The Services Manager is responsible for ensuring that contracted cybersecurity services are delivered effectively, consistently, and in accordance with agreed service levels, security standards, governance requirements, and client expectations.
The role serves as the primary operational interface between assigned clients and the Cyber Security delivery teams, including the Security Operations Centre, security engineering, incident response, vulnerability management, identity, endpoint, email, cloud, and other security service functions.
What you'll do:- Client Engagement and Relationship Management
- Act as the primary operational contact for assigned clients.
- Build trusted relationships with client executives, security teams, and operational stakeholders.
- Manage client expectations and communicate service performance, risks, incidents, and improvement initiatives.
- Conduct service reviews, governance meetings, and Quarterly Business Reviews.
- End-to-End Service Delivery Governance
- Own the overall delivery of contracted cybersecurity services to assigned clients.
- Ensure services are delivered in accordance with the agreed scope, service levels, procedures, and standards.
- Coordinate delivery across the SOC, security engineering teams, service owners, vendors, and supporting technology teams.
- Maintain visibility of service performance, risks, dependencies, and outstanding actions
- Service-Level and Performance Management
- Monitor SLA, KPI, and customer satisfaction performance.
- Identify service performance trends, exceptions, and recurring failures.
- Coordinate corrective action plans with accountable service owners.
- Ensure service reporting is accurate, governed, and aligned with contractual commitments
- Technical Service Oversight
- Oversee the day-to-day technical delivery of cybersecurity services.
- Review service health, control effectiveness, operational procedures, and technical dependencies.
- Challenge delivery teams where performance, documentation, or operational discipline is inadequate.
- Escalate significant technical concerns and systemic risks to the appropriate technical authority.
- Incident and Escalation Management
- Act as the primary service escalation point for operational and client-impacting issues.
- Ensure timely and accurate client and executive communication.
- Track incidents through containment, recovery, root-cause analysis, and corrective action closure
- Problem Management
- Monitor problem records, known errors, workarounds, and outstanding actions.
- Escalate overdue problems that present ongoing service or security risk.
- Change and Release Governance
- Participate in Change Advisory Board and operational change processes.
- Review high-risk and security-related changes from a service delivery perspective.
- Ensure changes are managed in accordance with defined processes and service commitments.
- Assist with managing client expectations during projects, outages, incidents, and major changes.
- Track failed or unauthorised changes and ensure corrective action is completed.
- Governance, Risk and Compliance
- Ensure service delivery aligns with relevant security policies, contractual requirements, and governance frameworks.
- Maintain client operational risk, issue, dependency, and action registers.
- Identify and communicate security risks, control weaknesses, and compliance gaps.
- Coordinate risk assessments, audits, remediation activities, and material risk escalation.
- Reporting and Service Reviews
- Produce and present monthly service reports and executive service summaries.
- Report on service performance, incidents, risks, changes, problems, security outcomes, and improvement initiatives.
- Provide trend analysis, material exceptions, corrective actions, and decisions required.
- Maintain records of governance meetings, decisions, actions, owners, and due dates.
- Continual Service Improvement
- Maintain a service improvement plan for each assigned client.
- Identify improvements using service data, incident trends, assessments, audits, and client feedback.
- Coordinate improvement initiatives across operational and technical teams.
- Track measurable improvements in service quality, efficiency, automation, and security effectiveness.
- Contract, Scope and Commercial Oversight
- Maintain an understanding of client contracts, service scope, responsibilities, exclusions, and service levels.
- Monitor scope adherence and identify unmanaged or out-of-scope activities.
- Escalate changes in client requirements, consumption, capacity, licensing, or resource needs.
- Support contract renewals, service enhancements, and appropriate expansion opportunities.
- Service Transition and Onboarding
- Track the onboarding of new clients and cybersecurity services.
- Ensure service acceptance criteria, operating procedures, monitoring, escalation, reporting, and governance requirements are completed.
- Identify transition gaps that may place the client or service at risk.
- Monitor hypercare and track outstanding transition actions through to closure.
Your Expertise:
- 10+ years ICT experience across Infrastructure, Networks, Cloud and Security.
- 5+ years in a technical leadership, engineering lead, operations manager, or security management role.
- Proven experience managing technical escalations and major incidents.
- Proven experience engaging directly with clients and executive stakeholders.
- Experience working within managed services, enterprise environments, or cybersecurity service providers.
- Experience overseeing complex technical environments spanning:
- LAN
- WAN
- Cloud
- Servers
- End User Computing
- Identity & Access Management
- Security Operations
- Zero Trust Architectures
Qualifications:- Qualification Essential Competency
- Enterprise Infrastructure
- Routing & Switching Architecture
- Perimeter Security
- LAN / WAN Technologies
- Wireless Networks
- SD-WAN
- IP Protocols
- DR
- Cybersecurity
- SIEM
- EDR/XDR
- Vulnerability Management
- Identity Security
- Email Security
- Cloud Security
- Incident Response
- Threat Management
- Zero Trust
- Zscaler
- Conditional Access
- MFA
- Segmentation
- PAM
- Identity Governance
- Governance
- Risk Management
- Security Policies
- Security Standards
- Audit Management
- Regulatory Compliance
- Change Governance
- Qualifications Preferred/Knowledge
- CISSP (Preferred)
- CISM
- CRISC
- ISO27001 Lead Implementer or Lead Auditor
- ITIL Foundation / ITIL Managing Professional
Other information applicable to the opportunity:
- Permanent position
- Location: Johannesburg
- Physical Demands: Hybrid office and customer-facing environment, Regular interaction with customers at their premises and through virtual engagement platforms, Frequent collaboration with internal technical, operational, and leadership teams, Fast-paced, target-driven sales environment, Work may require flexibility in working hours to accommodate customer meetings, events, and business requirements, Primarily office-based with regular travel to customer sites, vendor events, and industry engagements.
- Travel: Regular local travel required throughout South Africa to attend customer meetings, presentations, workshops, and industry events, Occasional travel outside of primary operating regions may be required, Potential for limited international travel for vendor conferences, partner engagements, training, or strategic business meetings, Valid driver's license and reliable transportation required.
Why work for us?If the daily grind makes you wonder if there's more to life than work, get ready to discover a professional journey that embraces excellence without compromise.
You've arrived at iOCO Infrastructure Services (iOCO IS), where we are all about delivering outstanding client experiences through sustainable, innovative IT infrastructure solutions that tackle business challenges head-on. Here you get to partner with clients, helping them conquer their business Goliaths while they focus on scaling their empires.
At our core, we're challengers, disruptors, and innovators. We're a community of skilled professionals with an ambitious spirit dedicated to providing for our clients while finding joy in the process. Our clients are at the heart of everything we do. Their satisfaction fuels our fire and propels us forward. We're talking about brainstorming sessions that sound like TED talks and spontaneous celebrations for achievements, big and small.
iOCO is an equal opportunity employer with an obligation to achieve its own unique EE objectives in the context of Employment Equity targets. Therefore, our employment strategy gives primary preference to previously disadvantaged individuals or groups.