Problem Manager

Sector: Public Sector / Government

Job Title: Problem Manager

Type: Contractor

Location: London or Milton Keynes (hybrid)

Duration: 6 months initial

Vetting: SC or DV security clearance

The Senior Problem Manager is accountable for the overall quality and execution of the Problem Management process, to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by supporting Product Teams to identify underlying causes of persistent or repeat and potential incidents and managing workarounds and known errors.

The Senior Problem Manager will have line management responsibilities, including:

• Oversight of direct reports and line management duties throughout their team.
• Managing team prioritisation and utilisation.
• Leading recruitment within the Problem Management team.
• Demonstrating role model values of diversity and inclusion, leadership and embracing change within the team, engaging and maintaining the commitment of staff.
• Developing a supporting environment for staff, promoting a culture of constructive feedback, learning, development and flexible working.
• Building an open and collaborative culture within the Problem Management team.

The candidate will receive access to relevant civil servant training as part of this role. The are committed to staff development and encouraging staff to achieve their potential. Opportunities to achieve professional level qualifications are available in this role including in commercial and IT Service management, including:

• ITIL
• CIPS
• Strategic Decision Making
• Leadership Skills

The Senior Problem Manager is responsible for:

• Providing expertise and point of escalation for Product Teams in the root cause analysis and resolution of emerging and recurring problems.
• Collating, managing and triaging the backlog of priority problems and known errors, ensuring they are prioritised in line with the business need, in conjunction with the relevant Product Owner.
• Overseeing Problem Management processes and procedures, sharing best practice with Product Owners.
• Ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems
• Co-ordinate the team to investigate problems, implement solutions and take preventive measures
• Overseeing Problem Management reporting and management information to inform continual service improvement activities.
• Providing updates on priority problems to key stakeholders in a timely manner, at weekly forums or as required.
• Working closely with the Incident Management team, leading forums such as Post Incident Reviews to ensure actions are assigned and managed through to completion.
• Proactively focusing on continuous improvement of self and service, working with others to improve the user experience, simplify processes and improve efficiency of IT Services to enable the Government’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world.

We are looking for someone with strong technical skills and a proven track record of leading and enabling Problem Management functions to support continual service improvement, who can demonstrate the skills outlined:

Essential Skills

• Problem Management
• Ownership and Initiative
• Incident Management
• Continual Service Improvement
• Community Collaboration

A minimum of ITIL Foundation is required for this role.