IT Service Lead Engineer

The Role

As an IT Service Lead Engineer, you will act as the senior technical authority and primary onsite contact for a key customer, operating in practice as their internal IT Manager.

You will take ownership of the security, stability, and continual improvement of their IT environment, ensuring it remains robust, compliant, and commercially aligned. This is a highly customer facing role where you will attend strategy and board level meetings, influence technology direction, and provide strong boots on the ground leadership across UK and European sites.

While supported by an internal service desk and wider pod structure, you retain ownership of SLA performance, key escalations, proactive risk management, and overall customer satisfaction.

This role balances technical excellence with leadership, accountability, and commercial awareness.

Who You Are

You’re not just a senior engineer.
You’re someone people rely on when it matters.

Technically strong, but more importantly accountable. You take ownership of the whole environment, not just the tickets in front of you. You anticipate risks, make informed decisions, and bring calm leadership when situations escalate.

You think beyond reactive support.
You spot patterns early.
You care about stability, security, and long term scalability.

You’re comfortable engaging with senior stakeholders and explaining complex technical concepts in a clear, practical way. You balance security, usability, and commercial reality, and you are confident pushing back professionally when something is not achievable.

You enjoy being visible, building trust, and acting as a true technical lead rather than working behind the scenes.

You understand that great IT is not just about uptime. It is about confidence, control, and continual improvement.

What You Will Work On

Primary Customer Ownership & Onsite Leadership

• Act as the primary onsite technical lead and trusted advisor across UK and European sites.

Project Delivery & Site Change Ownership

• Lead delivery of customer initiatives including new site openings, site moves, infrastructure upgrades, and service improvements.
• Conduct IT site surveys and proactively identify risks for relocations or new environments.
• Ensure all change is secure, supportable, and aligned to operational requirements.
• Collaborate with project management to ensure structured, predictable delivery.
• Push back constructively on unachievable deliverables, resetting expectations where required.

Solution Design & Technology Direction

• Drive technical standards and solution design for the customer environment.
• Ensure alignment with Microsoft and security best practice.
• Provide architectural input and technical scoping for projects and improvements.
• Influence senior stakeholders on long term technology direction.
• Identify opportunities for simplification, efficiency, and service enhancement.

SLA Ownership & Operational Stability

• Own SLA performance for the customer.
• Act as the escalation point for critical issues.
• Ensure smooth ticket ownership between onsite, helpdesk, and escalation teams.
• Maintain operational stability while preventing reactive firefighting.
• Provide regular updates to customer leadership and internal management on service health and risk.

Security, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure tenant and infrastructure security remains robust and compliant.
• Maintain and improve security score and posture.
• Ensure SOC and NOC platforms operate effectively.
• Support SIEM monitoring and proactive threat visibility.
• Proactively manage cyber, operational, and infrastructure risks.
• Support regulated site access standards and security compliance.

Documentation, QA & Standards

• Maintain accurate and up to date documentation.
• Produce high quality project plans, risk assessments, downtime planning, and dependency mapping.
• Ensure documentation is auditable, usable, and aligned to internal QA standards.
• Support both internal and customer facing reporting.

Coaching, Training & Continuous Improvement

• Provide onsite user coaching and guidance where required.
• Identify recurring issues and improvement opportunities.
• Drive standardisation and time saving initiatives.
• Support internal knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Main Tasks

• Lead delivery of multi site projects including VPN connected environments and large user bases.
• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure structured and predictable delivery.
• Conduct IT site surveys and proactively identify risks.
• Provide regular updates on delivery, service stability, and risk.
• Influence senior stakeholders including customer leadership teams.
• Maintain high quality documentation across all projects and changes.
• Drive service improvements and long term technical stability.

Measurable Outcomes

• SLA performance consistently owned and achieved for the customer.
• Improved stability and security of the customer environment.
• Successful delivery of new sites, relocations, and infrastructure upgrades.
• High customer satisfaction and positive stakeholder feedback.
• Clear evidence of proactive risk management and security improvement.

Qualifications & Certifications

Essential

• Right to Work in the UK
• Full UK Driving License
• Willingness and ability to travel across the UK and Europe
• Regular attendance at Heathrow customer site
• Subject to security and pre employment checks including DBS, Counter Terrorism Check CTC, and site specific security clearance requirements.

Essential Certifications

• Microsoft 365 Certified Endpoint Administrator Associate MD 102
• Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect SC 100
• Cisco Meraki Certification

Nice to Have

• Azure Administrator Associate AZ 104

Experience & Skills

• Minimum 5 years within the IT industry.
• Minimum 2 years in a similar senior or lead role.
• Experience as a senior engineer, consultant, or internal IT Manager.
• Proven track record in solution design and technical ownership.
• Experience within an MSP or equivalent high accountability service organisation.

Technical Expertise

Strong Microsoft 365 expertise across the stack.
Windows Server.
Azure architecture and cloud delivery.
Identity and Access Management including Entra ID, MFA, and Conditional Access.
Security including firewalls, endpoint protection, Backup and Disaster Recovery, SOC and NOC platforms, SIEM platforms.
Networking including VPN design, ZTNA concepts, VLANs, and High Availability understanding.

Professional Capability

• Strong business and commercial awareness.
• High documentation standards.
• Clear communication skills.
• Escalation ownership and calm leadership.
• Strong implementation discipline.

Travel & Vehicle Benefits
During the 6 month probationary period, business mileage will be reimbursed in line with HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payments up to 45p per mile. Following successful completion of probation, you will be provided with either a company vehicle or car allowance, depending on role requirements.

Why join The HBP Group?

• Join a supportive and collaborative service desk team
• Gain exposure to modern Microsoft technologies and customer environments
• Excellent opportunity to develop your technical skills and grow your IT career

We’ve also got some great benefits, which we’re happy to discuss with you during the recruitment process.

Additional Information

A full job description is available on request and will be provided to shortlisted candidates.

Closing Date: 28th August 2026

We reserve the right depending on application numbers to close or extend the closing dates for positions; we would therefore recommend an early application.

Due to the high number of applications, we thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.