Cloud Services Engineering Manager - Microsoft 365 Operations Lead

Cloud Services Engineering Manager

Job Title: Cloud Services Engineering Manager

Job Description:

The Collaboration/M365 Operations Team Lead is responsible for leading the day-to-day operational support, governance, service quality, and continuous improvement of Microsoft 365 and collaboration services within Digital Workplace Services. This role provides a single point of operational accountability for critical collaboration platforms used across the organisation, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft 365 administration, Copilot, Power Platform, and other related collaboration applications like Adobe, Smartsheet etc.

The role will lead a team of operations engineers providing Level 3 support, service monitoring, incident and problem management, operational readiness, service transition, automation, knowledge management, and proactive improvements. The successful candidate will work closely with Service Owners, Engineering teams, Cyber Security, Service Desk, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure collaboration services are stable, secure, scalable, and aligned to business needs.

This role aligns closely with positions such as Operations Lead, Microsoft 365 Technical Lead, Operations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the Collaboration/M365 Operations team responsible for Level 3 operational support of Microsoft 365 and collaboration platforms.
• Provide clear ownership and accountability for service stability, operational performance, escalations, and service quality.
• Ensure operational coverage across agreed support hours, including rotational support and on-call arrangements where required.
• Monitor service health, ticket trends, incident volumes, aged tickets, SLA performance, and operational risks.
• Drive service improvement plans to reduce recurring incidents, improve mean time to resolve, and enhance end-user experience.
• Oversee operational support for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft 365 Groups, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Defender-related collaboration controls, data retention support, and associated admin activities.
• Support Copilot, Copilot Studio, Power Platform, and emerging Microsoft 365 capabilities as they transition into business-as-usual operations.
• Ensure correct handling of service requests, incidents, catalog tasks, license requests, access requests, and platform configuration changes.
• Maintain awareness of Microsoft 365 roadmap updates, Message Center announcements, service health advisories, and platform changes that may impact users.
• Partner with Engineering and Service Owners to ensure new capabilities are transitioned into Operations with appropriate runbooks, support models, monitoring, and knowledge articles.
• Strengthen governance, standardisation, and compliance across Microsoft 365 collaboration services.
• Ensure operational processes follow agreed controls for privileged access, role-based administration, change management, incident management, and service request fulfilment.
• Support compliance-related activities such as retention policy lookups, access reviews, data protection support, and audit evidence gathering where applicable.
• Collaborate with Cyber Security, Data Protection, Identity, and Engineering teams on security controls, DLP, external sharing, guest access, and service risk mitigation.
• Maintain clear operational RACI, process documentation, knowledge articles, and service descriptions for collaboration services.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Collaboration/M365 operations engineers across locations and support shifts.
• Build capability across Microsoft 365 workloads, PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, Power Platform, Copilot administration, automation, ITIL practices, and service management tools.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, operational discipline, and customer focus.
• Support hiring, onboarding, knowledge transfer, performance conversations, training plans, and succession planning for the team.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Strong experience in Microsoft 365 administration and operations, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft 365 Groups, and admin portals.
• Experience leading or supervising technical operations teams in an enterprise IT environment.
• Good understanding of ITIL practices, including incident, problem, change, request, escalation, and service transition management.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft 365 service health, Message Center, admin roles, licensing, access management, and operational troubleshooting.
• Working knowledge of PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, PnP PowerShell, Power Automate, ServiceNow, reporting dashboards, and automation approaches.
• Understanding of security and compliance concepts such as privileged access, retention, external sharing, guest access, DLP, audit support, and identity-based controls.
• Ability to analyse service metrics, ticket trends, recurring issues, risks, and operational performance data.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, prioritisation, documentation, and decision-making skills.
• Experience working with global teams, vendors, engineering groups, and business stakeholders in a matrixed environment.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Relevant experience in Microsoft 365 operations, enterprise collaboration services, IT operations, or digital workplace support.
• Demonstrated experience in technical leadership, people management, service ownership, or operational supervision.
• Relevant Microsoft, ITIL, or cloud certifications are preferred.

Experience Level

Mid Level