Critical/Major Incident Manager

Our Story: Unum Technology Centre in Carlow serves as a strategic software development and IT services centre supporting Unum, a leading provider of income protection in the US. Our team of IT professionals build solutions and critical business applications to digitally transform the way we do business.

The Critical/Major Incident Manager II leads and coordinates responses to high-priority incidents, oversees post-incident reviews, and ensures internal and third-party IT services meet expected performance levels. This role also participates in a 24x7 on-call rotation. As an individual contributor and technical subject matter expert, this role provides technical expertise to lead projects, consults with technical and business teams for direction, and occasionally serves as a liaison between business areas and IT functions to ensure service and change delivery. This position can plan, prioritize, and work independently. The Critical/Major Incident Manager II acts as a mentor and regularly provides guidance and training to less experienced staff members while actively contributing to process improvement initiatives.

• Incident and Problem Management: Lead and execute incident responses, ensuring clear, accurate, and concise updates are communicated as per standard operating procedures. Manage incidents, escalate to Escalation Manager when necessary, and oversee the resolution process. Own the completion of problem records, ensuring root cause analysis is conducted and post-incident reviews are completed. Identifies areas for improvement of capabilities, leveraging post-incident analysis to drive service enhancements.
• Process Management and Governance: Has responsibility for the smooth implementation of change into the production environment by delivering multiple ITIL disciplines and helping ensure they are followed. Follows established incident and problem management processes, contributing feedback and suggestions for process improvements. Creates and assesses incident/problem reports to support governance, management, and process goals. Assists with enterprise process management initiatives and identifies needs for document updates.
• Service Delivery and Management: In collaboration with the IT Delivery Manager or Director, works with projects, the business, and internal/external IT service providers to define and understand Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operational Support models when new services are delivered or reviewed. Coordinates closely with service providers for ongoing Operational Readiness when operational changes associated with services are required. For agreed services, evaluates and reviews service performance and technical information provided by the service suppliers. Ensures a cohesive, high-quality service is seen by the business by working closely with other IT teams across the enterprise to ensure service.
• Collaboration and Reporting: Develops excellent relationships with service suppliers and can influence behavior. Provides meaningful reporting as agreed with the business to track service delivery and identify areas for improvement. Runs planning and prioritization activities with their team, the business, and internal/external IT service providers. Collaborates with team members to create and improve training materials, participates in ongoing training sessions, and mentors less experienced team members.
• On-Call and Rotational Support: Participates in a 24x7 on-call rotation, ensuring operational support is consistently maintained. Maintains and updates the on-call calendar to reflect planned leave and activities.
• Project Management: Works with IT teams as required to plan and run small to medium projects. Has strong project delivery skills and works closely with other enterprise service delivery areas.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience.
• Experienced IT Professional: 4+ years in IT service management, incident response, or major incident coordination.
• ITIL certified with proven expertise in ITIL processes (incident, problem, change, and release management).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills across all organizational levels and contexts.
• Be a critical thinker with exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Experience driving process improvements and governance.
• Self-motivated with the ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.
• Capable of prioritizing and managing tasks effectively, even under pressure in a 24x7 operational environment.
• Experienced with batch processing and mainframe operations an advantage

Our size and successful history in Carlow means we can offer you exceptional development and progression, supported by continual learning programs, IT Certifications & third level tuition reimbursement. We offer work-life-balance with flexible working arrangements (including hybrid) and initiatives in support of your well-being. Our attractive range of benefits and reward initiatives includes competitive compensation, 25 days annual leave, paid health insurance, pension scheme, annual performance-based bonus, paid maternity/paternity/adoptive leave, reward programs, and an opportunity to engage with charity and community activities.

Company: Unum