Team lead for higher-education systems

We're looking for an experienced Manager to lead a dedicated cross-functional team that keeps mission-critical systems running for a global higher-education client, spanning multiple university brands across the USA, Canada, the UK, and the EU. You'll run a lean, multi-disciplinary team in close partnership with the Technical Lead — keeping live services available, secure, and compliant while delivering enhancements and change projects on top.

• Lead and develop a cross-functional team;
• Plan sprints, estimate tasks, balance workload across maintenance, support, security, and change projects — ensuring the team's capacity is allocated effectively against a fixed service surface;
• Drive knowledge sharing, documentation, and onboarding to reduce single-person dependencies and build team resilience;
• Work in close partnership with the Technical Lead on security maintenance, incident resolution, and technical decision-making;
• Coordinate cross-brand release planning.
• Act as the primary point of contact for the client and internal stakeholders, fostering strong relationships and clear communication;
• Handle escalations and urgent requests from C-level management with appropriate prioritisation and responsiveness;
• Communicate progress on monthly/quarterly initiatives, service reviews, and delivery metrics to both internal teams and external stakeholders;
• Coordinate with project teams delivering system enhancements to ensure alignment on scope, handoffs, and dependencies.
• Oversee end-to-end post-implementation support and ongoing maintenance for supported systems
• Manage first-line support operations — service desk triage, access management, provisioning/deprovisioning, and escalation;
• Elicit, analyse, and refine business and technical requirements to support successful delivery of change requests and enhancements;
• Develop project plans, release roadmaps, and prioritise tasks based on business goals and service impact;
• Resolve customer queries and service issues by identifying root causes, selecting appropriate solutions, and following through to ensure resolution;
• Monitor and report on key service metrics — response times, resolution times, backlog health, and SLA compliance — and take action when trends shift.
• Ensure the team maintains the security posture of the estate — including vulnerability patching, infrastructure security, identity/access management, and accessibility compliance;
• Understand that security is embedded in maintenance (not a separate workstream) and advocate for the capacity needed to keep it current;
• Coordinate data-protection and compliance activities across student portals, payment gateways, and applicant-facing systems holding sensitive personal data.
• Drive process optimisation initiatives using AI tools to improve team productivity, automate routine operations, and enhance documentation quality.
• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows, accelerate delivery cycles, and reduce operational inefficiencies through automation and AI solutions.
• Measure and report on the impact of process improvements to justify continued investment.

• At least 1.5 years in a relevant role (Delivery Manager, or Customer/Technical Support Lead with stakeholder communication and people management responsibilities);
• Demonstrated experience managing or coordinating small-to-mid-size cross-functional teams in a support or service delivery context;
• Proven ability to handle requirement analysis, delivery planning, feature prioritisation, and multi-brand release coordination;
• Experience working in an environment where maintenance, support, and project delivery share the same team capacity.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills with the ability to analyse business needs and propose effective solutions;
• Solid understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and ability to lead team activities within an agile framework;
• Proficiency with project management and service tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Intercom (or similar service-desk platforms);
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills — both written and spoken — with the ability to present service reviews and delivery reports to senior stakeholders;
• Ability to manage competing priorities and respond effectively to urgent requests, including incidents affecting live applicant or student services.
• Practical knowledge of AI tools and demonstrated experience applying them to optimise workflows, automate tasks, and improve reporting;
• Experience identifying, implementing, and measuring the impact of AI-driven process improvements.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken (Advanced level) — the client and most stakeholders operate in English.
• Будет плюсом: Experience working in the education technology domain, ideally with student-management or applicant-journey systems; Familiarity with Canvas LMS, Salesforce CRM, or similar platforms used in higher education; Understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG) and compliance requirements in educational software; Exposure to cloud infrastructure concepts (Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines) — enough to understand what the DevOps engineer is working on and why it matters; Experience producing or contributing to service review reports and continuity-risk assessments for clients

• A supportive, professional team environment that encourages innovation, knowledge sharing, and the use of cutting-edge technology including AI;
• A meaningful role — this team directly impacts the student and applicant experience for tens of thousands of users across 36 brands;
• Comfortable office with an on-site work format;
• Working hours: 11:00–20:00 GMT+3;
• Regular performance reviews;
• Corporate discount programs;
• Opportunities for training and certifications;
• Team events and get-togethers to foster team spirit.