Senior Project Transition Manager

Senior Project Transition Manager

This role combines transitioning IT/CIS projects into operational service with managing NCIA’s day-to-day service delivery in Wiesbaden.

Main duties

• Project transition: Engage early in projects, agree transition plans and service acceptance criteria, and oversee formal handover. Before go-live, check that support arrangements, staffing, training, documentation, spare parts, contracts, monitoring and configuration records are ready.
• Service acceptance: Assess whether a new service meets the agreed criteria and recommend acceptance, conditional acceptance or rejection. Manage transition risks and early life support until the service performs as agreed.
• Local operations: Lead local technical, support and contractor teams. Oversee facilities, networks, server rooms, end-user equipment and deployable CIS assets, as well as asset records, security, business continuity and recovery arrangements.
• Incidents and problems: Ensure incidents are handled within agreed service levels. Coordinate major incident response, keep senior stakeholders informed, investigate root causes and put preventive measures in place.
• Changes and service levels: Assess and control changes to local and transitioning services. Agree service levels with customers, monitor performance, report results and improve processes and delivery.
• Costs and suppliers: Plan and track operational and transition budgets, ensure the ongoing cost of new services is understood, and manage vendors and contractors against their contracts and service commitments.

Essential requirements

• Education: A relevant bachelor’s degree and at least 8 years of related experience. Exceptionally, candidates without a degree may qualify with at least 12 years of extensive, progressive relevant experience.
• Management experience: At least 8 years of combined IT service management and project management experience, including 3 years in a senior role.
• Service delivery: At least 5 years in an IT service management role, covering incident, problem, change and service level management.
• Project delivery: At least 5 years managing complex IT/CIS projects to time, cost and quality targets, plus a demonstrated record of transitioning projects or capabilities into live service.
• Leadership and operations: Experience managing operational IT infrastructure, multidisciplinary international teams, budgets, costs, vendors and contractors.
• Senior stakeholder engagement: Proven ability to influence and brief executive-level or General/Flag Officer-level stakeholders, with strong communication, negotiation and decision-making skills.
• Certifications: ITIL 4 Foundation (or ITIL v3 Foundation) and PMP or PRINCE2 Practitioner.
• Clearance: NATO Secret.

Desirable qualifications

NATO, military, defence or international-organisation experience; deployable CIS or mission-critical communications experience; advanced ITIL, programme management or SIAM certifications; experience with tools such as ServiceNow, BMC Remedy or Jira Service Management; knowledge of NATO procurement and financial processes; and working knowledge of German.

Assignment details: Full-time on-site in Wiesbaden, Germany. Occasional travel within NATO countries, including operational sites, may be required.