Role Overview:

Accomplished Telecom IT & Service Operations Leader with 20+ years of experience driving large-scale IT operations, application support, managed services, digital transformation, and service delivery across complex telecom environments. Proven track record of managing 10+ business-critical telecom applications across 14 OpCos, ensuring high availability, operational resilience, service stability, and consistent customer experience across geographically distributed environments.

Strategic and execution-focused leader with extensive expertise across OSS/BSS, CRM, service assurance, provisioning, digital channels, enterprise applications, infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, SRE, observability, and ITIL-based service management. Experienced in leading 24x7 production operations, L1/L2/L3 support, NOC/service assurance functions, major incident and problem management, application lifecycle management, and operational governance.

Strong track record of managing large multidisciplinary and geographically distributed teams, including application support, infrastructure, DevOps, service management, engineering, and vendor organizations. Proven ability to lead P1/P2 incident resolution, executive escalations, RCA/CAPA, service improvement, SLA/KPI governance, capacity planning, disaster recovery, business continuity, and operational risk management.

Experienced in managing multi-vendor ecosystems, system integrators, OEMs, and managed service partners, including SLA governance, commercial management, contract negotiations, performance reviews, escalations, and service-credit management. Adept at aligning technology operations with business priorities while maintaining service continuity during major transformation and modernization programs.

Recognized for building high-performing teams, establishing operational governance frameworks, improving service reliability, reducing operational risk, driving automation, and creating a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, customer focus, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

1. Service Delivery & Operations Leadership

- Own end-to-end service operations across telecom applications, digital platforms, enterprise systems, and infrastructure environments.
- Lead 24x7 production support, service assurance, NOC, application support, and operational governance functions.
- Establish and drive operational frameworks to achieve industry-leading service availability and customer satisfaction.
- Ensure compliance with operational SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and contractual commitments.
- Lead monthly service reviews, operational governance meetings, steering committees, and executive reporting.




- Develop and execute operational strategies aligned with business and technology objectives.

2. Application Operations & Production Support

- Manage operational support for 10+ business-critical applications across 14 OpCo’s, supporting customer, network, digital, finance, and enterprise functions.
- Ensure high application availability, scalability, stability, reliability, and performance.
- Lead L1, L2, and L3 support organizations across multiple technology domains.
- Drive proactive monitoring and predictive maintenance initiatives.
- Establish operational dashboards and real-time service monitoring capabilities.
- Define service improvement plans to reduce incidents and improve customer experience.
- Own application lifecycle management including deployment, upgrades, support, and retirement.

3. Major Incident & Problem Management

- Lead resolution of critical and high-severity production incidents.
- Act as executive escalation point during Priority-1 service outages.
- Coordinate cross-functional war rooms involving application, infrastructure, database, network, security, and vendor teams.
- Drive Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Corrective & Preventive Action (CAPA) programs.
- Establish structured Problem Management processes to eliminate recurring incidents.
- Reduce Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Restore (MTTR).

4. Infrastructure & Platform Operations

- Oversee management of infrastructure environments including:
- Cloud Platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP)
- Data Centers
- Virtualization Platforms
- Servers & Storage
- Database Systems
- Middleware Platforms
- Network and Security Infrastructure
- Ensure infrastructure capacity planning and performance optimization.
- Drive infrastructure resilience and disaster recovery readiness.
- Lead implementation of High Availability (HA) and Business Continuity (BCP) frameworks.

5. Telecom Technology Operations

- Manage operations across telecom technology stacks including:
- OSS/BSS/CRM Systems
- Service Assurance Systems
- Customer Digital Channels
- Provisioning Platforms
- Partner with business units to support customer growth and operational efficiency.
- Ensure service continuity during technology transformation programs.

6. DevOps, Automation & Continuous Improvement

- Lead DevOps transformation initiatives across application and infrastructure teams.
- Drive CI/CD adoption and release automation.




- Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices.
- Establish Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and Observability practices.
- Leverage AIOps and automation technologies to improve operational efficiency.
- Drive continuous improvement programs using Lean, Agile, and ITIL methodologies.

7. Vendor, Partner & Managed Services Governance

- Manage multiple vendors, OEMs, system integrators, and support partners.
- Govern large managed service contracts and support agreements.
- Conduct vendor performance reviews and contract compliance assessments.
- Ensure adherence to SLAs, KPIs, and service credits.
- Lead commercial discussions, renewals, negotiations, and vendor escalations.
- Establish clear accountability across internal and external support organizations.

8. Digital Transformation & Program Delivery

- Support delivery of strategic transformation programs impacting operations and customer experience.
- Ensure smooth transition from project delivery into BAU operations.
- Lead service readiness assessments and operational acceptance activities.
- Drive continuous modernization of operational processes, tools, and platforms.
- Manage risk, dependencies, and operational impacts during change implementation.

9. Leadership & People Management

- Lead large multidisciplinary teams comprising:
- Application Support
- DevOps Engineers
- Service Managers
- Vendor Resources
- Build high-performing teams and a culture of accountability.
- Coach and mentor operational leaders and technical managers.
- Drive talent development, succession planning, and capability building.
- Foster collaboration across business, technology, and partner ecosystems.

Required Experience

Mandatory

- 20+ years of Telecom Industry experience.
- Minimum 10 years of leadership experience in Service Operations and Managed Services for multiple country.
- Experience managing large-scale telecom transformation and operational environments.
- Proven experience managing 10+ enterprise applications.
- Experience leading geographically distributed and multi-vendor teams.
- Robust background in production support and critical incident management.
- Experience managing annual operational budgets and financial governance.

Key Success Metrics (KPIs)

Operational Excellence

- Production Availability > 99.95%
- SLA Compliance > 98%
- Reduction in Critical Incidents
- MTTR Improvement
- Change Success Rate

Service Quality

- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Business Stakeholder Satisfaction
- Incident Recurrence Reduction
- Service Stability Index

Team & Delivery

- Employee Engagement
- Resource Utilization
- Vendor Governance Compliance
- Program Delivery Success

📌 Head of Service Delivery (Gurugram)
🏢 Airtel International LLP-Airtel Africa
📍 Gurugram