About this role
The Service Experience and Operations Manager is a Pune-based anchor leadership role accountable for connecting frontline service delivery, major incident leadership, service assurance and ITIL practice governance into one coherent global operating rhythm. Reporting to the Director - Service Management, the role will lead the Service Desk leadership layer, the Major Incident Management capability and designated ITIL governance roles positioned across the Service Experience & Frontline Operations and Service Operations & Control sub-towers. The role combines the outcome focus of a Global Service Assurance & Performance Lead with the control and standards mandate of a Global Practice Governance Lead. It is accountable for reliable service operations, customer experience, process adherence, executive assurance, KPI/KRI governance and practice maturity rather than acting as the resolver for every operational issue. The successful candidate will lead managers and senior individual contributors, influence global technology towers and suppliers, and establish scalable ways of working for a growing insurance-sector GCC. Provide management leadership across the Service Desk, Major Incident Management and assigned ITIL governance capabilities, setting clear accountabilities, priorities, operating rhythms and escalation paths across global regions. Lead Service Desk and other assigned team leads or practice specialists; translate global objectives into team goals, coach leaders, manage performance and capability, and build succession and cross-skilling plans. Own the integrated operating model between Service Experience & Frontline Operations and Service Operations & Control, ensuring the front door, incident command, operational escalation and governance activities work as one service-management system. Establish global service assurance and performance governance, including KPI/KRI definitions, calculation logic, data ownership, thresholds, executive dashboards and daily, weekly and monthly review cadences. Govern outcomes across incident and request volumes, SLA/OLA performance, response and restoration, backlog and aging, first-contact resolution, customer experience, major incidents, repeat failure, process compliance and improvement delivery. Act as the senior operational escalation and decision point for material service disruption, customer-impacting issues, control breaches, capacity risks and cross-tower blockers; ensure accountable teams restore service and communicate effectively. Provide executive oversight of Major Incident Management, including severity and business-impact challenge, command discipline, stakeholder communications, follow-the-sun continuity, post-incident review quality and closure of corrective actions. Ensure major incidents and operational risks consider impact to critical insurance services, colleague productivity, customers and policyholders, data integrity, cybersecurity, business continuity and operational resilience. Chair or sponsor service performance, major incident, practice governance and continual-improvement forums; convert operational data into clear decisions, owners, target dates and tracked benefits. Set and govern practical ITIL 4 standards, policies, RACI, controls and minimum evidence requirements for the practices within scope, while coordinating with Change Enablement, Problem Management, Service Configuration Management, Knowledge Management and Service Level Management owners. Maintain clear boundaries between central service-management governance and federated technical execution; hold infrastructure, applications, digital workplace, cybersecurity and suppliers accountable for agreed actions without absorbing their engineering responsibilities. Own the functional service-management requirements for relevant ServiceNow processes, dashboards, reporting, workflow, assignment, escalation, notifications and data quality; route prioritized enhancements through the agreed ServiceNow product backlog. Improve Service Desk effectiveness through demand analysis, knowledge use, self-service, request standardization, case deflection, automation, quality assurance and service-aligned routing, while protecting accessibility and customer outcomes. Create a risk-based continual-improvement portfolio covering service stability, experience, control effectiveness, productivity, automation and capability maturity; report delivery, realized value, dependencies and residual risks. Govern third-party and internal-provider operational performance through measurable obligations, escalation, service-review evidence and corrective action, in partnership with procurement, vendor-management and service owners. Support transition and operational-readiness activity for new or changed services, ensuring support ownership, routing, knowledge, monitoring, escalation, service levels and continuity arrangements are fit for live operation. Build an inclusive, accountable and learning-oriented leadership culture; mentor process analysts and emerging leaders and strengthen ITIL, ServiceNow, data, communication and customer-experience capability across the team.