ROLE PURPOSE
The Service Delivery Manager is accountable for the operational and commercial integrity of assigned client contracts — owning service outcomes, not tasks. This role exists to ensure that contracted service commitments are delivered predictably, that risk to service stability is identified and contained before it reaches the client, and that the relationship between Nexio and the client is built on demonstrated control rather than reported activity.
The SDM is the single point of accountability for translating contractual and SLA commitments into operational reality — owning the health of the client relationship, the financial performance of the contract, and the stability of the service, simultaneously.
What This Role Owns (Outcome Commitments):
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Service Stability — Predictable, low-volatility service delivery within SLA/KPI commitments, evidenced through governed reporting, not anecdotal assurance.
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Contract & Commercial Integrity — Protection against under-recovery; utilisation and effort tracked against what is billed, with variances surfaced early, not discovered late.
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Risk Containment — Identification and pre-emptive management of at-risk conditions before they convert into incidents or client escalations.
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Client Trust — Continuous demonstration of control through structured engagement, transparent reporting, and disciplined change governance — never "evidence of activity" presented as "evidence of control."
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Team Capability & Capacity Management — Ensuring the delivery team has both the capacity (headcount/hours) and capability (skills/tools) to meet commitments.
What Success Looks Like:
A client contract under this role's ownership shows no unmanaged risk, stays within SLA/utilisation tolerances, and generates no surprises at ExCo or client-review level. Escalations, where they occur, are met with pre-existing containment plans — not reactive scrambling.
ROLE ACCOUNTABILITIES / KEY ACTIVITIES
1. Service Stability & SLA Performance
Accountable for: Predictable, within-tolerance service delivery across all assigned client environments, evidenced through governed reporting.
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Monitor and report SLA performance (availability, MTTR/MTTA) against contracted targets, escalating breaches or trend deterioration before they become client-visible issues
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Contribute to Major Incident war rooms for assigned accounts; own post-incident RCA delivery to the client within agreed timelines
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Distinguish and manage Incidents (immediate disruption) separately from Problems (root cause); ensure Problem Management tickets are not closed prematurely under incident resolution
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Maintain and defend the client-facing service health view (RAG status) — no raw data presented without business-impact interpretation.
2. Contract, Commercial & Margin Integrity
Accountable for: Protecting contract profitability and flagging under-recovery before it erodes margin.
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Track utilisation against the commercial model for each contract (e.g. actual vs assumed effort); surface variance as a margin risk, not an operational footnote
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Own the commercial health of the contract in partnership with Commercial/Finance teams — flag over-servicing, scope creep, and effort delivered outside billed terms
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Validate that resourcing on the account reflects what was commercially sold; escalate mismatches rather than absorbing them silently
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Support renewal, uplift, and gain-share/at-risk conversations with defensible service performance evidence
3. Change Governance & Risk Containment
Accountable for: Ensuring no change activity introduces uncontrolled risk to a live client environment.
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Enforce formal Change Management for all activity affecting client environments — no unmanaged or undocumented changes, regardless of urgency
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Validate maintenance activities against each client's approved maintenance window, business calendar, and SLA commitments before submission
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Ensure rollback plans, dependency checks, and on-call coverage are in place for every change with client-facing risk
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Maintain a live risk register per account; every entry classified explicitly as confirmed risk, assumption, or contained/mitigated — never blended
4. Client Relationship & Trust Management
Accountable for: The client's confidence in Nexio's control of their environment — not just delivery of the service itself.
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Run structured client service reviews (cadence sessions) — health and risk stated, ensure no chronological log-dumping
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Own escalation management end-to-end: contain, communicate, and close the loop with the client without overpromising or minimising
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Manage At-Risk/Recovery, lead trust-recovery engagement with zero fluff — demonstrated control and measurable progress, not narrative reassurance
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Anticipate stakeholder interpretation, manage tone and framing with ExCo visibility in mind.
5. Team Capacity, Capability & People Leadership
Accountable for: Ensuring the delivery team has both the capacity and capability to meet contracted commitments — and is managed as a human system, not a resource pool.
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Plan shift, rotation, and shrinkage buffers against realistic (not assumed) demand; flag capacity gaps before they manifest as SLA breaches
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Identify capability gaps (skills/tools/design) separately from capacity gaps (headcount/hours) — the two are never treated as interchangeable
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Manage team performance and wellbeing proactively; surface burnout or attrition risk before it becomes a delivery risk
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Escalate people-related structural issues (e.g. PIP cases) through proper HR engagement and provide reporting on outcomes to EHOD Service Management
6. Governance, Compliance & Reporting
Accountable for: Audit-ready, ISO-aligned process discipline across the account portfolio.
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Maintain documentation and evidence trails sufficient to withstand internal and external audit
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Ensure POPIA compliance in all client data handling and reporting
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Produce ExCo/leadership-ready account reporting on request.
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
Minimum Qualifications:
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Bachelor's degree in information technology, Business Management, or a related field (essential)
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ITIL 4 Foundation certification (essential); ITIL 4 Managing Professional or Practice Manager stream (Service Management, or Support & Fulfilment) strongly preferred
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ISO awareness or working exposure — advantageous
Minimum Experience:
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5–8 years in a Service Delivery Management, Account Management, or Service Management role within an IT/Telecommunications Managed Services environment (non-negotiable — generalist IT management experience without MSP exposure will not translate to this role's demands)
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Demonstrated experience owning SLA -governed contracts, including direct accountability for MTTR/MTTA performance and client-facing reporting
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Proven track record managing Major Incidents end-to-end — war room coordination, escalation management, and RCA delivery to client stakeholders
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Experience operating within formal Change Management governance across multiple concurrent client environments (not single-site or single-system change control)
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Direct experience managing contract commercial performance — utilisation tracking, margin/under-recovery awareness, and effort-vs-billing reconciliation
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Demonstrated experience leading or managing delivery teams (size proportional to account portfolio) including shift/rotation planning, capacity/capability distinction, and performance management
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Experience managing client relationships at a stakeholder level that includes escalation ownership and trust recovery — not purely operational liaison
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Exposure to multi-client, multi-contract portfolio management is strongly preferred over single-client, single-environment experience
Behavioral & Capability Requirements
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Demonstrated ability to hold commercial, operational, and relationship accountability simultaneously — this role does not separate "technical" from "commercial" thinking
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Evidence of structured, governed communication style (written and verbal) — ability to present a defensible position, not just status updates
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Ability to operate under pressure across multiple concurrent escalations without losing clarity of risk position
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Sound judgement in escalating people-related risk (performance, capacity) through proper channels rather than absorbing it informally
