IT Applications Service Manager

IT Applications Service Manager £450-£550 per day (Outside IR35) 3-Month Contract Rochdale (2-3 days per week on-site) An experienced IT Applications Service Manager is required to join a housing organisation during a period of transformation and operational change. This is an excellent opportunity for a hands-on applications leader to take ownership of a diverse applications estate, ensuring services are stable, reliable and aligned with business needs. You'll lead an established team, manage key suppliers, and drive improvements across service delivery, support and governance. Key responsibilities: As IT Applications Service Manager, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management of business-critical applications, ensuring high levels of performance, availability and user satisfaction. Working closely with operational and project delivery teams, you'll play a key role in ensuring that technology change is successfully transitioned into support while maintaining a high-quality BAU service. Leading and developing a team of Application Analysts and Senior Application Analysts. Managing the operational performance of the organisation's application estate. Owning application lifecycle management, service performance and continual improvement initiatives. Managing 2nd and 3rd line support processes, escalations and incident resolution. Overseeing supplier and vendor relationships, driving accountability and SLA performance. Supporting change and release activities to ensure smooth transition into live service. Establishing robust governance, processes and service management practices. Working with technical and business stakeholders to prioritise improvements and drive better outcomes.Skills/Experience: Proven experience managing enterprise application services within a complex environment. Strong leadership experience, including developing and mentoring technical teams. A background in service operations, application support and continual service improvement. Experience managing third-party suppliers and outsourced service providers. Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills. Experience of incident, problem, change and release management processes. Experience within housing, local government or the wider public sector would be highly desirable