Group Head of IT Service Management

About Us:

Network International is the largest Financial Technology company in Middle East and Africa. Payments is our core business where we provide services in more than 50 countries – UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt are some of our key markets. Apart from payments, we provide services on Data and Insights, Lending, Insurance, Risk Solutions, etc. Our core customers are businesses at every scale and segment, though recently we are growing in direct to consumer card segment as well.

Our EVP's:

At Network International, we always stay ahead. . In the fast-paced world of financial services, we thrive on innovation, agility, and purposeful collaboration. We invest  first in our people, empowering you to make bold decisions, learn fast, and grow your expertise alongside industry leaders. Here, solving complex problems means more than using cutting-edge technology; it’s about creating meaningful value for our customers, together. We foster a culture where trust, accountability, and achievement go hand in hand—because success isn’t just a goal; it’s how we work, every day, as one team.

Job Description:

Role Purpose

The Head of Service Management is accountable for the governance, strategy, oversight and continuous improvement of IT Service Management across the Group. The role owns Incident, Problem and Change Management, Service Delivery Governance, Operations Command Centre (OCC) governance, service monitoring, audit compliance and technology service performance, ensuring resilient, well-governed and continuously improving technology services across all regions and business entities.
 

Responsibilities:

 Job responsibilities

 Incident & Problem Management

• Own the Group-wide Incident and Problem Management frameworks, including Major Incident governance and root cause analysis quality assurance.

• Lead escalation management and executive/client communication for critical technology incidents.

• Drive incident KPI reporting, trend analysis and avoidable-incident reduction initiatives through regular review forums.

Change Management Governance

• Provide executive oversight of the Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Emergency Change Control Board (ECCB).

• Own change policy, high-risk change governance and change success-rate reporting, standardising practice across all regions and entities.

Operations Command Centre (OCC) Governance

• Act as executive sponsor for 24x7 OCC operations, service monitoring effectiveness and major incident detection/escalation.

• Drive event management maturity, monitoring expansion and automation initiatives, and the integration of OCC with ITSM processes.

Service Delivery Governance

• Lead monthly service reviews, SLA/KPI tracking and service improvement planning across all regions.

• Govern performance of service partners and support teams, and oversee cross-regional service delivery across MEA.

Audit, Compliance & Risk

• Own closure of audit observations and audit response management for ITSM-related controls.

• Ensure regulatory and compliance alignment, ITSM process compliance and risk mitigation tracking, reporting into technology leadership.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

• Lead and develop a multi-regional team spanning Change Management, Incident & Problem Management, OCC/Command Centre and Software Asset Management.

• Chair or own key governance forums, including Global Incident Review, CAB, Service Management Leadership Forum, Service Improvement Review and Audit & Compliance Review.

• Build and maintain relationships with senior technology leadership, regional service delivery heads, strategic vendors and key clients.

• Use insights and trend analysis from Incident Management to drive corrective and preventive action with CIOs and technology leadership, with particular focus on preventing incidents caused by change failures.

• Instil change discipline across the Group, including the mandatory use of detailed, tested rollback plans for high-risk and production changes.

• Lead Post-Implementation Reviews (PIRs) for significant changes to identify lessons learned and ensure findings are converted into tracked corrective and preventive actions.

• Monitor closure of corrective and preventive actions arising from incidents and PIRs, escalating overdue items to relevant CIOs and technology leadership.

• ITSM transformation and process standardisation across the Group.

• Modernisation of incident communication tooling and adoption governance.

• Expansion of monitoring and observability capability, including dependency mapping and capacity/event management.

• Delivery of targeted service-stability and incident-reduction improvement programmes.

Network International is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds, nationalities, and experience levels. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where innovation, diversity, and performance thrive.