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.

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’ll have the autonomy, backing, and opportunity to make lasting improvements across infrastructure, support, security, and cloud services.

In your first few months, you’ll 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’ll 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’ll 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.

You’ll 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.

We’re 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 change
• The ability to work collaboratively with technical and non-technical stakeholders alike

This is an opportunity to play a visible role in a major transformation programme where your impact will be recognised and supported by senior leadership.

• 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