The Service Assurance Lead provides independent service assurance and governance for managed service delivery. The role is accountable for assuring service quality, compliance, and performance outcomes during transition and steady-state operations by driving SLA adherence, risk mitigation, and operational transparency to stakeholders and leadership.
Primary Objectives
- Assure contractual service performance by monitoring outcome-based SLAs/KPIs and measuring timely remediation of issues.
- Establish and operate quality gates and readiness criteria for transitions, go-lives, and material changes.
- Provide a consistent governance layer (risk, controls, compliance) that protects service stability in a regulated environment.
- Improve service transparency through designing quality control metrics. Creation of standardized reporting, performance insights, and executive-ready dashboards.
- Drive continuous improvement during transition and ready state by identifying systemic gaps and enabling improvements through governed change.
Scope of Responsibility
- Transition assurance: validate transition plans, milestones, knowledge transfer completeness, and readiness prior to go-live.
- Steady-state assurance: monitor service health, performance trends, and ongoing compliance with service commitments.
- Governance and controls: maintain risk and control oversight, including evidence readiness and control attestation support.
- Escalation governance: manage breach governance and structured escalations for systemic or persistent service issues.
- Reporting and insights: publish service performance reporting to support decision-making and governance forums.
Key Responsibilities
Service Quality & Performance (SLA/KPI Assurance)
- Monitor and enforce adherence to SLAs, KPIs, and contractual commitments across transition and business-as-usual operations.
- Define and maintain Quality Control metrics and SLA/KPI measurement framework (definitions, data sources, thresholds, and reporting cadence).
- Identify performance trends and early risk indicators; initiate corrective actions before impacts become customer-facing.
- Validate alignment between agreed scope (service catalog / towers), delivery model expectations, and actual execution.
- Facilitate service review cadences (e.g., weekly operational reviews; monthly service reviews; quarterly service health reviews) and document outcomes.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
- Conduct risk assessments and maintain a service risk register with mitigations, owners, and target dates.
- Ensure compliance with internal policies, regulatory requirements, and client standards applicable to managed service delivery.
- Validate change readiness for material changes (process, tooling, controls, staffing, or location), including documentation, controls, and training completeness.
- Support audit and control testing readiness by organizing evidence, validating control execution, and tracking remediation actions.
- Partner with cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., security, compliance, risk) to resolve identified gaps without disrupting service stability.
Incident, Problem & Escalation Governance
- Own SLA breach governance including triage, root cause analysis (RCA), corrective and preventive action (CAPA) tracking, and closure validation.
- Drive structured escalations for recurring or systemic issues, ensuring timely decisions and accountability.
- Coordinate post-incident reviews and ensure learnings are translated into durable controls, process improvements, or automation.
- Track service recovery actions to completion and verify effectiveness through follow-up measurement.
Reporting & Insights
- Build and maintain performance dashboards and reporting packs for leadership and stakeholders.
- Translate operational performance data into actionable insights (service health, risks, compliance posture, and improvement opportunities).
- Standardize reporting definitions and logic to ensure consistent interpretation across onshore/offshore teams.
- Provide clear narratives for governance forums (what happened, impact, root cause, decision needed, and next actions).
Transition Assurance (Migration to Managed Service Operations)
- Validate transition plans and milestone completion (scope confirmation, KT completion, SOP readiness, tool access, and control implementation).
- Establish and enforce quality gates and readiness criteria prior to process migration or promotion to production.
- Perform operational readiness assessments and document risks, dependencies, and required actions prior to go-live.
- Confirm acceptance criteria are met for handoff into steady-state operations, including measurement baselines and reporting readiness.
Continuous Improvement Enablement
- Identify systemic gaps and improvement opportunities to enhance quality, efficiency, scalability, and resilience.
- Drive standardization and best practices across service delivery, ensuring changes follow governed change processes.
- Partner with Optimization/CI resources to prioritize initiatives based on performance impact and risk reduction.
Key Deliverables / Outputs
- Service health dashboard and recurring performance reporting pack (SLA/KPI, trends, risks, and actions).
- Transition readiness assessments and go-live recommendations, including documented quality gates and acceptance criteria results.
- SLA breach governance artifacts: RCA, CAPA plan, owner tracking, and closure evidence.
- Service risk register and compliance/control status reporting.
- Escalation logs and outcomes from governance forums.
Stakeholders & Interfaces
- GCC managed service delivery leadership and operations leads.
- Onshore business stakeholders and service owners.
- Risk, compliance, and security partners as applicable.
- Transition leads and continuous improvement / optimization partners.
- 7–10+ years of experience in service delivery governance, quality assurance, operations governance, or service management.
- Demonstrated experience in managed services, shared services, or offshore delivery environments (preferred).
- Strong knowledge of SLA/KPI frameworks, risk management, and compliance controls.
- Proven ability to influence across stakeholders, challenge constructively, and drive accountability.
Preferred Skills / Certifications
- ITIL (service management) certification or equivalent practical experience.
- Lean / Six Sigma or continuous improvement experience.
- Strong reporting and analytics capability (e.g., Power BI, Excel), including performance metric design.
- Experience supporting regulated environments (financial services, insurance, banking) and audit readiness.
Key Competencies
- Data-driven decision-making and analytical problem solving.
- Executive-level communication and concise reporting.
- Governance mindset: risk awareness, control discipline, and operational rigor.
- Ability to operate independently while partnering effectively across teams.
- Bias for action with structured follow-through and closure discipline.
Success Measures
- Improved SLA attainment and reduced recurring breaches through effective governance and CAPA closure.
- Consistent, audit-ready documentation and evidence for controls and compliance requirements.
- Higher predictability and transparency of service health for leadership and stakeholders.
- Effective transition readiness that reduces hypercare issues and accelerates steady-state stabilization.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, IT, or related field (or equivalent professional experience).