
• Customer cessation activities are executed professionally, compliantly and efficiently.
• Operational risks are identified and mitigated before they impact customers.

You'll work closely with senior stakeholders across Delivery, Operations, Commercial and Customer teams, helping drive consistency, quality and continuous improvement across the entire service lifecycle.

What You'll Be Responsible For

Service Transition & Operational Readiness

• Own and govern Maintel's Operational Readiness framework across all managed service offerings.
• Define readiness criteria, quality gates, sign-off processes and operational acceptance standards.
• Ensure all services meet operational readiness requirements before transitioning into live support.
• Lead readiness reviews and operational acceptance activities across multiple concurrent projects.
• Oversee Early Life Support (ELS) processes to ensure successful service stabilisation following go-live.
• Drive improvements that reduce operational risk and improve transition quality.

Customer Lifecycle & Cease Management

• Own the end-to-end cessation (Cease) process across all customer services.
• Ensure contractual, operational and regulatory obligations are met throughout service exit activities.
• Oversee customer communications, service decommissioning, carrier disconnections, hardware returns and final billing coordination.
• Manage cessation forecasting, risk management and governance activities.
• Ensure customers experience a professional and well-managed service conclusion.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach and develop a team of Operational Readiness Specialists and Customer Lifecycle Coordinators.
• Create a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Establish clear objectives, development plans and performance measures.
• Build team capability in service transition, lifecycle management and operational governance disciplines.

Governance, Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Drive standardisation of readiness frameworks, documentation standards and transition processes.
• Ensure runbooks, SOPs, escalation procedures and knowledge articles meet quality expectations.
• Track and report on readiness KPIs, operational acceptance metrics and early-life performance.
• Champion a right-first-time approach to service transition and customer lifecycle management.
• Lead lessons-learned reviews and continuous improvement initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Partner closely with Design, Implementation, Operations, Service Desk and NOC teams.
• Collaborate with Commercial, Account Management and Customer Success teams throughout the customer lifecycle.
• Support programme governance activities by ensuring readiness milestones are visible and measurable.
• Act as the key operational bridge between project delivery and live service teams.

About You

You're a highly organised and process-driven leader who understands that successful service transitions are fundamental to customer satisfaction and operational excellence.

You combine strong governance and operational discipline with excellent stakeholder management skills and have a proven ability to drive quality, consistency and continuous improvement across complex service environments.

You enjoy bringing structure to complexity, leading specialist teams and ensuring nothing is left to chance when customers move into—or out of—live service.

Essential Experience

• Experience in Service Transition, Operational Readiness, Service Delivery Management or Customer Lifecycle Management within a Managed Services, Telecommunications or IT Services environment.
• Proven experience owning operational acceptance, service handover or service transition processes.
• Experience building or governing operational readiness frameworks, quality gates and transition standards.
• Experience managing customer cessation or service exit activities.
• Proven people leadership experience, including coaching and developing specialist teams.
• Strong understanding of ITIL Service Transition, Service Acceptance and Early Life Support principles.
• Experience managing multiple stakeholders across operational, technical and commercial functions.

Desirable Experience

• ITIL Foundation (or higher) certification.
• Experience within UC&C, Customer Experience or Security & Connectivity managed services environments.
• Knowledge of technologies including Microsoft Teams, RingCentral, Mitel, Avaya, Genesys Cloud, Zoom Contact Centre, SD-WAN or SASE.
• Experience working within regulated industries including Healthcare, Financial Services or Government.
• Familiarity with Openreach PSTN migration programmes and service cessation activity.
• Experience using service management and workflow platforms such as Salesforce, Autotask or equivalent.

What Success Looks Like

In this role, you will:

✔ Deliver consistent, high-quality service transitions across the business

✔ Improve operational readiness and reduce early-life service issues

✔ Build a scalable and repeatable operational acceptance framework

✔ Ensure customers experience smooth onboarding and service cessation journeys

✔ Increase operational confidence through high-quality documentation and governance

✔ Develop a high-performing team recognised for quality and professionalism

✔ Strengthen collaboration between delivery, operations and customer-facing functions

Why Join Maintel?

This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of a critical operational function during a period of transformation and growth.

You'll have the opportunity to influence how services are transitioned, supported and managed throughout their lifecycle while working alongside experienced leaders across technology, operations and customer experience.

If you're passionate about service excellence, operational governance and creating exceptional customer outcomes, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help shape the future of service transition and customer lifecycle management at Maintel.