Infrastructure & Support Lead - Manchester

Infrastructure & Support Lead - Manchester

With a newly appointed CTO and a clear digital strategy, our client is embarking on a major transformation programme designed to modernise infrastructure, improve operational resilience, and create a more proactive, cloud‑first IT environment.

About the role

This is not a traditional keep the lights on infrastructure role. We are looking for a hands‑on Infrastructure & Support Lead who can help transform a reactive support function into a modern, high‑performing technology operation.

You will take ownership of a complex enterprise estate and play a central role in improving service delivery, strengthening operational maturity, and supporting a wider digital transformation roadmap.

Working closely with senior leadership, you will have the autonomy, backing, and opportunity to make lasting improvements across infrastructure, support, security, and cloud services.

What success looks like

In your first few months, you will take ownership of the current IT landscape by building strong relationships across the business, assessing operational risks, and gaining visibility across infrastructure, Microsoft 365, security, backups, and support processes. You will introduce greater operational maturity through clear SLAs, measurable KPIs, structured incident management, and improved vendor accountability, while coaching and developing the existing team to move from a reactive support culture to a more proactive service‑led approach. As stability improves, you will play a key role in delivering priority areas of the wider digital transformation programme, supporting cloud migration, infrastructure modernisation, and improvements that create a more resilient, scalable, and user‑focused IT environment.

The environment and roadmap

You will lead across a broad and evolving technology estate, including:

• Migration from legacy on‑prem systems to a modern Microsoft 365 environment
• Technologies including Entra ID, SharePoint, Teams, and M365 administration
• Support for a distributed workforce across multiple UK locations
• Oversight of virtualised server infrastructure and enterprise networking
• Exposure to technologies such as Palo Alto and Juniper
• Cloud migration and infrastructure modernisation initiatives

The goal is simple: create a reliable, scalable, user‑focused IT function that enables growth and resilience across the organisation.

About you

We are looking for someone who combines technical credibility with strong operational leadership.

You will ideally have:

• Previous experience leading or managing IT infrastructure, operations, or support teams
• Strong people management and coaching capability
• Experience improving IT service delivery through KPIs, SLAs, and process maturity
• Technical understanding of Microsoft 365, virtualised environments, infrastructure, and security
• A proactive mindset with experience driving positive operational changeThe ability to work collaboratively with technical and non‑technical stakeholders alike

Benefits

• 23 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
• Additional Christmas closure period
• Extra paid day off for your birthday
• Strong leadership backing and genuine autonomy to improve how technology operates across the business

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