Service Sustainability Programme Lead
Whitehall Resources are currently looking for a Service Sustainability Programme Lead based in Sheffield for an initial 6 month contract.
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Job Spec: Lead the Service Sustainability Programme for a defined technology/service portfolio to improve stability, resilience, recoverability, and control posture, reducing customer impact and operational risk while improving cost-to-serve.
Key responsibilities:
- Own the SSP plan and roadmap: create a prioritized backlog covering resilience, tech debt, obsolescence, controls, monitoring, and recoverability.
- Drive delivery across teams: coordinate Technology, Product/App owners, Operations, Cyber, Risk/Controls, Change, and suppliers to deliver remediation.
- Governance and reporting: run programme cadence (steerco/forums), manage RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies), and produce clear executive updates.
- Control and audit readiness: ensure standards are met, evidence is captured, and exceptions are managed with time-bound remediation.
- Benefits realization: track measurable outcomes (reduced severity-1/2 incidents, improved availability, reduced vulnerability ageing, improved DR compliance, reduced technical debt).
- Stakeholder management: influence senior stakeholders to align priorities, secure funding/resources, and remove blockers.
Key Deliverables:
- SSP portfolio roadmap and prioritized remediation backlog
- Service health dashboard (KPIs/KRIs) and executive reporting pack
- Governance cadence + RAID log + dependency plan
- Resilience evidence: DR test outcomes, monitoring coverage, runbooks, support model
- Control uplift plan: actions, owners, milestones, and audit-ready evidence
Key Skills:
- Programme leadership & delivery
- Portfolio/programme management (planning, milestones, RAID, dependency management)
- Benefits realization and value tracking
- Vendor/third-party coordination (where applicable)
Operational resilience & controls:
- Practical understanding of operational resilience: recoverability, DR/BCP testing, RTO/RPO concepts, failover patterns
- Control-minded delivery: evidence, traceability, exception management, audit readiness
- Risk-based prioritization
Communication & influencing:
- Confident executive communication (clear asks, options, trade-offs)
- Strong facilitation, conflict resolution, and cross-team alignment
- Ability to translate 'risk/control speak' into delivery actions (and vice versa)
- Comfort working with infrastructure/cloud and application teams (even if not hands-on)
Experience / qualifications:
- 7+ years in technology delivery, service management, resilience, or transformation roles (varies by grade)
- Programme/project management certification (e.g., Agile, PMP, PRINCE2) – useful, not always mandatory
- ITIL certification – beneficial
- Experience in regulated/financial services environments – strongly preferred
All of our opportunities require that applicants are eligible to work in the specified country/location, unless otherwise stated in the job description.
Whitehall Resources are an equal opportunities employer who value a diverse and inclusive working environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, pregnancy, disability, age, veteran status, or other characteristics.