Manager, Service Management

OUR COMPANY BACKGROUND & CULTURE

UPP is the first pension plan of its kind in Ontario’s university sector, proudly serving over 46,000 members across six universities and nineteen sector organizations. Our purpose is to bring greater retirement peace of mind to the university sector by investing with integrity and serving members with care. As a sector-wide plan designed for growth, our doors are open to all Ontario universities.

We’re a team of progressive thinkers and agile doers operating within a fast-paced culture of collaboration and respect. We believe in bringing smart and capable people together to create, solve, and grow with a clear shared vision and values of integrity, inclusivity, ingenuity, and impact.

We’ve built and nurtured a culture that is intentionally welcoming and purposefully rooted in equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation (EDI&R). We believe diverse teams, perspectives, and lived experiences contribute to better decisions and a better workplace. As UPP celebrates its fifth anniversary, we’re proud to be recognized for our efforts:

• 2026 Greater Toronto’s Top 100 Employers
• 2026 Canadian HR Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Join us in building a bright future for our members, our organization, and each other.

THE ROLE

We are seeking a proactive and outcomes-focused Manager, Service Management to oversee the performance, governance, and continuous improvement of our Managed Service Provider (MSP) and service management practice. This position plays a critical role in overseeing the performance and governance of our Managed Service Provider (MSP), ensuring the delivery of resilient and reliable IT services including O365, workloads hosted on Google Cloud Platform, third-party cloud systems, infrastructure, and execution of core ITIL processes.

Reporting directly to the Director, Technology & Security Operations, the Manager will lead service governance, major incident coordination, and process improvement initiatives across ITIL disciplines, while also supporting technology continuity planning and operational readiness.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced service management professional to join a team of high-performing individuals and make a great impact in a fast-paced organization.

This role is based in downtown Toronto in a hybrid work environment, allowing employees the flexibility to work remotely and in-office (minimum two days per week in-office).

This posting is for a existing vacancy.

SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES

The Manager, Service Management will be responsible for a variety of duties, including but not limited to the following:

• Manage MSP performance against agreed service levels, KPIs, financial measures and contractual commitments, addressing gaps that could affect service quality, cost or user experience.
• Turn service data into business insight by reporting on availability, response and resolution times, ticket quality and other key measures to support leadership decisions.
• Drive performance improvement by reviewing MSP reports, identifying service risks and trends, and agreeing and tracking corrective actions.
• Govern core service management practices across Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Asset and Technology Continuity Management to improve consistency, accountability and service outcomes.
• Lead the response to P1 and P2 incidents as Incident Manager, coordinating response teams, managing escalations and keeping stakeholders informed until services are restored.
• Maintain effective escalation arrangements by keeping system contact paths current and ensuring the MSP follows clear escalation procedures and role assignments for critical incidents.
• Strengthen post-incident outcomes by facilitating reviews, validating root cause analyses and tracking actions that reduce the risk of recurrence.
• Review and approve changes through the CAB by confirming business readiness, risk controls and alignment with service and operational requirements.
• Keep operational procedures current and usable so internal teams and service partners can follow consistent, approved ways of working.
• Support technology continuity and recovery by helping maintain, test and improve disaster recovery plans to protect critical business services.
• Use service trends to identify improvement opportunities and lead initiatives with internal teams and the MSP that improve reliability, efficiency and user experience.
• Build strong working relationships across the organization to align service delivery with business expectations, operational priorities and user needs.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• 10+ years of experience in IT service management, preferably within hybrid or federated delivery models.
• 5+ years managing an IT Managed Service Provider, including setting clear expectations, monitoring performance against contracts and service levels, resolving delivery gaps, and driving accountability for results.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL 4 and a track record of improving service management practices to strengthen reliability, efficiency and the user experience.
• Experience leading innovation and continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to use automation, monitoring and service data to improve outcomes and reduce recurring effort.
• Demonstrated ability to lead major incidents, coordinating distributed teams and vendors, communicating clearly with stakeholders, and driving timely service restoration.
• Experience advancing ServiceNow capabilities for service workflows, dashboards, monitoring, ticket management and performance reporting.
• Experience supporting disaster recovery exercises, coordinating the collection and validation of system evidence and tracking follow-up actions.
• Strong planning and estimation skills, including assessing initiative scope, dependencies, effort and timelines, and communicating delivery expectations.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills, including the ability to present service performance, risks and improvement plans to senior stakeholders.
• Experience working across business units to build understanding, adoption and consistent use of operational processes.
• ITIL 4 Foundation or higher certification; familiarity with ISO 27001, NIST or COBIT frameworks.

ATTRIBUTES

• Takes initiative, follows through reliably and works independently while keeping stakeholders informed.
• Communicates clearly and effectively with business leaders, technical teams and service providers.
• Builds practical, repeatable processes that improve service consistency and accountability.
• Organizes and aligns contributions from multiple teams to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Anticipates issues, investigates root causes and takes action to resolve them.
• Uses data and sound judgment to assess performance, identify risks and guide decisions.
• Combines a hands-on approach with the ability to set clear expectations and hold the MSP accountable for results.
• Looks for opportunities to innovate and continuously improve service quality, efficiency and user experience.
• Monitors relevant technologies, trends, threats, standards and products, and recommends changes that strengthen the organization’s security posture and support business needs.

EXPECTED COMPENSATION

The expected compensation for this role is a combination of base salary and variable incentive.

The annualized base salary in the range of $85,600 to $135,600. This range reflects the expected range for new hire base salaries and is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

You may also be eligible for a variable incentive depending on organizational, divisional and personal performance. The final total compensation offered will vary depending on your skills, experience and other factors.

LIFE AT UPP

Do work that matters. We are duty-bound to serve our members’ interests, and it’s a responsibility we don’t take lightly. That’s why we’ve ingrained sustainability in our work from day one—to ensure our members have a resilient future to retire into, both today and for generations to come.

Stronger together. Collaboration is how UPP was born, and it’s how we work with each other and our partners day in, day out. No one at UPP is just a number (even if they are excellent at math) and every win is a shared win.

Grow every day. You’ll have the opportunity to work on unique, once-in-a-career projects that maximize your skill set and probably teach you some new ones—at any stage in your career.

Prioritize wellness. At UPP, wellness takes many forms. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring our people are cared for in the ways that matter to them. Check out some highlights of our inclusive employee-focused benefits program including:

• Defined benefit pension plan
• Flexible hybrid work model
• Paid time off – vacations, personal days and wellness days
• Work remotely up to eight weeks/year
• Comprehensive group benefits including medical, dental, vision, etc.
• Extended paramedical and mental health service coverage
• Health care and lifestyle spending accounts
• Fertility treatments, paid parental leave, and gender affirmation coverage
• Education Assistance program

This posting will remain open for a minimum of seven (7) days and will remain open until a sufficient number of qualified applications are received or finalist candidates have been identified.

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools may be used to support certain stages of the recruitment process, including sourcing, screening, and assessment. All hiring decisions involve human review and intervention by UPP employees.

UPP enthusiastically welcomes applications from all qualified applicants and especially invites people with lived experience as an Indigenous person, a person with a disability or as a member of another Human Rights Code protected group that faces barriers to employment to apply. Our goal is to create a barrier-free experience for every candidate throughout the recruitment process.

UPP respects your privacy. For information on how UPP handles the personal information you provide during the application process, please see our Job Applicant Privacy Statement.